and then December started knocking on the door. Winter is coming, it feels like it has already arrived though the weather has oscillated between mild and sunny to cold frosty and rainy. November has been an all weather month. All weather apart from snow so far I suppose.
The garden is cold and wet and thinking about Spring. I look at the colours of the emerging cyclamen leaves and love the glitter of their silvery finery. Every year more and more pop up in the garden. From a few pots planted over a few years there are now so so many. It is a joy. I can wait for Spring but seeing these now gives me real hopes for it.
A couple of limp, soggy looking snowdrops keep appearing. They don't look hugely happy which is a bit of surprise as snowdrops expect to be cold and a bit soggy. Maybe they are awake just a little too early and not prepared for Winter yet. I am not sure I am prepared for Winter either.
The lawns also have that pinched, rufty-tufty look that means they could do with a mow but are just too soggy. The blades of grass ae edged with cold wetness, that can look like frost from a distance, but it is just the rain hanging on to the edges for as long as they can. I cannot pretend that this is garden looking at its best, but it is looking like it should. This is what Winter looks like in my garden and I enjoy this period in the garden as I enjoy all the periods for my garden.
It's at this time of year I start to really appreciate the Hydrangea quercifolia. I say 'really appreciate' as frankly I do not spend enough time appreciating this plant that has been in my garden for a good 15/16 years. It performs brilliantly every year; it flowers well and works well in the Exotic Border. But I do not tell it how much I admire it, and I rarely spend enough time appreciating it. It adds fabulous leaf-contrast into the Exotic Border, but when it is dying down at this point in the year, this is when I stand in front of it and think 'you really are a good doer'.
The lead up to Christmas is not the lead up to Christmas without me starting to fret about the Edgeworthia chrystantha. Whilst it has successfully got through many Winters now, I still have that moment of will this be a hard cold Winter and will it be too cold for the Edgeworthia. I keep a watchful eye on it all Winter and I hope and hope that each forming bud will grow and open and release its fabulous fragrance. Edgeworthia Watch Winter 2025 is go!
The Daphne Jacqeline Postill is similarly gearing up to release its colour and fragrance in the Spring. I worry less about this plant, it seems much more robust than the Edgeworthia. I also have two of them which does not mean that I want to lose one, but frankly I could and still have one. The fragrance from this shrub is wonderful and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
and how is the pond I hear you ask? Well, its still very clogged up with plants, which is more than a little embarressing. It is also quite full of water: which is due to the amount of rain we have had lately and is a very good thing.
(meanwhile the tulip bulbs still need planting..... maybe next month.....)
Time will tell.
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