First bite of winter

December is officially the beginning of winter, and the weather certainly feels like it.  Over the past couple of days we’ve had temperatures down to minus 8C – minus 4C in the greenhouse – and not much above freezing during the day; there are some forecasts predicting snow over the next day or so, which may – or may not – come to pass.

One last 'Sam Hopkins'

We had our first big frost in late November, with minus 3C or so overnight.  The previous day I noticed that Dahlia ‘Sam Hopkins’ had put out one final flower, so I cut it to put in a vase with some nerines.  By the next morning, the dahlias were well frosted, so were dug up and the tubers put in the garage to dry off, for storage over the winter.  The frost has also finished off the last nerine flowers, but the plants will be fine where they are.  There was one last bud on rose ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, but it too has been frosted.  In contrast, Camellia ‘Donation’ already has buds!

Last 'Gertrude Jekyll'

The end of the nerines

Buds on Camellia 'Donation'

Ahead of the cold, I managed to cut the remaining three radicchio heads for storage in the summerhouse; we’ll see if they survive there.  The last two lettuces ‘Merveille de Quatre Saisons’ were also cut so that the hearts could be kept in the fridge, and a rather makeshift cover put over the ‘Salad Bowl’ heads in situ, consisting of some wire netting and a piece of tattered fleece.  I doubt if that will have been enough to save the lettuces, but it was worth a try.

Makeshift covering

Even in cold weather, the garden jobs continue.  Most of the tulip bulbs have now been planted in pots.  I had planned to put ‘Orange Emperor’ in the pot that contained its white cousin ‘Exotic Emperor’ this past year, but when I started to remove the compost I realised that ‘E E’ was sprouting again.  Past experience suggests that they may not flower too well, but I topped them with fresh compost and left them in place, and the orange bulbs went into a different pot.  ‘Ballerina’ and ‘Doll’s Minuet’ also went into (separate) pots.  A mix of blackcurrant-purple ‘Havran’, red ‘National Velvet’ and pink ‘Dreamer’ were packed into the smaller of the patio large pots.  ‘Dreamer’ is a new variety, only six bulbs and quite expensive, but allegedly producing two or more flowers per bulb, so I’m hoping that it will balance the other colours effectively.  I still have to plant ‘Black Hero’, red ‘Uncle Tom’ and orange (flushed purple – aptly described as ‘sunset shades’) ‘Prinses Irene’, which are destined for the big patio pot (once I’ve removed the white osteospermums that are in there currently). 

Some of the seeds in the greenhouse are showing signs of germination – the cornflowers, and even a very few tiny seedlings of ammi.  Nothing as yet from the nigella – even though this is fresh seed – or calendula.  They are all covered, for protection from mice rather than the cold, but they won’t like the very low temperatures; I hope the seedlings just sit it out and eventually grow on rather than damping off.

The garden birdlife isn’t caring too much for the cold either.  The berries on either side of the drive – cotoneaster, hawthorn and firethorn – are in much demand from the sparrows, robins and blackbirds, and the food put out on the patio is attracting those birds as well as Lefty the woodpigeon, starlings, dunnocks and blue and great tits.  The cooking apples are still on the bench and table on the terrace, and there’s usually a blackbird or two and a robin pecking busily at them; further down the garden, those apples still on the tree are being eaten by tits, more blackbirds and the Scandi-avians.  There are at least three robins scrapping over ownership of the territorial rights to the food, and, remarkably, a dunnock that is prepared to chase the patio robin away; normally it’s the other way around, with the dunnock just shrugging its metaphorical shoulders and coming back once the robin has gone, but this character not only stands up for him or herself but is asserting its dominance of the patio.

Even before the cold started, my gardening work was almost always accompanied by an inquisitive robin.  But one day I was watched at close quarters by a goldcrest; it was aware of me, but was too busy checking out the osmanthus for insects to be much interested in my doings.