Colour in the Woodland

Posted on February 23, 2021 by Pauline

After a freezing cold week followed by a week of torrential rain of biblical proportions, we now have  warm sunshine! This has made the snowdrops and crocus open up and the woodland is buzzing, I couldn’t help but smile when a huge bumble bee tried to help itself to some nectar from a dainty wild single snowdrop, poor snowdrop was weighed down to the ground with its passenger. The sunshine has brought on lots of other flowers of different colours, so the whole effect is very pretty, or I think so anyway. Come and have a wander with me.

Narcissus are starting to flower in the border by the woodland.

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A virtual tour of the Snowdrops for WI Members.

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Pauline

Ladies, you are invited to a virtual tour of my snowdrops as unfortunately we still can’t be together, hopefully by next year I will be able to invite you all to come  round once more  to see the snowdrops .I know the heading says “for WI Members” but my usual readers are also invited to come with us as we wander round my tiny woodland looking at snowdrops and other flowers which are braving the winter weather at the moment, so far just frost or torrential rain for us while the rest of the country is struggling with snow. Your visits usually happen at this time of year and start with  coffee and cake, but I’m afraid this time you will have to make it yourself,  it might be a good idea to have your mug of coffee with you as this could take some time! We will start with the flowers by the drive where you usually park your cars.

Hellebore standing up very well to all our rain.

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Out at last.

Posted on January 17, 2021 by Pauline

No, not me, I’m still safely tucked up at home, I mean my first narcissus, Rijnveld’s Early Sensation which has always been out by Christmas Day in previous years. This time though it was still in tight bud by the end of the year and has only just opened now. It is strange that it is late when most of the special snowdrops are early.

Looking very cheerful in the woodland at the moment, N. Rijnveld’s Early Sensation.

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So many snouts and noses!

Posted on December 12, 2020 by Pauline

Cards and presents are written , wrapped and posted so once more I can concentrate on the garden and my wander round this morning showed me a very wet and soggy garden, but with lots of little snowdrop snouts and noses peeping up above all the leaves that still need clearing away. Usually I clear away the leaves in the garden first and then tackle the leaves in the woodland after New Year, but this year everything seems to be starting earlier than usual, so I will have to be very careful when working in the woodland.

G. Faringdon Double was my first snowdrop to appear at the end of November, I have deliberately not bought any snowdrops that are supposed to flower in the autumn as I feel they really belong in the winter, but this one seems determined to get earlier and earlier each year!

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New bloooms for November.

Posted on November 25, 2020 by Pauline

As we are almost coming to the end of our second lockdown, I have had plenty of time to wander round the garden looking for new blooms. There are plenty of late summer flowers still hanging on, but now the winter flowers are starting to show nice and early. Looking back at last years posts it seems that last year everything was a bit late, this year we are back on track with the previous years flowers. The first flowers to make me go and fetch my camera were snowdrops in the woodland!

Galanthus Faringdon Double always seems to be my first snowdrop to emerge so is very precious for that reason.

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The Beginning of the End or New Beginnings?

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Pauline

On one hand the colourful leaves are telling me that the gardening year is almost at an end, they are falling each day and soon the trees will be bare, ready for winter. On the other hand, some plants wait until now to wake up and produce their flowers, they must like the shorter days and colder temperatures, even frost.

The tall nameless Acer coloured up nicely before the leaves started to fall. I think about half the leaves have fallen now, still more to go though.

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Autumn has certainly arrived.

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Pauline

During this last week the colours in the garden and the surrounding countryside have changed considerably, the green is gradually fading away and changing to yellow, orange and red. Also the leaves have started falling with a vengeance which means leaf raking every few days, never mind, its supposed to be good for the waistline! The sun is lower in the sky which brings a different light to the garden, illuminating areas that are usually in deep shade, I love this time of year, everywhere looks so different.

One of the first plants to change colour is my little Acer palmatum atropurpureum dissectum which is in a pot in the back garden. It has been a dark purple all summer and now is such a bright pink/red.

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Good for another 30 yrs!

Posted on October 18, 2020 by Pauline

I thought I would update you on the Calor Gas saga now that I have a shiny new gas tank at the side of the house. I received a letter from Calor Gas telling me that they were coming last Friday with a new tank for me, also telling me that I didn’t have to be there, they could install it without me. I was ready for them at 8am and I waited and waited, eventually gave up and made my lunch at 12.45pm, when I went back into the kitchen at 1.45pm, (my kitchen is at the front,)  having watched the news while I was eating my lunch, this is what I saw on the drive.

The hugge lorry/crane was parked right by the house, my old tank had already been lifted out, mine is on the far side, and the man was in the middle of installing the new tank in exactly the same place as the old one, so all that fuss about nothing!

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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, October 2020

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Pauline

There is a definite autumnal feel to the garden now, the days are shorter, the sun lower in the sky and it is certainly a lot colder this week than last. This howerver doesn’t stop all the flowers from flowering, some in fact have just been triggered into flowering mode, just when I thought everything had finished for this year.

I thought my variegated yucca had decided not to flower this year, when all of a sudden, I noticed a few days ago, that it had started putting up a flower spike. I hope it manages to flower before the frost really gets going.

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Time to catch up.

Posted on October 4, 2020 by Pauline

Having had days of very heavy rain and storm force winds means that I now have time to catch up with my blog as gardening can’t be done at the moment. Gales last night brought a large branch down from one of my ash trees, but more of that later. I will start by going back to the removal of the Leylandii hedge which then sat on the drive for a couple of weeks until friend Simon had time to come and remove it.

I hadn’t realised that he was coming in the farm tractor!! I’m amazed there was enough room for him to come up our little single track road and he must only have had a couple of inches to spare getting through the gateway!

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