Since I was too busy to write a blog last summer, I probably should have a look back at it and refresh some summer memories. After all that is what we all need, isn't it? :-) At least I do. Now that there's cold and monochromatic outdoors, I really miss the gentle weather and all the vibrant colours of summer!

I wasn't sure where to start, so I just decided to start with one of my lovely favourites, Aquilegias! They have at least two common names like granny's bonnet and columbine. Which one you prefer?

A pale pink Aquilegia, probably from Touchwood Aquilegias.

Some of my columbines are known cultivars, but most of them are not. And I love them! I have bought the seeds from seed shops and hobby gardeners, and I have collected the seeds form the plants I have encountered. I have bought some plants and I have transplanted some from my mother's garden.

All the seeds I have sown have been well labeled, but for some reason those labels have a tendency to disappear. And even if there were labels on the ground by the plants, I can't remember the names any more now that I'm looking at the pictures in the middle of the winter. But quite many of my plants have been sent as seeds by Carrie Thomas. You can find her Aquilegia seed list on Touchwood Aquilegias. She has the most impressive collection of cultivars I have ever seen.

Some of the blooms were injured by insects as they were 

among the first plants to emerge from the ground early in 

summer and there wasn't too much to eat for those nasty little creatures.

Double blossom 'Firewheel'.

Semi-clematis type Aquilegia. Some blossoms look funny like this. 

It hasn't decided whether to be traditional or clematis blossomed.

This one has a clear identity; large simple clematis blossomed.

This could be some sort of alpine columbine.

(At least I remember planting some of those in this

flower bed.)

This one looks like the midnight sun.

These funky twirly blossoms are semi-doubles. 

 Both are spurless double clematis flowered cultivars.

'Black Barlow' on the left  and 'Miss M. I. Huish' on the right,

if I recall it right. Could be vice versa though... Both  of them

seem black purple when you see them outdoors, so I brought

them indoors to have a clear distinction between the colours.

This is an unnamed cultivar that comes true from seeds.

I have collected them form my mother's garden, and I was

the one shoo originally gave her the seeds I had received

in a seed swap some years back. Truly lovely pink.

I'm not sure what is this. Could be Miss M.I. Huish.

Another beautiful shade of purplish pink.

I have been quiet for an awfully long time. I have been watching the snow melt. Literally, sitting by the window and watching it melt, or checking the melting process several times a day. Impatient? Me? Where did you hear that?

It has finally melted in most places. There are only some places in shade that still harbour small amounts of snow. Now the sight is ugly. Everything is brown or grey and there's very little of any other colours in the scenery. I spotted some yellow coltsfoot flowers during the weekend, so this can be officially called spring now.

My garden looks dreadful of course. It doesn't look like a garden at all. There's greyish brown dead lawn and deep brown soil with some dead twigs sticking from it. It actually requires a good amount of vivid imagination to have an idea what it could look like in summer.

Lush and mostly green. But instead, it looks like this:

The picture above is one of the most promising views. There´s something growing! These are tulip leaves emerging from the bulbs I have planted last fall. I planted over 1000 bulbs last fall, so I expect something to bloom as well. Well, there are some petite flowers to be seen already. Like the Crocus below.

But mostly anything that is even remotely growing looks like these:

Yes, if you look closely, you can see something red peeking out from the ground. That's a peony.

This actually starts to look like a plant. It's an Aquilegia. I can't remember what cultivar it is - if it is any known variety - before I see the flower. I imagine it will take some time before I get to that recognition part... 

Two more peaks of another peony...

What is that? SOme spring bulb, I'm sure, but is it Scilla or what?

This one reminds me of an Amorpophahallus or a Calla flower, but it's actually another tulip's first leaves. All of the leaves of this variety emerging from the soil look the same. Then again, I must have lost the name tag because I have no idea what variety is this. 

This actually looks green! It's an oriental poppy. Must be 'Princess Victoria Louise'. Or at least that's what it's supposed to be. The seeds were sown last year and by the time they were about to bloom the weather was so cold and wet that the blooms just went rotten and didn't open at all. So this could be anything. 

Strawberries! They are walking wild all over my flower bench. Apparently it's evergreen.

Yeah... is this a Scilla then? It must be... it doesn't look like Muscari.

This is definitely the time of the year to buy some seeds for the next summer. Usually I start buying seeds as soon as they appear at the shops and when the first seed catalogs arrive. So I have been doing that for a couple of weeks now.

But seed stores online exist all year round, so I have been purchasing seeds even during the summer and in autumn. Today I have been shopping on eBay. I like buying on eBay, because sometimes you find a cultivar that doesn't exist at your local stores. I do buy online at "real" seed stores as well (such as RaraVäxter or Plant World Seeds) so it's not exclusive in any way. Actually I have been buying seeds for year online as well as at supermarkets, garden centers and practically from anyone who is willing to sell seeds at all.

Last summer I bought seeds from some Finnish hobby gardener online. They were all perennial plant seeds, so it will remain to be seen if they come true from seed. I know it's more than likely that especially Aquilegias will be something else than the mother plant. My favourite find last year was Touchwood Seeds and all those Aquilegias I wish to have in my garden next summer unless all the little seedling die during the winter. I kept sowing Aquilegias all summer last year, so I haven't been buying any new Aquilegia seeds yet. Now I'm interested in different poppy cultivars instead, both perennial and annual species.

I had some lovely annual poppies in my garden last year. Perennial cultivars were a disappointment, because all the seeds that were supposed to produce pink poppies turned out to be orange. Even the Papaver orientale cultivar I bought as pot plants, proved to be orange and not burgundy that they were supposed to be. But the annual Papaver somniferum cultivars were spectacular! Not all of the seeds grew up to be what they were supposed to be (especially those bought from various eBay stores) but some of them were even better than expected.

Today I have been shopping on an eBay store called Southern Seeds and this is what I bought:

 There are oriental poppies, Bellis, annual poppies, larkspur, zinnias and California poppies, Gaillardia and Monarda. I hope they will be as spectacular as promised and that the seeds will be fresh. The amounts were quite small, like 25 poppy seeds per bag, so if the viability rate is low, I won't have too many plants. Bellis is a biennial plant, so I will only be able to observe the result the following year.