Yesterday is so last year! I thought to myself that I would ease myself gently into 2018 blogging mode by having a quick wander around the garden to see what’s in flower on this balmy January the first, two thousand and eighteen.
There’s no spectacular rare plant but I was surprised at one or two of the flowers I found.
The first of the wallflowers is delilcately putting a toe out in the water. Yep, it’s wet.Rosa “Can’t Find the Label”, subsp B&Q Bargain Bin. Probably the cheapest rose I have in the garden. £2.50 i think. The only rose I have which produces hips. And the only one that blooms in January. A bit weather-bedraggled but still an unexpected flower.Polyanthus. I’ve planted up all the hanging baskets and wall planters with a mix of polyanthus on top and primrose poking out of hte holes in the sides. They’re all starting to flower now.Primrose. Consigned to the lower regions of the baskets and planters is a variety of primroses. These two are representatives of the varied colours now appearing.Weather-beaten pansies. Given the storms of the last few days I’m surprised anything is left but they’re valiantly trying to put on a show.Greenhouse Pelargoniums (var mutant). Regular readers will have seen these before. They started off as early cuttings. They proceeded to grow away like Triffids and were flowering before all of the parents planted out in the garden had come fully into flower.
They’re cuttings, I thought to myself. They need to develop roots not above ground stuff. So I chopped them back. They duly regrew and reflowered. So I chopped them back again.
And so it continues. They’ve all been chopped back at least four times. I’ve given up. If they have any energy left, they’ll go outside in the spring. I’m growing new ones as insurance as well!
I know! These are berries rather than flowers. But the Iris Foetidissima are hanging in there and they’re colourful.Heather (representative). One of my supposedly spring-flowering heathers has been at it for a while now and is starting to go over. But I have others dotted around the garden ready to beckon early-emerging pollinators and they’re now doing what they should do – starting into flower for the spring.Cyclamen. This one was a spare and got shoved in in a space in a narrow planter round the side of the house. With some shelter it’s doing well. The non-spare ones, planted more in the open, have stopped flowering, I hope only temporarily in response to some frosts.
Mind you, this is in a very hallowed spot. This is where Chesney used to be. Maybe this square foot of soil has some miraculous powers.
Daphne Odorata “Perfume Princess”, all the way from New Zealand where it was bred my Mark Jury, Wow! The perfume. Again, this flowered earlier but I think that was a dress rehearsal.Drum roll please!
Helenium “Short and Sassy” (you may find it listed as “Short-n-Sassy”). About a foot and a bit tall so great for containers, where I have it growing, as well as front of border. It’s been in flower since the summer, as all Heleniums should be. But clearly it has defective brakes as it hasn’t stopped flowering since.
I noticed this flower opening today. On another plant there are a couple of flowers that have yet to develop their yellowness.
So there we are. A little selection of colour. I haven’t included grasses as there can be a fine line between flowers that are still, well, flowering and those which are hanging in there. Nor have I included Sarcococca. Because they haven’t woken up yet. Tardy things. No fruit cup for them*!
Resident cat has caught his first mouse of 2018 but I’ll spare you the gory details. The inedible spleeny bits that he always leaves in the porch for me to clean up aren’t flowers.
A good display, I hope the gales haven’t done to much damage.
Thanks Brian. Eleanor lifted one of my compost daleks and deposited it on a border. I was greeted with a perfectly dalek-shaped mound of compost and just dropped the dalek back over it. Apart from that, no problems here. Hope you didn’t encounter any trouble. Happy New Year.
Not a bad haul, well done for venturing out there! Happy new year John, hope it is a good one both in the garden and out.
I ventured out in the sunny bit around midday. The rain will be back. Happy New Year to you too, Gill. May your time with the Mantles be a gas, may Nancy persuade you to release a record and may Max teach you to fetch sticks his dad throws.
I couldn’t ask for a better blessing. 🙂
An amazing amount of colour in your garden at the moment. Too bad smells can’t be transmitted via blog. Does your bargain basement rose have scent? Certainly a lovely colour. Why do you suppose it’s the only one to ‘hip’?
It’s got a faint scent but nothing to write home about. Theoretically all roses can form hips (rugosas make the best ones) but those with close-petalled blooms, as most of mine have, tend to be a bit backward in the hip department. Of course, to get hips you need to stop dead-heading and this is not going to help the repeat-flowerers, as most of mine are. So I have a double whammy. This one always flowers late so I don’t bother to dead-head it and some hips do form.
A good display, I hope the gales haven’t done to much damage.
Thanks Brian. Eleanor lifted one of my compost daleks and deposited it on a border. I was greeted with a perfectly dalek-shaped mound of compost and just dropped the dalek back over it. Apart from that, no problems here. Hope you didn’t encounter any trouble. Happy New Year.
Not a bad haul, well done for venturing out there! Happy new year John, hope it is a good one both in the garden and out.
I ventured out in the sunny bit around midday. The rain will be back. Happy New Year to you too, Gill. May your time with the Mantles be a gas, may Nancy persuade you to release a record and may Max teach you to fetch sticks his dad throws.
I couldn’t ask for a better blessing. 🙂
An amazing amount of colour in your garden at the moment. Too bad smells can’t be transmitted via blog. Does your bargain basement rose have scent? Certainly a lovely colour. Why do you suppose it’s the only one to ‘hip’?
It’s got a faint scent but nothing to write home about. Theoretically all roses can form hips (rugosas make the best ones) but those with close-petalled blooms, as most of mine have, tend to be a bit backward in the hip department. Of course, to get hips you need to stop dead-heading and this is not going to help the repeat-flowerers, as most of mine are. So I have a double whammy. This one always flowers late so I don’t bother to dead-head it and some hips do form.