It’s time to review the past year. I’ll mention the honey fungus in passing and the low, low temperatures that took out a few of the marginally hardy plants but let’s spend a moment reminding ourselves of joys to come. Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and peaceful New Year full of glorious gardening. Here’s six things that I’m looking forward to renewing acquaintance with once more.
One
The first apple blossom is always a high point
Two
Roses filling the garden with flowers and scent.
Three
The herbaceous borders beginning to fill out.
Four
The hydrangeas, will they be scorched by the sun, suffer from drought or somehow find a moment to shine?
Five
The beautiful white fuchsia ‘Hawkshead’, slowly establishing in a sunny border
Six
And back again to the apples that grew from the April blossom. Some stored but most juiced and each time a glass is drunk we think of summer.
Thank you for reading, for sharing your gardens over the year and I look forward to meeting you all again in the New Year. I’m off to Jim’s now to catch up on his news. Thank you Jim for your hosting and sharing of knowledge.
It may be difficult to find six things worth sharing in the garden over the winter months but taking a stroll around each weekend does reveal some interesting things. The weather has kept me out of the garden for most of the week but today as I peered and poked around I discovered that the darling squirrels have been rooting around in the pots. I’ve back filled their holes and hope that no damage has been done to the plants. This is my last SOS for the Christmas and New Year period so I will send you all very best wishes for the holiday season. Here’s the six things I did find.
One
I’ve borrowed this one from my neighbour. The red berries being too seasonal to be resisted. My phone sometimes obliges with a plant identification but nothing was on offer this time. I have no idea, it is a small tree if that helps.
Two
I usually bring in plenty of ivy and other foliage to make a garland for the stairs but this year I have gone very minimalist and used allium seedheads sprayed gold and combined them with some other bits and pieces and a string of snowy pine cone lights. There’ll be less to clear up come the New Year!
Three
Other foliage sometimes includes sage and rosemary. These always look good in the garden at this time of year and they will feature in the Christmas cooking.
Four
The plant identifier did have a suggestion for this one and told me it was cyclamen persicum, the florist’s cyclamen. I thought I’d planted c.hedifolium here. Is it easy to tell the difference? I thought c. persicum was not hardy and these have been in the ground for several winters. All thoughts welcome.
Five
The ivy in the garden is bearing berries now and these are great for adding interest to wreaths and garlands but this year I have left them for the birds.
Six
Lastly some cheery red from the stems of cornus alba ‘Sibirica’. I planted this in 2021 and it is making slow but steady progress. I am slightly worried for it though as it is planted in the border that has (had?) honey fungus. So far it doesn’t seem to have been affected although the RHS indicates that it may be susceptible. I wish it well.
Don’t forget to check in with Jim for more SOS posts. Jim is going all the way through with two more posts before the year end, I feel like a school truant! See you all in 2024!
It’s a gloomy day today but the countdown has begun. The shortest day is twelve days away. It’s a fair way to go still until Spring but I’m feeling a twitch of positivity. I have planted the last of the tulip bulbs and have set out some new hellebores. The lawn is squelchy but there was a brief morning of dry weather and the fig leaves were mowed up and deposited in the leaf mould cage. I am beginning to feel that the last of the gardening jobs are being ticked off. Here’s my six for the week.
One
This comes with a warning of rampant spreading. Pachysandra terminalis. I have two plants in a thin border at the back end of the garden and if they spread I will (I think) be very happy. I have not chosen successfully here in the past, so here’s hoping they will settle in well.
Two
The new hellebores, fifteen in total, are in the old gooseberry patch border. Here they will have the white tulip ‘Maureen’ and hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snow Queen’ for company.
Three
About now I start looking for something interesting in the garden for Christmas wreath making. It is going to be a challenge as everything is so wet. I cut back the hylotelephiums and I will keep them to see if they dry out and are useable.
Four
In cutting back they hylotelephiums I pulled off a few new buds. They had the barest amount of root attached so I swiftly potted them up to grow on. They are usually fairly easy to propagate so I am optimistic.
Five
There’s not much colour in the garden but the seeds of iris foetidissima are just about holding their own against the rain.
Six
To end, a grainy photo of the parakeets and persimmons taken through the kitchen window. A bizarrely exotic site for a gloomy garden.
Jim, our laudable host will have much to ruminate on as usual. Stop by and take a look and happy gardening to you all as usual!
Three consecutive nights of frost have very clearly announced the arrival of winter. A last minute flurry of activity saw the cutting back of all the soggy green stuff and most of the tulip bulbs were planted out. I have twenty left which will now almost certainly go into pots. In other confessions the winter bedding has not yet gone into pots. I also had to call in the muscle men to dig out the tree stump that was hosting the honey fungus – an old holly self-seeder. I could not budge it. Here’s six from the garden this first week of December.
One
Cobwebs on the verbena. These are left standing for the goldfinches who come for the seeds.
Two
The old leaves of hellebores have been cut back and new ones are coming through.
Three
The leaf mould cage is back in action. It’s been in use for about five years now and sadly the original posts used for the corner supports are rotting but there are just enough left standing to do for another year.
Four
The last of the fig leaves have fallen and once this frosty weather moves on these will be mowed up to shred them and then added to the leaf mould pile.
Five
The long border in winter. The seed heads of veronicastrum fascination are also left standing.
Six
One final confession. I have not yet cut back the autumn fruiting raspberry canes. But there’s no hurry here, these can be done in January.
The forecast suggests a mild spell is in sight so the remaining tulip bulbs will be planted then. Other than that I am pretty well shutting down the gardening for the winter. Fellow SOSers in the southern hemisphere will be showing blue skies to keep us going through the cold. Jim, our host, will almost certainly have a wonderful camellia to show us so stop by his Garden Rumination site to find out more. Keep warm or stay cool depending on your hemisphere!
n20gardener 