Another cold week, with not much sunshine this time, even more cold to come next week with maybe some snow when the cold air from the Arctic meets the warm air from the Equator over the south west of the country, should be fun! Winter has certainly not finished with us yet. My six for this week are as follows……..
No 1.
More wildlife thinking that my plants are for them to nibble! I saw a rabbit in the garden the other day and went to check on my newly planted Acers in the redesigned area at the top of the garden. Sure enough the acers and a Prunus Kojo no Mai sucker that I had moved last year had all had a prune thanks to the rabbit so barricades were promptly made. Not a pretty sight but needs must for a while. The wild arum will be removed soon.
No 2.
Little Tete a Tete are popping up all over the garden, so cheerful.
Narcissus February Gold lived up to its name and just opened in time in the last week of February.
No 3.
Saxifrage now flowering on the rockery, hope it survives next week!
No 4.
Corydalis Beth Evans has started flowering in the woodland. I have noticed that Corydalis solida is flowering on the slope by the ditch in front of the woodland so soon that area should be worth photographing with all its seedlings.
No 5
I think this is a seedling hellebore, but I think rather nice with its dark nectaries and upward facing flower.
No 6.
Iris reticulata Kathleen Hodgkin is just settling into the alpine scree, hope she likes it there and comes back next year!
Those are my six for this week, I must now go and water my newly planted plants, it is such a long time since we had rain and I think they will all need another drink by now. Thanks go to Jim at Garden Ruminations for hosting once more, if you visit him you might see what other gardeners are doing round the world.
I vote for some rain, the garden needs it, let’s hope we get rain rather than snow.
We must be careful what we wish for Rosie, we don’t want to be flooded! Nice gentle rain would be lovely though and the garden would certainly appreciate it.
That Hellebore is lovely. I hope your barricades help defeat the pesky wabbits.
Thanks Graeme, its nice when a seedling turns out to be rather nice. I just had to make a cage out of whatever was to hand, hopefully it will work and discourage the rabbit from coming back for desert!
Another lovely I. Reticulata. One I have is very similar and I wonder if it could be Kathleen Hodgkin. We don’t have rabbits here, but the hares more than make up for it! Hope the weather improves soon Pauline.
It’s amazing Denise, how much damage one rabbit can do, hopefully when it sees the barricades it will go somewhere else! This next week is going to get colder and snow has been forecast, we will just have to wait and see if we get rain or snow, I hope it is rain!
More snow and the garden needs rain… not what I would have expected to hear from you in the first week of March!
I’ve had the same rabbit experiences with a few newly planted witch hazels. One minute they’re off to a good start and the next they’re overly pruned. A new dogwood as well. Fingers crossed for a rapid recovery!
I’m hoping we will get rain and not snow Frank! We have had a very dry February, parts of it quite warm for this time of year which the snowdrops didn’t like very much, they were over far too soon. I think the rabbits look at the price tag before they start nibbling and just go for the expensive plants!
Watering this time of year seems all wrong. Where is the rain?
I feel for you having rabbits get into the garden. I have a shed full of chicken wire guards ready for use when needed, but these days having a lively tom cat around seems to solve the problem.
I think the rain is on its way Catherine, so I don’t think I’ll have to water this coming week! Neighbours cats have solved the problem of rabbits in the past but I haven’t seen any of them for quite some time, maybe they are staying in out of the cold!
What a great hellebore seedling this would be, if it was such, instead of just wishy washy pinks and purples! I hope your acer and prunus planting were not too severely nibbled, Pauline 🙄 Does your corydalis do well in the woodland? I hadn’t thought of that as a location but am always looking for new things I can add to my little woodland here
The Acers are already putting out new shoots Cathy, so hopefully they will catch up soon. My Corydalis solida does fine in the woodland, I will probably photograph the others on the slope in front of the woodland as I was clearing weeds away from the area today and giving them a mulch of leaf mould ready for any dropped seeds that decide to fall.