We have had a sudden change in the weather this week, much more how it should be now that it is winter. We have changed from warm and wet to frost and fog, the last two days have started out really foggy. Thursday the fog didn’t lift all day, the sun only finally breaking through just in time to set, so annoying when travelling through the next village and town and they had wall to wall sunshine all day! The frost has been quite hard so hopefully all the nasties are getting dealt with at last.
My six for this week are…….
No 1
Cotoneaster horizontalis has now joined in with the autumn tints, although these are now winter tints! All the berries have gone and soon all thse leaves will have vanished too.
No 2
My quince hedge, chaenomeles, is starting to make lovely flowers once more by the back door. This will flower on and off all winter depending on how much frost we have. I have found that by keeping it trimmed as a hedge, the flowers keep coming all winter.
No 3
There are still plenty of rosehips in the garden, these belong to Rosa Bonica by the steps onto the lawn. The other day I found a squirrel eating them!
No 4
It won’t be long now before Iris reticulata Pauline which live on the alpine scree, will be flowering, they are usually my first little iris to flower. I’ve made sure that all the leaves have been cleared away from round them as usually the slugs or snails usually hide there and chew through the flower stems.
No 5
While taking my photos for todays post, I was getting dripped on by the fog on the branches, so managed to capture a few foggy drops!
No 6
There are still a few berries left on the purple Berberis by the front door, they stand out now that most of the leaves have gone.
There we have my six for this week. Leaves are still coming down from the trees and shrubs, I’m trying to clear all the leaves where I know I have bulbs that will soon be coming through, as well as still raking them from the lawn. At the same time there are preparations to do for a certain event happening later this month, I will be guided by the weather!
Thanks again to Jim at Garden Ruminations for organising us, do pay him a visit to see what other gardeners are getting up to this week.
Bright berries are something that we sometimes overlook, but they are very colourful, this time of year.
I usually try to have lots of berries for all the birds that come to my garden Rosie, and hope they don’t eat them too quickly.
A lovely mix of old and new….end of season Autumn leaves, berries and hips and already the new season starts with the flowering chaenomeles and the iris. Does look like rather a dank day though Pauline.
It was a very raw, damp, foggy day when I took my photos Denise, I didn’t stay out very long! I was amazed to see how far on the little iris were when I weeded the alpine bed, they almost look as though they could be flowering this side of Christmas. The chaenomeles has had large buds for a while now but they chose to open when the frost came!
Funnily enough I’ve taken photos of my Cotoneaster horizontalis and rosehips for next week’s Six on Saturday (it’s too dark to take any photos before and after work usually)! Yours look very colourful. I had no idea Berberis produced such lovely berries.
There aren’t as many berries on the purple berberis as usual Graeme, probably due to the drought in the summer, but the ones it does have are looking very pretty. I will look forward to your photos next week!
Wow, I was surprised to see the chaenomeles in flower. You’ve hit on a brilliant management stategy!
It was pure chance that made me cut back the chaenomeles when I first moved here Allison. The previous people had planted it by a path and it kept growing too big so had to be cut back regularly. I couldn’t understand why it then flowered all winter so I googled it and found that if cut back to flower buds, it forms spurs like a fruit tree does, and then flowers through until about May, depending on how mmuch frost there is. You will be seeing quite a lot of it hopefully!
Lovely berries, so cheering. The chaenomeles are so pretty. All our leaves are down now. It’s been freezing here for over a week. Nobody seems to be able to get warm.xxx
It has been a hard frost here all week, getting colder as it went by! Last night it was -9C, hopefully not so cold tonight and it should be a bit warmer by Sunday. I brought a couple of branches of the cheanomeles into the house and the buds soon warmed up and opened, they are so pretty.x