[artalis]

Hello again happy gardeners. Now that the worst of the winter is gone I am planning to get my hands dirty again, yeah!

Loved seeing my dwarf iris in bloom these past two weeks and now some stripey purple crocus and scilla are following along with glory of the snow. Grape hyacinth and hyacinth are shaping up to bloom soon too. It's worth the wait to see a vivid splash of colour at this time of the year.

I am amazed that my token pond lily has survived and is producing new leaves at a fierce rate.

My poor old arum lilies took a beating and turned into spinach stew, due to the frosts. But there are signs of some shoots appearing about now on one of them.

Cordylines survived, yeah but my phormiums-Alison Blackman- got weighed down by so much frost and snow that the leave,s are splayed outwardly much more instead of upwardly. It will need a bit of prunng to bring it back to a uniformly spiky shape again.

My evergreem climber, which was just planted in late autumn clematis jingle bells shrivelled up and turned brown. It is not dead as I found some pale growth inside the lower third of the main stem. However I am not sure if it will recover well, so undecided whether to leave it for a bit? All my other new plantings of clematis and honeysuckle survived and are growing well. Unbelievably my newly planted passionflower was green during the frosts. Must have been it's position that saved it.

One or two plants which I would not expect to be moving just yet are showing signs of growth already: one of my African Lilies has shoots appearing, but the rest are still dormant. Hmmmm?

Having fun watching an array of local birds feed on the fat ball, which hangs on a young tree in my front patch. I think that some of the seeds which fall from there are sprouting at the base of the tree...........

So I could ramble on....

Nice to be back at any rate and looking forward.

What has been your experience of winter casualties or were you suprised by some unlikely survivors?

Anyone ?

[phelim_d]

your enthusiasm is boundless...

my fav survivors are the frogs- the ice didn't snuff them all out- but the spawn is not as plenty as before... hope it rains to keep the ponds full til they hop out...

[artalis]

Good for the frogs.......thought that we might have some tadpoles last year in our microscopic sized pond but they turned out to be blackfly larvae or something like it, not as nice as frogs, all the same lol.

Twas my birthday on Monday, so I bought a tree,yeah! Should arrive today some time.Looking forward

[Sive]

Happy Birthday Artalis....was it a significant one ? If you plant a tree for every birthday, may you have a long life and.....a forest !

[artalis]

Hi Sive and thanks,
.....might need a bigger garden or else may have to do some rogue planting if I live to be 120 yrs lol.
Thanks for the birthday wish. Feeling old but still