THE WEATHER -

A cold start to the month, with a mixture of sunny and dull days. The first real rain for several weeks fell on the 4th. Heavy rain overnight on the 11th, and becoming milder by the 12th, with light showers. Really wild weather overnight on the 14th, with gale force winds and heavy rain. Quite pleasant weather up to the 20th, when it turned very cold with a north-easterly wind. Sleet showers on the 21st. A really dismal day on the 23rd, dull and very cold with more sleet all day. The first real snowfall of the winter on the 24th, but this had mostly melted by lunch time. Still very cold on the 25th, with a strong easterly wind, but very bright and sunny. Turning VERY cold on the 28th, with a freezing north wind, but mostly sunny with the odd snow flurry.

Maximum temperature 12°C (54°F), minimum temperature minus 3°C (26°F).

Corylopsis pauciflora is in full flower this month. It is a deciduous slow growing shrub with beautiful yellow flowers which appear on bare branches. Unlike most winter-flowering shrubs, this does not have any discernible scent, which is a shame, but the number of flowers more than makes up for that!

At last - my Chimonanthus praecox has flowered! I've had this shrub for several years, and although it looks healthy, and has grown at quite a pace, I've never had so much as a single flower on it! Now, after threatening it last autumn with the chop, I've frightened it into producing - wait for it - TWO flowers! Well, it's a start isn't it? They certainly are beautiful though, and hang down so that you have to look up into them to see the maroon centres inside the yellow flowers. They smell wonderful as well, unlike the Corylopsis (above) which doesn't have a scent.

Hellebores are coming into their own in the garden this month, and this is a beautiful one which is double-flowered, and a lovely pink. This is one of the Hillier Hybrids, of which there are many. I always cut off last year's foliage so that I can see the flowers better as they emerge into full bloom. This doesn't hurt the plant at all, as new growth soon begins as the flowers start to go to seed. Talking of which - seeds are very easy to germinate if you sow them when they are really fresh. I usually make up a pot of gritty soil, sow the seeds on the top, then cover with a thin layer of grit. Keep the pot somewhere in the garden where mice won't eat them or birds excavate them! Some wire netting over the top should deter both. Keep them where the weather can get at them, as they need stratifying before they will germinate. This means the action of frost, where they freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw, and so on, over the winter period. This breaks dormancy and they should germinate with no trouble in the spring. Remember that open pollinated seeds probably won't come true - but that's all part of the excitement. You never know what you'll get, and it might be something wonderful and different!

Garrya elliptica is an interesting evergreen shrub which flowers at this time of year, producing lovely grey-green catkins. In bad winters, the foliage often looks very sorry for itself, but it usually recovers by summer time. The plant is dioecious, producing male and female flowers on separate plants. Female plants have shorter catkins, which are followed by small dark purple berries. Male plants are the more decorative, with much longer catkins, and these are the ones most frequently grown. The cultivar "James Roof" is one of the best, producing very long catkins. Both flowers and foliage preserve well with glycerine, when they turn almost black. For instructions on preserving with glycerine and other methods of preservation, see my Preserving page.

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

Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Collared Dove, Crow, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Robin, Rook, Seagull, Siskin, Starling, Thrush, Wood Pigeon, Wren.

A CALENDAR OF SONNETS: FEBRUARY
Helen Hunt Jackson