Guess you don't quite live on my doorstep in the East Midlands obelixx, but even so I agree about not giving up early, June does often see some late and unexpected growth - but not last year when it had all drowned or gone lanky from lack of light - better things this year huh?
I certainly hope so. I once hosted an East Midlans nurseryman from near Loughborough who came over to give a talk to the Brussels Gardeners Club one March about 10 years ago. We had -6C by day -15C at night and no signs of green shoots anywhere and iron hard ground. He was horrified as he thought -6C was a hard frost in his garden. He had kindly borught me cuttings of some exciting new introductions of evergreen shrubs from Oz and NZ but not one survived.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Oh dear, it was indeed rare in those times to get such low temperatures, but in the winter of 2010 - 11 we had -17 in our garden. To my surprise nearlyeverything survived , probaly because they had a good layer of snow upon them which might have orotected them? There were of course some losses. This year I woud think -10 was our lowest, and not for long.
Snow certainly helps. I've lost less when we've had the blanket than when we have weeks of bitter east winds and -15C or below and no snow. Jan6 2009 we had a -32C out the back which was -26C at the front and nearly saw off my Kiftsgate. It did see off several roses, several clematis and a dozen or more hitherto hardy and evergreen shrubs like viburnums, eleagnus, choisya and mahonia plus some conifers and a fancy hibiscus.
I now concentrate on sturdy plants that will survive and don't spend money on fancy versions and new varieties. Looks like I've lost my Geoff Hamilton and William Shakespeare roses this year and my Orange Peel Hamamelis but I'll wait and see till June.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Now - 32 is not something with which I wish to become aquainted!! Plus 32 now that is a different matter!! Gardening where you are must be quite a challenge, but of course we gardeners are always up fpr a challenge. Last year here it was all about low light conditions, persistent rain and general yuckiness. Today it is bright and pretty but with a gentle gale blowing - I say gentle because although the wind in strong, so far no branches have fallen on to the grass that I would like to claim is a lawn, but I'd get sued under the trade descriptions act if I did. This means I shall have to go out later on and pick the daffodils/narcissi that have been blown over. I rarely pick flowers from the garden, but blown over daffs I always do - they're not going to get better, so we may s well enjoy them indoors for a few days.
happy gardening this year, as with all years we haven't had yet, this will be a brilliant one !
Gardening here was fairly normal till 2009 and the bad winters started. We'd have about 3 weeks of -15C to -20C in January or February when it did little harm and winter was always a little longer than when we were in Harrow but I find increasingly that winters have more extreme dips and highs and the poor old plants don't know whether they're coming or going with a warm spell in Jan followed by deep misery in Feb or this year where we had a balmy start to March and then 6' drifts of snow. Last year I lost most plants to hard frosts in late March after a couple of weeks of warmth conned them into opening up their leaf buds and blossom. Wipe out for many.
I increasingly plant short daffs to avoid the broken stems problem but do have lovely drifts of Ice Follies out the front which I really love and which flower late enough to miss a lot of teh worst winds. I've even managed to get some species tulips to grow in two well drained beds but never yet a long stemmed one. I planted 300 the first year and only 5 came up. I reckon rodents got most and the rest must have frozen.
Last year was hard -too dull and cool and wet like yours. Still, I shall be out there sowing seeds and pricking on and planting out and lifting and dividing with the usual optimism just as soon as I can get about on one crutch.
I hope we all have a better gardening year.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Posts
Guess you don't quite live on my doorstep in the East Midlands obelixx, but even so I agree about not giving up early, June does often see some late and unexpected growth - but not last year when it had all drowned or gone lanky from lack of light - better things this year huh?
I certainly hope so. I once hosted an East Midlans nurseryman from near Loughborough who came over to give a talk to the Brussels Gardeners Club one March about 10 years ago. We had -6C by day -15C at night and no signs of green shoots anywhere and iron hard ground. He was horrified as he thought -6C was a hard frost in his garden. He had kindly borught me cuttings of some exciting new introductions of evergreen shrubs from Oz and NZ but not one survived.
Oh dear, it was indeed rare in those times to get such low temperatures, but in the winter of 2010 - 11 we had -17 in our garden. To my surprise nearlyeverything survived , probaly because they had a good layer of snow upon them which might have orotected them? There were of course some losses. This year I woud think -10 was our lowest, and not for long.
Snow certainly helps. I've lost less when we've had the blanket than when we have weeks of bitter east winds and -15C or below and no snow. Jan6 2009 we had a -32C out the back which was -26C at the front and nearly saw off my Kiftsgate. It did see off several roses, several clematis and a dozen or more hitherto hardy and evergreen shrubs like viburnums, eleagnus, choisya and mahonia plus some conifers and a fancy hibiscus.
I now concentrate on sturdy plants that will survive and don't spend money on fancy versions and new varieties. Looks like I've lost my Geoff Hamilton and William Shakespeare roses this year and my Orange Peel Hamamelis but I'll wait and see till June.
Now - 32 is not something with which I wish to become aquainted!! Plus 32 now that is a different matter!! Gardening where you are must be quite a challenge, but of course we gardeners are always up fpr a challenge. Last year here it was all about low light conditions, persistent rain and general yuckiness. Today it is bright and pretty but with a gentle gale blowing - I say gentle because although the wind in strong, so far no branches have fallen on to the grass that I would like to claim is a lawn, but I'd get sued under the trade descriptions act if I did. This means I shall have to go out later on and pick the daffodils/narcissi that have been blown over. I rarely pick flowers from the garden, but blown over daffs I always do - they're not going to get better, so we may s well enjoy them indoors for a few days.
happy gardening this year, as with all years we haven't had yet, this will be a brilliant one !
Gardening here was fairly normal till 2009 and the bad winters started. We'd have about 3 weeks of -15C to -20C in January or February when it did little harm and winter was always a little longer than when we were in Harrow but I find increasingly that winters have more extreme dips and highs and the poor old plants don't know whether they're coming or going with a warm spell in Jan followed by deep misery in Feb or this year where we had a balmy start to March and then 6' drifts of snow. Last year I lost most plants to hard frosts in late March after a couple of weeks of warmth conned them into opening up their leaf buds and blossom. Wipe out for many.
I increasingly plant short daffs to avoid the broken stems problem but do have lovely drifts of Ice Follies out the front which I really love and which flower late enough to miss a lot of teh worst winds. I've even managed to get some species tulips to grow in two well drained beds but never yet a long stemmed one. I planted 300 the first year and only 5 came up. I reckon rodents got most and the rest must have frozen.
Last year was hard -too dull and cool and wet like yours. Still, I shall be out there sowing seeds and pricking on and planting out and lifting and dividing with the usual optimism just as soon as I can get about on one crutch.
I hope we all have a better gardening year.
Theres a green shoot on my tree
Happy gardening everyone.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
bump