Spring has sprung

Fingers crossed that the weather stays warm, as I spent the day out on the balcony putting seedlings into pots, moving the larger edamame bean and mini Japanese pumpkin plants into their big pots, and generally generating more plants after giving a pile of them away last week.

Here was my collection before Easter, with the rapidly growing mini pumpkins and the rather leggy edamame.

My wonderful greenhouse/cold frame!

I visited a different garden centre that I'd seen out the window of a bus and was amazed to find persimmon trees!

I was very, very tempted, but I've seen how big these grow. We saw ones about two stories high in Japan. I only have a balcony...

There were plenty of plants coming into bloom, especially almond trees and other fruit trees - cherries just budding.

I think this was a nectarine.

Cherry just starting to flower.

Found in the herb section - absinthe! I found one of my favourite plants, the chocolate mint here too. It was tiny and scruffy but has grown phenomenally in the past few weeks - don't think I've ever had a healthier plant.

Huge almond blossoms.

Next to just as huge catkins.

 

Attracting equally huge bumblebees!

The chocolate and cake shops, like Sprungli, were having a field day with bunny-themed items for Easter.

Picked up these in another garden centre on the way back - how could I resist something called "Nemesia" and "Elfenspiegel" that's supposed to smell like coconut?

I think you'll find that ladies and gentlemen have roughly the same proteins...

The greenhouse last week, complete with custom shelf and divider hand-made by David!

The now very large edamame and mini pumpkin seedlings before about half were given away. The shiso has finally started to come up as well, I had almost given up on it.

I gave away lots of cherry tomato seedlings too. Only two yellow ones survived, but I have lots of black and red ones.

And I may have acquired a cherry tree to go with the maple.

After a wonderful Moroccan dinner with a friend, we went to the new Hiltl vegetarian restaurant near the main station - complete with the old post office counter and an airline departure display.

Whoever does the flowers in Stadt Dietlikon does a stellar job. They're always beautiful. 

Another beautiful cherry tree down in the big out-of-town shopping area, a kojo-no-mai type with the blossoms hanging from stems in big bunches.

A passion flower plant at the Jumbo garden centre. I talked myself out of buying a plant, but picked up some seeds.