THE WEATHER -

The first few days of the month were very cold, with a biting north wind, but also very sunny - lovely if you're outside and wrapped up well! Snow flurries on the 4th, but generally sunny. Becoming a bit warmer by the 7th, but with heavy rain all day! Continuing very cold for the time of year, mostly dull with wintery showers and frost most nights. Becoming warmer by the 14th, with the 15th being a beautiful sunny day. Back to square 1 on the 16th though, really cold and raining for most of the day. Remaining very cold with showers on and off until the 21st, when it finally started to warm up slightly. The 22nd and 23rd were beautiful sunny days, although still a bit chilly in the wind, and a sharp frost by night. By the 24th the temperature finally hauled itself into double figures for the first time this month, although it was rainy and dull. The 27th, although mild, was extremely wet and windy - typical March weather! Calmer on the 28th, but very windy again on the 29th and 30th. Sunny and a bit breezy with a few showers on the 31st. This has been a very cold month, keeping spring at bay until late on, so that many plants normally in flower earlier this month or last month are only coming into bud or in flower in the last week of March.

Maximum temperature 16°C (60°F), minimum temperature minus 4°C (26°F).

Eranthis hyemalis, the Winter Aconite, is showing its lovely little yellow buttercup flowers, surrounded by a ruff of bright green leaves. This little low-growing plant grows from tubers, which are best planted "in the green", which means that the plants should be in growth before planting or transplanting. If the tubers are allowed to dry out, they are seldom successful. The plant enjoys sun or shade, as long as the soil is reasonably damp.

A lovely plant in flower this month is Iris unguicularis. This used to be known as Iris stylosa, but that was too easy, so the boffins decided to call it Iris unguicularis, just to confuse us mere mortals!! It is an evergreen low growing Iris with narrow leathery strap-shaped leaves. It grows to around 1 foot tall, and enjoys full sun. The flowers always come as a surprise to me, as it seems as though one day there's no sign of them and the next day there they are in full bloom!

My Corylus avellana "Contorta" (Contorted Hazel) has now grown to be a fair sized shrub. This is good for a flower arranger, as it means I can cut at it with impunity now! The stems of this deciduous shrub are very twisted indeed, and create wonderful interest in the garden in winter and early spring when the bare branches show to advantage. At this time of year, there is the added bonus of a wonderful show of catkins which wag like lambs' tails in the slightest breeze! Toby is on guard in the picture in case a squirrel should appear looking for some nuts! (Toby's not very good with the seasons, as he thinks the squirrels are after nuts every day of the year!)

Talking of squirrels - here's one of the pesky critters busy nicking the nuts from my bird feeder! By the way, there is no such thing as a squirrel-proof feeder - the squirrels have neatly bitten a big hole straight through the metal mesh on all my feeders so that they can plunder the nuts with ease!

At the end of last year, I bought several large Cybister bulbs. Cybister is a type of Amaryllis (or Hippeastrum), but the flowers are usually a different shape from the more common Amaryllis (Hippeastrum), more of a spider type as you can see from this picture. This is the first one of the new bulbs to flower, and I've been avidly waiting to see what they were like. This one's called "Chico", and is a wonderful combination of red and lime green - fabulous! The others all have buds on as well, but it will be next month before the flowers open. Watch this space for more piccies!

Growing things from seed is always a journey full of suspense! A couple of years ago, I bought a beautiful "black" Helleborus orientalis. Some of the flowers had gone to seed already when I bought the plant, so I decided to sow the seeds and see what appeared. I was hoping for some more of these very "black" flowered plants. The seeds germinated very well in the spring, and I had about six or seven healthy little plants. Two years later, they are of flowering size, and yes - they are "black". However, because seeds don't always come true, the shape and colour of the flowers is a bit different to the parent plant, a bit more pointed and open, and a bit more "blue" whereas the parent is more cup shaped and deepest maroon. Well, I'm jolly pleased with these plants for free, and they can only get better as they grow bigger in the years to come! (The pictures above show the parent plant on the left, and the seedling plant on the right.)

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.

GROWTH
Patience Strong

This is the time of growth - of green things bursting into flower
Urged on towards fulfilment by some vast and secret power.......

It is a law that things evolve towards maturity -
The fledgling in the nest, the babe, the puppy and the tree.......

We know that sun and showers of rain assist the flowers to grow -
But how and why do they respond - that's what I'd like to know.......

And so the soul of man must grow from darkness into light -
The real and unseen part of us that's hidden from our sight
Is growing, and shall be revealed beyond the mists of Time -
By pain and struggle it will reach the perfect and sublime.