After a very long, very cold, gloomy and extremely wet prelude to one of the latest springs I can remember, bingo!, all change, its warm and everything has sprung into flower, all at once. Many things here were a couple of days late for the excellent Show down the road in Hexham, and its now a fortnight until the next Show for us (East Lancs).

As a generality, one can state that hybrids often show a vigour lacking in their parents, and many of our best garden plants are hybrids. Certainly in many familiar genera (Rhododendron, Primula, Lilium, Rosa come to mind immediately), hybrids usually outshine the species and are much better growers. There are technical, genetic reasons for this. Hybrids have more genes in the heterozygous condition (i.e. Aa, not AA or aa). Disadvantageous genes, our 'genetic load' are usually recessive; the more heterozygosity, the more likely it is that they are sheltered from expression in the heterozygous state (i.e. the 'bad' gene a is not expressed in Aa as it is recessive).

Curiously, in my view, this truism is not true for Porophyllum saxifrages. In my conditions at least, nearly all my long-lived, vigorous, show-worthy plants are species, a number of them resulting from wild seed I have collected. In this photo, Saxifraga sempervivum, from Parnassos seed many years ago, is accompanied by Soldanella 'Sudden Spring'.

This large fishbox is dominated by the form of Saxifraga marginata var. rocheliana (i.e. the form from southern Italy) that grew on the wall at Kilbryde and I have grown for half a century. The yellow plants nearer to the camera are Saxifraga ferdinandi-coburgii grown from seed collected in the Pirin 16 years ago. Both are easy floriferous, very long-lived subjects in troughs and raised beds here.

The much dwarfer MESE form of Saxifraga marginata from high on Timfi is later to flower, but is another excellent plant to scramble over tufa or limestone in a trough and has grown here undisturbed for nearly 20 years.

Saxifraga grisebachii 'Wisley' is a much more recent acquisition, but is showing signs of settling down well in artificial tufa in another fishbox.

Saxifraga scardica and S. juniperinifolia, both now well over, are two other examples of European Porophyllum species from wild collected seed which are really excellent garden plants here, as is S. porophyllum itself, just coming into flower. S. burseriana is also very long-lived, having thrived in a wall for 25 years. You can see it to the left of the next photo, which celebrates Primula marginata 'Shipton', looking fabulous in this wild-looking site. Unfortunately the saxifrage never flowers freely here (usually in late February).

Contrast with these successes the dozens of Porophyllum hybrids which have been put into troughs or raised beds, to struggle, and in many cases never to be seen again. One of the few successes has been S. 'Redpoll'. Most of the S. x poluanglica  clones do not last here at all.

Staying with fishboxes for a minute, I thought you might be interested to see the following primula. P. x meridionalis is the correct grex name for all  clones hybrid between P. allionii and P. marginata. By far the best-known clone was collected by C C Mountfort, once editor of the AGS Bulletin, who taught Roy Elliott, his successor as editor, and his brother Jack, in 1927 and is known as 'Miniera' after the site in the Alpes Maritimes where it was found. Some years ago I was invited to the Czech Republic to give a couple of lectures, and amongst the gifts I received from subsequent garden visits was another reputed clone of P. x meridionalis, also I believe wild collected. I am not aware that it has a name and if it has, I would be happy to know. I have found it slow-growing, and shy to flower, but at present both my plants have produced a few flowers. Clearly, it is a form of P. x meridionalis.

Pulsatilla vernalis is also flowering in two troughs, grown from Pyrenean seed we collected in 2012.

I have been pleased with a small group of Crocus kosaninii in the open garden. This relative of C. sieberi from the Balkans seems distinct in many ways, not least in being the latest of the spring flowering species in this garden.

This is not a Hepatica-rich garden. For some reason the passion for hepaticas has passed me by, which is a pity really as they would probably suit my woodsy conditions. I have always grown lots of H. x media 'Ballardii' and a white H. japonica which self-sows gently, but thats about it. However, a few years ago I did acquire this plant. I have just staggered outside to see if it has a label, and it doesn't. I guess its just a pink H. nobilis, but I like it and it combines well with several corydalis.

One of the odder things about this very late spring is how long some of the later snowdrops have persisted. I have several late G.elwesii and G. plicatus which regularly have flowers at the beginning of April, but G. plicatus 'The Linns', named for the garden of the greatly missed Evelyn Stevens, still has flowers, here with a Corydalis solida seedling.

Here is another combination provided by the self-sowing masses of C. solida, this time with Erythronium dens-canis, another plant which gently naturalises here.

Self-establishing colonies of spring bulbs suit this rather extensive (meaning semi-wild rather than particularly large!) garden, and Erythroniums in particular are colonising freely. I find this takes a long time, presumably because many bulbs take a number of years to reach flowering size. This has also been true of Anemone blanda and various scillas previously known as chionodoxas. Here they are, colonising part of the raised bed where they do little harm and create a delightful effect.

I have planted out a plastic tub with some of the easier Juno irises, in a very well-drained compost. This will be covered in winter. Iris bucharica is one of the easiest and is making a brave show at present. I have two forms of this.

Meanwhile, under glass and planted out in the sand plunge, Iris graeberiana is flowering for the first time. It has been suggested that it might join its relatives in the tub, but I shall wait until it is dormant and excavate the roots with great care, a risky procedure at the best of times.

Castle Howard

Last Thursday, I was privileged to be asked to talk to the friends of the Yorkshire Arboretum at Castle Howard. John Grimshaw was my host, and he and Professor Alastair Fitter (an old buddy) kindly took us round the Arboretum beforehand, concentrating particularly on the rhododendron collection in Ray Wood. Many of these had been brought in as mature plants by Jim Russell in 1979 from the Hillier collection and included many collectors numbers, particularly from Kingdon Ward, although original Hooker accessions (1849) also exist. I shall finish with a selection of some of the most interesting.

Here first are two of the impressive Grande section. The first is a noble Rh. basilicum.

This is followed by an unnamed plant which may well be Rh. protistum ssp. giganteum.

Rhododendron lanatoides from SE Tibet is rare in the wild and in cultivation. This is from the Ward introduction although it has since been discovered by the Coxes.

In stark contrast is the rather tender, bird-pollinated Rh. spinulosum, here flowering fairly freely. This reminded me of the Rh. cinnabarinum-relative Rh. keysii which flowers much later.

Another rarity originating from Ward is Rh. pocophorum var. hemidartum.

I shall finish with a much commoner species rhododendron, the glorious Rh. oreodoxa.