I’m still thoroughly enjoying the prolonged flowering period of the daffodils this year. Whilst many daffodils seem to be ‘blind’ (without flowers), I have also noticed that some of my own daffs are a lot taller than usual. It’s as though they beat the others to the feed trough! I actually measured one of them, and it’s almost 2 ½ ft tall. I thought that must be close to a record so checked and apparently the tallest daffodil is recorded as being ‘grown by M. Lowe in 1979 on the Isle of Wight, and reached a height of 5 feet and 1 inch. It was hotly contested in 2021 by a Southsea gardener who had measured his ‘elevated daff’ at 5 ‘ 2” but the Guinness World Record office didn’t accept it.

On a ‘sniffari’ with Yogi, I also noticed some very lofty celandines. Known for their ground hugging and carpeting qualities, some of these flowers were a foot high.

I love the fact that celandine flowers close up in cloudy weather and as daylight fades and then open fully in the sunshine – some of our ‘sniffari’s’ are so intense that I actually get to watch transition this happening.

One of my first ever ‘weekend jobs’ was to remove celandines from a large bank at a nursing home – instructed to do so by their manager. I was about 14 and went home close to tears after the first day of hardly making a difference after the back-breaking work. Explaining to my dad, he just shrugged and said, “Tell your boss that they are woodland plants, they make excellent ground cover and will prevent more pernicious weeds from developing – and they are staying where they are.”

So I did – and they did. And I have stuck to that ethos ever since, being reminded of my no-nonsense dad even more when I see celandine carpets.

The funny thing is that 40 years later you can actually buy little pots of celandines at the garden centre to plant in your garden or woodland. I always wonder what Dad – or my old boss – would have made of that.

April usually strikes me as a ‘pink month’ as cherry blossoms, camellias, early rhododendrons and pink-tinged magnolias usually take over from yellow hues - daffodils, celandines and primroses - of March, but this year they are all flowering happily together and the celandine carpets seem more intense than ever.

I think schools break up for Easter this week. Not having children, or grandchildren, my diary isn’t split up into term times and holidays, so I’m never quite sure. But Easter is definitely on the horizon and so is my annual ‘polite reminder’ – please be careful in the garden as you tackle DIY jobs and garden maintenance.