Garden is blooming early

The weather has been unseasonably warm this winter and, although we’ve had some hard frosts (down to -3.5 deg C this morning), we’ve had very few of them so far and December was one of the warmest on record. We’ve not yet had a period of sustained hard frosts night after night, so I think the tender plants which would normally have been killed off, have managed to recover and keep going.

This has resulted in some odd plants in flower. I counted 11 yesterday, including some that should really be sheltering underground for a few months yet. I’m sure we’ll get a cold snap and there will be some plants caught out. I don’t know what this will mean to them later on.

These are the flowers I have:

Geranium – this certainly shouldn’t be alive, yet alone in flower. A few years back I thought I might get a geranium to stay in flower until Christmas, but a sharp frost took them all out. Not so these; I’m now wondering if they will keep going through winter into spring. I took most of the bedding geraniums out in late October, but there was a group of plants in a large terracotta pot that were looking very fine, so I left them in. They have been a little burned and the foliage has changed colour and hardened up, but there are still small red flowers on all of the plants. If I’d had a greenhouse, I think all my geraniums could have been overwintered under glass this year.

Lobelia – this is the most surprising to me. It has been a very good year for lobelia and I’m not sure if these are new varieties or whether it was just good growing conditions. The plants seemed to flower for a much sustained period. Normally, there’s a flush of flowers and then the plants stop flowering and dies back. What I’ve done previously is to cut away the dead flowers and the plant would then have a second growth spurt and a second flush of flowers. This year, the lobelia has flowered without pause and I’ve also had plants self-seeding in lots of different locations, including cracks in the patio. One lobelia (in the same pot as the geraniums) had defied the frost and is continuing to flower. It’s not a lush plant that you’d expect to see during the summer, but it has managed to keep going and it does have blue flowers on right now.

Honeysuckle – I have an evergreen variety growing up the fence by the patio. It does flower late and you do get the odd flower in winter during a mild spell. This year, the leaves are looking very lush, it’s made some significant winter growth and there are lots of flowers.

Vinca (periwinkle) – I have a less-vigorous, variegated variety under the conifer trees by the patio and this has had two or three small blue flowers on the plants right through December. They were looking very healthy and pretty this weekend. I think the vinca normally flowers in early spring.

Snowdrop – not unusual to see snowdrops flower in January and we have clumps coming up all over the garden. I was taken by one small clump, which was a month ahead of all the others. Flowers were showing before Christmas and, this weekend; it was in full bloom with the green and white flowers fully open. When you look at them closely snowdrops are a lovely flower with a complex petal arrangement and intricate markings. It’s a shame they hang their heads and we can’t more easily admire their flowers.

Primula – I’d expect to have some primulas out and so I have. They would be much better if Holly hadn’t decided to use my biggest patch of them as her preferred toilet area! Those I have in boxes at the bottom of the garden only have one or two in flower, but they’ve used the mild weather to make good growth and there are big flower buds formed on all plants. Unless we get a spell of very cold weather, they will be a real show in a few weeks’ time.

Hellebore – this is, of course, called the Lenten Rose but my examples are always out before Lent. Last summer’s foliage has now either died back or been cut away and the flower stems are shooting up out of the ground most enthusiastically. I have quite a lot of hellebores, almost all self-seeded from one plant, but we have a nice range of colours from creamy green to pink. Some of the colours available on plants I’ve seen in the nursery this autumn are quite spectacular, but they do tend to be rather expensive.

Pansy – winter pansies are about the one plant (apart from snowdrops) which I would expect to see. They’ve been more damaged by wind breaking them than by cold this winter and we’ve had a decent show of colour from all the pots. I bought a few boxes of a purple and mauve variety – quite unusual and very showy. They should keep going well into early summer.

Crocus – Just one creamy white crocus with a beautiful deep orange stamen was in bloom this weekend. Some afternoon sun on Sunday saw it open up. There are others not far behind, but this is the first.

Cyclamen – these are coming to an end now having been in flower for a couple of months.

Delphinium – not strictly in flower, but it is in bud. It’s a new plant, grown from seed in late summer. Some of its siblings managed to bloom in the late autumn, but this clearly thinks it is spring and has made good growth and a healthy flower spike bud. I’m pretty sure it won’t flower (it must get burned by the frost) but you never know.

Catkins – they are sort of flowers and the corkscrew hazel is covered with them. I am planning to cut the tree back quite drastically this winter so they will be thinned out by me. We had a big crop of hazelnuts on it last autumn. Gravel was picking them out of the border and cracking the shells in his teeth to get to the nuts, which were quite nice. My sister Margaret picked up a lot which fell into her garden and she used them in a stuffing which she brought round on Christmas day.

Last, but not least, I should mention the hybrid tea rose in Margaret’s garden. It’s a very vigorous pink variety and has been carrying a decent number of flowers right through the winter.

After two really hard winters, I’m quite pleased to have had it easy so far. We’ll probably have the coldest February on record … that would teach all these ‘early birds’.