early spring

Happy New Year!

Down here in southern-ish,western-ish England it has been a very mild winter so far. There has been just enough frost to knock down the dahlias and their like, but not so much cold weather that the grass has stopped growing. It hasn’t and could soon do with a mow. I was listening to an interesting story on this morning’s BBC news concerning the early blooming of wild flowers in south Wales, not so very far from here as the crow flies.

The story http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-16465 133 concerns a survey conducted by Dr. Tim Rich of the National Museum of Wales and Dr. Sarah  Whild of Birmingham University, who  found 63 species of plants in flower around Cardiff. In a more normal year, 20-30 species typically flower through the winter.
The story resonated with me as I have begun the spring tidy in the garden and noticed plants in flower here that are not normally winter blooming. Beside my pond a clump of campanula portenschlagiana is flowering cheerfully, the blue bells clear against fresh green leaves. It is a plant I both love and hate. I love it for the endless nectar and pollen it supplies in summer for a range of bee species, especially the leaf cutters I love. But is it ever a hooligan, spreading absolutely everywhere and growing in good, bad, indifferent and no soil at all. I have an annual purge at removing most of it. The fact it is annual should tell you all you need to know.
A hollyhock flowering until last week when the gales finally finished it off is another unseasonal specimen. I have never had Christmas flowering hollyhocks before, but this year we had one in full flower. There were plenty of examples of the usual early starters I spotted as I weeded-primroses and primulas, snowdrops, the first buds of species crocus and hellebore, chaenomeles, autumn cherry although the birds were striping the flowers from it energetically, daisies. Further afield, hazel is flowering in the hedgerow and I have calendula, celandine  and ground ivy flowers on the allotment.

I know many people have unseasonal blooms in their gardens and would be interested to know what else might be flowering. Is there anything unusual in your garden?

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indian summer

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It was a beautiful day today, a little glimpse of what an Indian summer could be, if only the next set of storms wasn’t due this weekend. It was very pleasant working on the allotment, with the sounds of foraging honeybees still finding the borage intoxicating and the warmth of the sun still carrying all the memories  of summer.

I like working the land at this season. After the recent rain my clay is at its most workable. Weeds come out easily, the newly planted cabbage plants positively purred at their new surroundings, the neighbouring plots are riotously flowery, with cultivated plants or weeds, depending on which way I look. At home the rudbeckias continue their starry perfomance-they have been fabulous this season.

A little garden tidying  finished the day, amongst the dahlias and the sedum and their visitors. I looked for leafcutter bees, but there is no sign of them now. There are 22 sealed nest cells in the older birch log and 11 in the new one, all made by Megachile Willoughbiella females. Inside the leaf cells the bees will already be hatched, but they will sit the winter out and the Spring and not emerge until next June. There are 8 sealed cells of the smaller leaf cutter species in another bee house and a staggering 70 plus mason bee nests in the drilled blocks. A good season, thanks to the lovely Spring.

And yet. And yet, despite the warmth of the day, the brightness of the blooms, the hum of bees, the coolness of the mornings and the leaves on the lawn are already whispering winter. That, and the Christmas crackers on sale at the garden centre this morning.