The first few days of the month were very changeable, with gales, which played havoc with some of the taller plants in the garden! Regular frosts at night now. The 15th saw the first prolonged frost of the winter, with temperatures below freezing and the pond still frozen at midday. A lingering hard frost on the 23rd, which froze the water on the pond to a depth of 1.5 cms. The first snow fell on December 29th, but this was only a light covering, which melted fairly quickly. On the 30th, though, a couple of centimetres of snow fell, and this created havoc in our Road, as cars were sliding in all directions but forward!! As the day wore on, the temperature plummeted, and the snow froze solid! The 31st was the coldest day of the month, with the temperature falling to minus 5°C (22°F). The temperature didn't stagger above freezing all day! Maximum temperature 12°C (54°F) - this was right at the begining of the month though, minimum temperature minus 3°C (29°F) right up till the 31st, then minus 5°C.

This is one of those plants which stands out in the winter garden. It is Heuchera "Helen Dillon". I love Heucheras, and I have quite a lot of different ones, but this is one of my favourites, with its beautiful marbled white and green leaves. It is evergreen, and, like most heucheras, the slugs seem to leave it alone.

This is a plant which I've only acquired this month, but which I've wanted for a long time! Irises are among my favourite plants, and this one flowers any time between October and March. It is Iris unguicularis, which used to be called Iris stylosa, until someone decided to make life difficult for us gardeners! I love its lovely blue/purple flowers, which really brighten up the borders on dull winter days. I bought these mail order from an offer in a magazine, and was really pleased when they arrived, as the clumps were bigger than I expected, and just coming into flower! I have planted them in different parts of the garden, to see where they do best.

Whenever I'm in the garden, either doing some work, or just looking around, this little Robin always flutters silently down to see what's going on, in the hope of finding a worm or two! (Of course, it probably isn't the same Robin every time, but who cares? They are all lovely!) Robins frequent the garden all the year round, and they are very tame, but I suppose they are especially appropriate at this time of year....

This lovely Fuchsia, called "Walz Luit", is still in flower in the greenhouse at the moment. It is a half-hardy triphylla variety, which tends to get cut back to the ground each winter, but sprouts again from the base in the spring. I keep it in the (unheated) greenhouse over the winter, with a covering of fleece, and it seems to be happy! It has such spectacular flowers, around 5 or 6 cms long, with this striking colour combination of orange and lime green! This picture was taken on the 23rd December, but I expect the frost will have cut it back by the end of the month!

Also still in flower in the greenhouse is this little Persicaria capitata. It came to me as a tiny seedling in amongst another plant which I bought from a nursery about three years ago. I nearly pulled it out as a weed, but fortunately noticed the lovely markings on the leaves, and realised it was something special. It has a creeping habit, and lots of lovely little pink flower heads throughout the summer and into winter if the weather is mild enough. Growth above ground tends to die away in the winter, and the plant looks completely dead, but like the Phoenix, it rises again in spring! It also self-seeds madly, but it's so nice that I don't mind a few more. I have seen it variously described as hardy and half-hardy, so just in case, I always bring it into the greenhouse for the winter.

One of the compensations of winter is that winter-flowering plants generally smell divine! This plant, Viburnum bodnantense "Dawn", is no exception, and has been scenting the air with its heady perfume since November. It's one of those plants which tends to smell stronger the further you are away from it, and I have noticed its smell from the opposite side of the garden! I propagated this from a small twig given to me by one of my flower arranging students several years ago, and it is now about two metres tall, and has been cut back a few times as well! Just one sprig of this will scent an entire room!

Birds seen (s) or heard (h) in or around the garden this month - Blackbird (s), Blue Tit (s), Bullfinch (s), Chaffinch (s), Collared Dove (s), Crow (s), Goldfinch (s), House Sparrow (s), Long-tailed Tit (s), Magpie (s), Robin (s), Rook (s), Seagull (s), Starling (s), Thrush (s), Tree Sparrow (s), Wood Pigeon (s), Wren (s).