March 11-19. This is when the autumn crocuses pop up where the daffodils and bluebells were in spring. They do not last long but are a delight while they last.
March 11. Autumn crocuses 
March 18. More crocuses 
March 19. Crocuses … 
March 19. Crocuses under the first chestnut
March 23. Autumn, seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness … Quinces in the Quincecunx fully formed, but not yet ripe.
March 23. Quince 
March 23. Quince
April 3-May 6. The cockatoos have arrived in force to feed on the chestnuts, . The cockatoos arrived only during the 1983 drought, and stayed. It took a few years for them to work out how to eat chestnuts, but now they get the bulk of them, but leave enough for Montacute guests.
April 3. A cheeky devil, and he knows it 
May 6. Chestnuts mostly gone. Cockatoos feeling well-fed
April 14 – May 6. The nerines are in flower, and last quite a while, as do the salvias. The trees are beginning to shed their leaves, beginning with the tulip tree.
April 14. A nerine in flower (beside Phidias) in a pot on the terrace, with other pink flowers. The nerines are naturalised in other parts of the garden. 
May 6. Fallen tulip tree leaves, 
May 6. Salvias near the Raven Seat are still going
