A couple of months ago, on Button Moon, I was handed a couple of boxes.  These boxes contained bulbs and corms and were accompanied by a wide smile of pride.  They were several weeks out of date and had been liberated from the bargain bin.  But this was no ordinary bin.  It was a Waitrose bargain bin.  In return I offered my narrow smile of fear.

The planting times were past and they more shrivelled than ideal, but ever the obedient servant, I planted them and hoped for the best.

Purple anemones, palest lemon gladioli and crocosmia have all chortled at my concerns.  None though have been more divine than Gladiolus murielae, the Abyssinian gladiolus.  A glorious white and purple butterfly.  I never doubted you for a moment.