Thank goodness spring is coming. It’s where I’m getting my hope from right now, there seems little else in the world that’s going well. Let’s focus on the flowers, starting with what’s becoming a grim tradition of blue and yellow. First up is an early spring favourite, just out, and not quite fragrant are a few grape hyacinth.

The second fragrant flower of the week is mahonia. I’m never sure about mahonia, a bulky shrub with wide spiky leaves and alarming yellow flesh. In March it smells divine and draws dozens of my neighbour’s honey bees (not evident here on a chilly grey morning).

Another shrub fills the border in an inoffensive way all summer, looking, well, green. At this time of year pieris hosts a mass of tiny white bells on red stalks. Very pretty.

And now down to the ground for early spring joy. Most of last year’s wallflowers got leggy and horrible, but not all. This stunner reminds us that summer will come.

I’ll finish with hellebores that are perfect right now, and seem to be particularly floriferous this year. I love the delicate veins on an almost white flower.

The dark colour of my favourite hellebore is rich and sumptuous, this morning it came with a bonus bumble bee, the first I’ve seen this year.

That’s my #SixonSaturday for this week. Stay safe, and don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.