 |
| Hellebores - already in flower |
After a mostly mild autumn and early winter, the
post-Christmas weather has been fairly chilly, especially overnight, and sometimes
icy. There has been little snow yet,
though some is forecast for the next couple of days. Nevertheless, at least some plants are ahead
of themselves, with a few snowdrops (Galanthus elwesii) and hellebores already
in flower.
The New Year’s Day flower count wasn’t much up on previous
years, however: twelve in all, including the winter shrub stalwarts (rosemary, winter
jasmine, winter honeysuckle, and Viburnum tinus – but not the Mahonia ‘Winter
Sun’, which has been and gone some time ago); the aforementioned snowdrops and
hellebores; the Vinca major which is still resisting my attempts to pull it out
of the front wall; and isolated flowers on the variegated lamium (dead-nettle),
Geum ‘Mrs Bradshaw’ (one bloom, frankly rather past its best), the miniature strawberries
and various patches of meadow grass; as well as some unidentified salad leaf
seedlings (mustards?) in the cold frame that I haven’t got round to eating yet.
The dahlias were dusted down, dried off and wrapped up, and put in the
garage for protection from the frost, before the temperatures dropped. Those other plants of questionable hardiness are
tucked up in the greenhouse, and the rest left to take their chances outdoors.
The colder weather has brought back a few of the
Scandi-avians, who haven’t been much in evidence through recent weeks; a
fieldfare has been enjoying the fallen apples. Bullfinches have dropped in to enjoy the flowers on the winter honeysuckle (there are plenty of them this year). A song thrush has been down a few times, and the marsh tit continues to
come to the fatballs along with the more usual tits; I hope both of those stay
around for the Big Garden Birdwatch later this month.
