Looking good for December

Helleborus argutifolius

December is a month in which the garden doesn't look its best, but it's at this time of year that you really appreciate the plants with good shape and evergreen, or wintergreen, leaves.  Right now the big hellebore (H. argutifolius I think) is a highlight, just coming into flower though it's the bold shiny leaves that are the big attraction at the moment; Viburnum davidii is also looking good, standing out from its tatty surroundings, as are Mahonia 'Winter Sun' and my little bay tree in its pot.  And I'm grateful for the orange berries on the Iris foetidissima, although they would look better if their stems and seed-cases weren't so dead-looking.  There are other plants that would look good if they weren't so crowded out by other things (Epimedium sulphureum, I'm thinking of you); December is also a good time for looking around and seeing all the tidying up that is needed!

Viburnum davidii

My bay plant

Iris foetidissima berries

Hedychium and osteospermum, ready for the greenhouse

The hedychium (ginger lily) in the big pot on the patio was also looking pretty good, but it and its accompanying dahlia, lily (a proper lily) and osteospermum have been dug out and brought into the safety of the greenhouse for the winter.  This proved easier said than done.  They were obviously very happy in that pot and the hedychium and osteo had expanded greatly, which made them difficult subjects to pot on.  There was no question of taking the whole potful into the greenhouse - it literally wouldn't fit through the door - but I don't have other pots big enough for them in their enlarged state.  In spring the hedychium will be split in two, but I don't think this is a good time of year to start sawing it in half, so it has been 'potted' up in an old plastic compost bag with a load of the old compost around it, and I hope it'll be ok in that.  Two of the stems that were dying back have been cut off, and I've shortened the other two (so that it will fit under the greenhouse staging!); it has also started to throw up a new shoot (just visible in the photo, on the extreme right), which suggests that it's hardier than I have given it credit for.  I've now got three plants, all divisions from the one original plant, so perhaps next year I'll try one of them in a border with winter protection and see what happens; if it doesn't survive, there are always the others to fall back on.  Now all I have to do is find something to put the osteospermum into, and I've a feeling it will be another old compost sack!

The dahlias have now all been dug up and are drying off in the greenhouse.  The two oldest 'Bishop of Auckland' tubers had a lot of slug damage; one of them and parts of the other are destined for the bin, but there are easily enough good tubers for next year.

Pinks - looking good for December!

The weather this past week or so has been mostly fairly mild and mizzly, so such flowers as there are have not been hit hard yet.  There's wind and rain on the way, to be followed by more cold weather, so the pinks have been cut for a vase indoors - looking very good for December.  I also cut more of the winter honeysuckle today, and there was a bumblebee buzzing around in there - I hope it finds shelter before the cold kicks in!  Also still in flower is a prostrate plant with white flowers that has seeded itself in one of the camellia pots; it looks like bacopa, and I don't know whether it's hardy or not, but we'll soon find out.

Bacopa??

Having said a few weeks ago that we had had very few wildlife casualties to bury this year, there have been two this past week; a nuthatch found dead under the ash tree at the side of the drive (probably left by a cat, as they patrol that area), and a few remains of a female pheasant on the lawn.  The latter is probably the work of one of the sparrowhawks as nearly all of the victim has gone, leaving only a few feathers and a bit of breastbone.  Live birdlife is still very active, though; this week's sightings included a male bullfinch (eyeing up the buds on the winter honeysuckle) and a jay enjoying the last apples on the tree.