THE WEATHER (and stuff!) -

The month began with gale force winds on the 1st, and although the wind calmed somewhat, it remained very windy for the first two weeks. A lot of rain during the first half of the month made it difficult to get into the garden to do any work, but I managed to cut some of the dead stems back on the perennials, and to prune some of the larger shrubs. Tried to keep off the lawn as much as possible though, as it is extremely wet, and just turns to mud with the slightest weight. Very mild weather for the time of year, until the 13th, when temperatures turned very cold with a north-easterly wind. Remained cold but sunny for the next week, with frost at night. Heavy rain and gales on the 25th. I saw the first bumble bee in the garden on the 14th, probably brought out by the mild weather. It was March last year before the first bees made an appearance, so that proves that this month has been unusually mild. Actually, according to the Met. Office, this February has been the wettest since 1990 (no surprise there!), and has been 3°C milder than average. Maximum temperature 14°C (58°F), minimum temperature minus 3°C (28°F).

Clivia miniata is in flower at the moment in the conservatory. I've had this plant for many years, and it is now very big, with several offsets around the edge of the pot, which are now of flowering size. It usually flowers at this time of the year, often earlier. It is an evergreen bulb, and my plant usually resides outside during the late spring and summer, and I bring it in again around the end of October. I love its beautiful orange flowers, which certainly brighten up the dull days of February.

Still in the conservatory (well, it's a lot warmer than outside!), this Nepenthes has several pitchers at the moment. It is quite a large plant, but only requires the minimum of care - good light, regular spraying, and constant water in the saucer. It doesn't need feeding, as it catches its own food (very handy in the summer, when lots of flies seem to find their way in through the open door of the conservatory!).

I've been gardening now for almost 30 years (oops! giving the game away here!) but I still get an enormous thrill from seeing seedlings pushing up through the soil. These are some Helleborus orientalis seedlings which came from a plant which I bought last spring, and which has almost black flowers. The seedlings will be different from the parent, of course, but as the flowers had already been pollinated before I bought the plant, I'm hoping for some interesting flowers on these plants in a few years time. I planted the seeds around June or July last year, and because they need stratification (i.e. the action of frost on them before they will germinate), I left them up a corner in the garden and forgot about them! It wasn't until I noticed the pot early this month, with its layer of old winter leaves being pushed up by..........something! When I removed the leaves, lo and behold, there were these seedlings trying to force their way into the light from beneath the leaves! Fortunately, only two had already germinated then, and these have pretty much recovered now that they have been given the light. Since then, more have germinated, and I now have seven small plants. (The other tiny seeds coming up in the pot are probably Agastache foeniculum, which is growing near to the pot, and seeds itself about madly!)

This unusual-looking flower is Petasites gigantea, which flowers in the garden at this time of year, before the leaves appear. It looks a bit like a cauliflower! The plant has huge kidney-shaped leaves, around 2ft across, on long, ribbed stalks. I have mine growing in shade on the slope leading from level 4 to level 5 (the lowest level) in the garden. It is a striking plant, but has two drawbacks - firstly, slugs love it, and my leaves always turn lacy by the end of April, and secondly, it wilts badly with only a small amount of sun. Still, it is a great ground-cover in a place where not a lot else will grow, and these flowers are worth waiting for, if only for their curiosity value!

I've been buying plants again! This is a winter flowering shrub called Corylopsis pauciflora. Unusually for a winter flowerer, there is no smell that I could detect, unless it is one of those plants which only smell at night (it's been far too unpleasant outside just lately to go and test out this theory!) Still, I can't resist winter flowerers, so I had to buy it. Must find a suitable spot......

Another favourite winter flowering shrub in flower at the moment is Cornus mas variegata. It has the same yellow fluffy flowers all over bare branches as the common Cornus mas, but this one has the most beautiful variegated leaves as well. These are yellow and green in the centre, with a broad white margin. Definitely worth the extra cost in my opinion, as you have all year round interest from this plant.

I thought I'd show you a view of the garden at this time of the year. Sorry it's a bit blurred, but the picture file is already 73kb, and I don't think you want to wait much longer for it to download!! Still, you can get the idea..... As you can see, the garden is very green, although not particularly colourful! The picture was taken on February 25th, and this view is looking down the garden towards level 2, from the patio (level 1). On the right, you can see a corner of the conservatory. The yellow flowered shrub in the centre is Coronilla valentina subspp glauca. This plant is in flower almost all the year round, but its main flowering time is from December until April. On the extreme left is a huge Bamboo, called Phyllostachys vivax aureocaulis. Its stems can be up to 2" thick when mature. Below that, on the left, is Fatsia japonica variegata. In the distant centre of the picture, looking down the garden, you can make out the catkins on the Corylus avellana 'Contorta'. The variegated shrub on the right is Griselinia littoralis 'Variegata'.

That's all for this month...... Happy Gardening!!

Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Crow, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Robin, Rook, Seagull, Starling, Thrush, Tree Sparrow, Wood Pigeon, Wren.