I seem to have found the quietest bulb months of the year and they are May and June. I didn’t even feel there was enough to bother writing about in May – just the oxalis, Nerine bowdenii and the carryover from late April. There is not a lot more now but the earliest narcissi are already flowering, along with the Leucojum vernum and they herald a new season as we enter the winter solstice.

As I wrote two months ago, not all of the ornamental oxalis are of equal merit. But here we are and O. purpurea alba and O. luteola are still looking showy and well behaved. That is more than can be said for most of the remaining twenty eight species here.

The nerine season signs off with dainty little Nerine pudica and Nerine bowdenii, a species that is arguably downplayed when compared to its showier sarniensis cousins. You do need to like the shade of sugar pink seen in most bowdenii and I am not sure it is ever declared as ‘choice’. But it has a long flowering season, blooms reliably every year and is considerably easier to grow and flower. That is not to be sniffed at. The planting above is below Camellia sasanqua ‘Elfin Rose’ (left) in a perfect colour match that delights us every year.

Similarly, the modest snowflake – Leucojum vernum – is not often praised. Maybe many of us remember it as a survivor that we used to pick from old house sites dating back to the mid to late 1800s, along with wild daffodils. Some will recall those sites, marked by a brick chimney and a few garden plants, particularly those common bulbs and a camellia or two. The leucojum or snowflake is a not-quite-doppelganger of the classier and much more highly prized galanthus or proper snowdrop. But, in our climate, the snowdrop is a fleeting delight over a couple of weeks only whereas the leucojum just quietly flowers on in an understated way from early winter to mid spring. It deserves a little more credit as a garden plant than it is often given.

The Cyclamen hederifolium have largely finished their flowering season although they continue to earn their keep with their handsome foliage. It is now time for their cousins, Cyclaman coum to star. Over the years, we have tried any of the species cyclamen that we could lay our hands on. They generally hail from drier climates in southern Europe, around the Med and the Middle East and north Africa. My personal favourite is C. libanoticum – from Lebanon – but there are three that are standout garden plants in our conditions – add C. repandum to the aforementioned hederifolium and coum. Of them all, those three have settled in and increased happily so we can measure them by the square metre rather than as individual plants. We only grow the species but I might have been tempted by the genuinely purple hybrid I saw people commenting on in local garden centres this autumn.

I could have padded these listings with dahlias and orchids. With the current fad for OTT show dahlias in weird colour mixes and full forms of a size that suggests steroids, our preference for modest single flowers on garden plants just seems out of step. But I note that the last dahlia of the season is blooming now and that is the OTT Dahlia imperialis Alba that towers above most plants at a good 4 metres or more.

And the paucity of more usual bulbs does not give credit to the psuedobulbs of the cymbidium orchids. Our interest is in orchids as garden plants, not for show in an orchid house or cut for indoors but grown fully outdoors alongside a range of other plants. Cymbidium orchid season is just starting and will last for several months.

This Sunday is the winter solstice. Matariki is due (the rising of the Pleiades star cluster) with the official holiday on July 10. Magnolia campbellii is coming into flower, Magnolia ‘Vulcan’ will start showing first colour in a few weeks. The earliest of the narcissi – the strong scented jonquil types – are already starting to bloom and the many spring bulbs are in full growth. We are yet to plunge into full winter, where we live at least. It would be churlish to complain about the weather at this stage.

Finally, all credit to the autumn peacock iris, Moraea polystachya. I commented back in February that it was opening blooms and that it had a very long season in flower. I have never timed it before but it is now into its fifth month of opening fresh buds. That is an exceptionally long season.