My weekly blogs

Now is the time to get into those climbers like Honeysuckle, Jasmine, Winter Jasmine and Ivy and cut out the dead wood and prune it back to a manageable size. Otherwise they will take over and smother most trees and plants. I ahve been pruning most of the trees and climbers in the garde. The picture below shows the first of about three major pruning that I will do before the spring is out. All the prunings are shredded and put in the compost bin. In about 3 to 4 months I will have compost to add back to the garden. It is now the 29th February and this year the Nectarine has started into flower very early. I will soon have to get the pollination brush out.

Gardening always have surprises. Just when I think my broad leaf Clivia is not going to flower, I find both narrow leaved and broad leaved Clivia's are about to flower. The buds are deep down and starting to come up through the leaves. I will now start to water them again. In the front garden the crocusses are just starting to flower. They are late because I have planted them very late last year. The very warm and sunny day we experienced today brought out the insignificent flower of the Hazelnut. These tiny flowers are wind pollinated preferably by a catkin from another tree. Perhaps thats why I usually fdo not get a lot of nuts eventhough I have plenty of flowers.

Isn't nature beautiful, even in death, The flower head of the globe artichoke has died months ago and the seedhead has produced a wonderful shaving brush. Spring is also in the air as the first flower on the Kerria japonica has appeared in the back garden. Something from my childhood the Asparagus fern is recovering after being left outside until late december. The Trailing Rosemary is also blooming well. The Ornitogallum in the back conservatory is still flowering. and I still have fruit on my Pepino plant. I am hoping it will produce and rien much better this year.

Both small and large Rhipsalis are about to flower. When this palnt flower it is a mass of small brilliant white flowers. After years of trying to get more than one flower from my Ladies Slipper orchid I suddenly foung it had two flowers. It has been flowering since january. The reason for its continued flowering is that I have not pollinated it as yet. The moment I pollinate it it the flower will collapse and die to produce seeds. The Anthurium that I received a couple of years ago, for winning the best front garden in the village is still flowering albeit the flowers are smaller.

Its the start of February and the frost has arrived with a bang. Usually it is in the first two weeks of January. It might get rid of many of those pest I was talking about last month. I did not know I had a slight leak after turning off the outside water to avoid burst pipes, but the frost has shown it up in spectacular form. The drips formed an ice stalagmite from the dripping tap. In the garden the bulbs are just starting to push through the soil. First should be the crocusses then the daffodils. I have finally managed to update the events page of this website. Hope it helps. The Snow arrived last night and the front and back gardens are covered in about 6 inches of snow. Hope it goes away soon. At this time of the year the water in the fish ponf is almost always very clear and you can inspect your fishes to see if they are healthy. The Clivia in the back conservatory is ripening its seeds and getting ready to flower.