Lenten Rose

The weather has been milder these past few days. The snowdrops in my mini-wood are looking magnificent. I have been out doing a bit of tidying up. I cut back some ugly blotched leaves from a Lenten rose I had planted two years ago. When I bought it, it had five very pretty pale yellow flowers but last year it produced just one flower. This year, after the cold, I thought I would have no flowers at all but cutting back the leaves revealed eight perfect flowers in full bloom. Those ugly leaves had obviously protected the flowers from the vicious cold and damp.