January Blues

Or rather faded greens and browns.

On Boxing Day we had quite an amount of snow which stuck around til New Year's Day.

Then came the winds.

The first battering came and went with little disruption to the garden.  The second time round we were not so lucky and lost part of the fence in the front garden.  We will need to replace the whole run.

It's mid January and following the latest dusting of snow, I'm on the hunt for something to cheer me up in the garden.

No leaves, just a lone apple to decorate the apple tree. I didn't have the heart to remove it since it has been through so much.

 In the raised bed, tiny crimson shoots are emerging from Bumblebee's rhubarb crown.

Along with a very hardy marigold

Another casualty of the high winds (reaching gusts of 92mph at its worst) was Bumblebee's bird box. He made it at a local wildlife fayre just before Christmas.  It has been secured a little better now.  It is behind the trellis so will eventually be well concealed.

Thankfully the birch held up in its corner and the bark is becoming increasingly whiter as it matures

The cold snap has brought out the little jewels in the birch bed. All the colours in this part of the garden are shades of pink and white

With one exception. Winter Jasmine. I make no apologies. There's little to beat it for a splash of colour in a shady corner.  It's got some way to go yet, but it will soon cover the area of fence. It does need to be tied in though.  For the rest of the year it will provide a good green backdrop.

Either side of the arch at the top of the steps is a pot of bulbs, each topped with a skimmia. One is still a bit shy, but the other isn't doing too badly.

I love primroses and primulas. They are such good plants for colder months and come in a vast array of colours for very little money.  They soon bulk up and are extremely easy to divide to make new plants for free.  They were the first plants I tended in my first home and most of the brightly coloured ones indeed came from that garden.  Last year I added the native primroses to my collection, most of which are in the birch bed and given to me by our very good friends in the Midlands.

Spotted amongst the weeds and decaying foliage I spotted the first buds of my most favourite flower, the daffodil.  It'll be a day or two before it opens to reveal it's full glory.

And finally fat pink/purple hellebore buds.

And there was me thinking I hadn't prepared my garden for winter!

Christmas post

It's just days until Christmas 2014 and not a flake in the air. In fact yesterday it was 12c at 6am! It is however very windy, and wet. A typically normal British winter.

There isn't a great deal happening in the garden. I have yet to work on my winter interest.

Inside there are two temporary additions to my orchid collection. One of the ladies who works on my corridor had a dying specimen. I should really have taken a photo of the plant before I repotted it.  It appeared to have a baby growing halfway up on of the dead looking stems, with a withering leaf, but this new healthy leaf was forming.

I split the two plants and repotted each into fresh orchid compost.  Now we wait...

Among my own orchids, there are a lot of fresh buds forming.

I've repotted a couple

This white flowering orchid had another 6 new stems so it will be some time before it will be able to be repotted.

Whereas these pink ones will soon be over so will be repotted in the New Year.

This beauty is fattening up to flower.  I forget what colour it is.

And this one has gone over.  The next step will be a new leaf.

Since its Christmas, my indoor flowers have a festive theme.

All that remains is for me to curl up with a hot chocolate and a seed catalogue, and wish you all a very merry Christmas and may 2015 be your year!

Well I never!

I received a surprise email this week from Garden Answers, a magazine I subscribe to, informing me I was about to appear in their 'Over To You' section as their star letter!

Imagine how much more excited I was when the postman delivered my sub this morning!

Thank you Garden Answers!

The Last Hurrah

Despite it being the last days of October, it's still extremely mild. This has its up sides along with its down sides.

An up side is the warm damp soil is still very workable to get in shrubs and bulbs for next year.  It is helping a fair few plants hold on to blooms that wee bit longer before the bite of the first frosts cut them down.

Above the rhododendron flower buds are building strength, while below acer leaves take on their rich colours of autumn.

The stag horn tree is on fire. Better captured with the evening sunlight, but today we're not so lucky.

Pretty much bereft of leaves now, Rosa Tall Story has one last attempt at clinging onto the summer.

Our neighbour has two beautiful acers that drape elegantly over our fence lending their autumnal exuberance to our own.

A down side however is the infestation of aphids feeding on the violas. They don't have enough predators this time of year, and without a cold snap to stop them in their tracks, it means my own fingers can become quite green as I rub them into oblivion - my apologies to the squeamish!

The alpine trough is soon going to need some form of protection. A piece of glass atop a couple of bricks should to the trick.

But for now their swansong continues.

The transplanted cyclamen have settled in and beginning to bloom.

As the fern fronds begin to crisp up.

The last clematis bloom on the arch joins the first bloom of....spring?

And finally the young birch tree sheds it's last remaining leaves. Autumn winds will soon lead to cold icy winter.

And then we'll start all over again.