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| A brief spell of snow |
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I've recently started using Twitter and, since I understand 'little and often' is the way to make this work, have been browsing through old posts on this blog - and
'the political one' and
'the writing one' - to see if any are worth recycling. There are a few likely candidates, especially after the revelation on the 'Indy's' site that a
photo of a tater recently sold for $1. While 'The Million Dollar Spud' sounds like a very good title for a short story, the tater in the photo seems a fairly undistinguished example of its kind and I'm sure that with a little more attention to lighting, one of my Highland Burgundy Reds or Kestrels, or the notorious Pink Fir Apples, could look a good deal more exciting.
One thing I noticed was that my early posts tended to be shorter than the more recent ones, more frequent and with more photos, as their main purpose was to promote the gardening business. With gardens already bursting into bloom in the wake of our mild winter and the axe hovering over funding for my 'indoor' job, that seems a sensible format to revive.
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| First snowdrops |
Clusters of snowdrops are already in flower in the back garden borders though not yet in the front, which is a little more exposed. There are at least two distinct cultivars but, as both were growing here when we moved in, I haven't confidently identified either. Those above are the slightly shorter of the two.
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| Double hellebores |
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This year, they complement the hellebores rather nicely. These have been starting to come into flower since before Christmas but are now in their prime, very early. This time last year, despite another fairly mild winter, they were only just coming into bud.
One of the main advantages of doing this blog is that I can keep track of when particular plants bloom or fruit from year to year to see if things really are changing. I see my best hellebore photos from 2014 were in a post from 11th March - 2013 and 2012 also have the hellebores in full flower in mid-March, a good six weeks later than this year.
That they are doing so well so early is both a concern and a relief as the plants seem to have settled well after being split and moved in the autumn. Some are now visible from the kitchen window, rather than being tucked away out of clear sight in the herb garden. If I had remembered, there was a special offer on for more (from T&M) at the weekend, but we got back from a couple of days on the narrowboat to unusually good telly on Sunday evening and I forgot. I'll have to be patient - hopefully the new plants in the front garden will be big enough to split in a few years, if I look after them properly, and there may be another opportunity to snap up some bargain plugs before spring is out.
It's good to have some winter colour and I'm optimistic that late summer will no longer be the usual dull lull, now that I have my young penstemon plants to plug the gaps (last summer's cuttings are still doing well in the cold frame). I'm going to take some verbena bonariensis cuttings too, since the mild winter has resulted in masses of new shoots on the stalks of last autumn's plants (see above). I'm glad I wasn't too quick to tidy them up and I haven't got the heart to give the roses the prune they ought to have just yet, as they are still producing flowers!.
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