I WAS given my first bunch of daffodils this year at the weekend and they have cheered me no end.

We have had such a lot of rain recently and it has been frustratingly difficult to get out into the garden, but this jug of bright yellow blooms has brought a bit of sunshine into the house.

They are also beautifully scented, their perfume indicating their presence before the eye spots them.

Despite the weather, the garden continues its passage into spring with marbled arum leaves appearing in late January, attractive clumps of foliage dotted about dark soil able apparently able to cope with any site.

This ability always makes their appearance a surprise, as one never knows where they will turn up next.

I can't remember where or when the original plant was put in our garden, but its progeny faithfully appear each year.

Although the arum only comes to the fore at the beginning of the year, it has in fact been growing away quietly since autumn, when the tightly curled leaves first push their way through the earth.

They slowly open, usually unnoticed, hidden as they are by the remains of other plants that are dying back at this time.

Then, as we find ourselves in January and outside starting an early spring clear up, the fresh, white-veined leaves are a welcome sight. As the weeks progress, the leaves will become larger until they reach their full size in the middle of spring.

At this point, greenish yellow flowers appear, although they are easy to miss, being much less obvious than the leaves and in competition by then with daffodils and other spring flowers.

By early summer, everything dies back until September when fat stems develop, topped with clusters of shiny red berries.

These are very attractive, especially if a decent clump of them occurs, but are poisonous and are best left to mature and deposit themselves about the garden for future surprises.

Perhaps the most popular arum is the long-named Arum italicum subsp. italicum Marmoratum' (sometimes labelled Pictum'). It has dark green foliage overlaid with pale green or white veining that ends just before the green margin that edges each leaf.

Although able to cope with most soils, a leafy, moisture-retentive soil is preferred as long as it doesn't become waterlogged during spells of heavy rain. Given this site, it won't be fussy about sun or shade, tolerating varying amounts of either.

The leaves can be picked for indoor flower arrangements where they look good with most spring flowers.

In January, when the foliage is still quite small, posies of violets and first snowdrops can be collected, while later on, when they are larger, they can be put with daffodils and long stems of ivy.

Gardening TV and radio

Tomorrow

8am, Radio Humberside, Gardening Phone-in. With Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart, telephone number 01482 225 959.

9am, Radio Leeds, Gardening with Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

2pm, R4, Gardeners' Question Time. From Berkshire with Anne Swithinbank, Matthew Biggs, Bob Flowerdew and chairman Eric Robson.

9pm, BBC2, Around The World In 80 Gardens. The first of a new series in which Gardeners' World presenter Monty Don travels the world in search of wonderful gardens. This week he is in Mexico to see the water gardens of Mexico City and the modernist extremes of Luis Barragan and in Cuba where the crumbling colonial grandeur is host to a new green revolution.

Monday

1.30pm, R4, The Garden Quiz. Anna Ford quizzes four more contestants in the knockout competition.

Weekend catch-up

l In a sheltered spot in our garden, hellebores are starting into flower. Helleborus argutifolius has been budding since before Christmas and now carries sprays of pale green flowers above sprawling hand-like foliage. Helleborus orientalis, or Lenten Rose, is more subtle, but the old leaves have fallen away to reveal emerging clumps of straight stems, each carrying promising flower buds, some of which are already beginning to shows signs of the developing dark purple flower.

l At this point, I remove the foliage, partly to stop botrytis infection and also to give us a better view of the blooms.

l These plants are slow growing and can be expensive to buy. Give them two or three years to grow undisturbed in retentive, well-drained soil and sun or partial shade, and they will reward you with a lovely display of flowers from late winter through to the spring.