Saturday 15 February 2014

February in my garden

The news is repeating itself to such a degree that it makes us kind of numb – I don’t think I can hear about any more storms and floods and yet, every day the news is filled with it and every week we are hit by more storms and floods somewhere in UK. Wednesday was dubbed ‘Wild Wednesday’ by the media and the winds reached hurricane force certain places on the west coast of England. Here in the calmer corner of South East England we are more worried about flooding and the saturated rivers, and where on earth all the water is supposed to go eventually. It all leads down to the Thames River, and that river goes straight through London. The Thames barrier is currently saving London from being flooded and since it was built in 1982, the Thames Barrier has been raised 150 times in order to prevent flooding in central London. This year's wet winter has required it to be closed 28 times since December the 6, accounting for 18.7 % of the total closures in its 32-year history. And the forecast today is for ANOTHER month of this weather.

My garden has not been flooded, but it is incredibly saturated with water. I don’t step into the flower beds anymore as my wellies just sink into the soil and leave a deep impression. As long as I keep to the gravel path I am OK. Every time I lift a container or one of my several hundred pots, water comes streaming out of the holes in the bottom. It has been like this since middle of December and I do worry that some of the plants and bulbs might simply rot, especially those that are in the pots. But everything above ground looks very healthy and green so perhaps things below ground is equally well. The only advantage with the kind of winter we have had so far is the very mild weather. No frost yet, apart from a few hours ONE night in January, not sure if I can count that as frost, it barely dipped below and by the time we got to lunchtime next day everything had thawed again. Not enough to make any damage to my tender plants.

On my patio I have a mix of evergreens, tender plants and containers with spring bulbs. At the back my new magnolia which I am waiting with nail biting anticipation for the first ever flowers. It might be May before I see any flowers, depends if we ever get to see the sun again….

Some of the tender plants that has survived this mild winter were certainly not meant to still be green. I am amazed that the geraniums actually have not only survived but now are producing new fresh shoots. And the fuchsias? Well, I have written about them every 15th for ages, but here we go again....

....A bit easier if I lift the pot out and place it on the table perhaps, but here it is, still in flower, in the middle of February.

There is no sign of yellowing of the leaves and there are new flowers produced.

And new, fresh leaves popping out all over. I have never had a fuchsia that didn’t shed the leaves in late winter, but by now they all should have been bare twigs - at this rate it seems all my fuchsias will be evergreen this year!

My nursery shelves are full to the brim, I need to plant some of this so I can make room for all the pots of seed I would like to sow soon!

My giant teacups are getting fuller, but no sign of flowers of the Iris reticulata yet. I wish I had a place in full sun to keep them but alas, full sunshine is in short supply in my garden! These teacups have drainage holes in the cups so water can drain down to the saucer, but there is no hole in the saucer. The cups and saucers are attached to each other and cannot be taken apart. They were sold for outdoor use so I think this is an incredibly silly design, only suitable in a country where it never rains - where would that be? I keep pouring off the excess water off the saucers every time I go outside, but with the weather we have it means there is always water on the saucers. I think I will try to find someone who can drill a hole through all of the saucers, it is stoneware so should be possible to drill holes, just need to find someone willing to do it for me.

Last autumn I bought my first Daphne, here she is! OK, I admit it, she doesn’t look that impressive, nearly all the leaves fell off for some reason despite her being evergreen, and although there are signs of them growing back again, at the moment she looks very bare.

But the flowers that are emerging are just heavenly! I wish you could smell this one, I can only describe it as a very sweet and fruity smell, but fresh at the same time, like a very expensive soap – or at least I wouldn’t mind having a soap smelling like this!

Here is another one just emerging, the very first Anemone blanda is almost ready to pop, just a day or two more now and it will be properly open.

My lavender has been flowering all winter, in fact, it hasn’t stopped since last spring!

On the other side, opposite the patio, in the shady bed are more fuchsias still lush and green. This is Annabelle and they stopped flowering a few weeks ago but instead of dropping all the leaves like they usually do at this time of year they are now shooting out new, fresh growth and new flower buds – all 4 of them. Seems like these will be evergreen this year too, unless we get a surprisingly cold spell.

Just next to this bed, right above my seating area is one of the newcomer to my garden, Clematis armandii 'Apple Blossom' . I bought it in December 2012 as a small pot plant and during the whole of last year all it did was growing and growing and growing and it didn’t produce any flowers.

Now it is covered in these buds, must be several hundred of them and I can’t wait to see it in flower for the first time. I was a bit afraid of putting this clematis here as it is a north facing wall, but it seems it gets more than enough light in this space. Not sure how long it will take from this size buds to open flowers since it is the first time, but time will tell!

One plant that is happily flowering away is my Chaenomeles 'Crimson and Gold', currently residing in a large pot.

I think this is the third flush of flowers I have this winter.

And there are more buds.

Speaking of buds, if I turn around and look downwards, the camellia is probably the most impressive’bud maker’ at the moment.

The camellia started to make these buds already by the time it shed last year’s flower, but now they are getting really big and there are many hundred of them - by the time we get to middle of March it will probably be in full flower.

Here is a very early starter, this is my Clematis ‘Niobe’, not really in flower yeat, but I just had to show how much growth it has put on, never seen it like this in February!

But it is down here at the bottom of my garden that things are happening right now. This is where I have my woodland garden with all sorts of spring flowers among some staple evergreens. All the tiny green stalks to the right are crocuses on their way up, it will be quite a sight when they are all up.

The first Rhododendron is in flower, this is ‘Christmas Cheer’, a bit of a misnomer as it doesn’t flower for Christmas, but usually flowers in March here in UK.

The flowers start in this acid pink colour.

And open fully in this pale pink. Absolutely beautiful.

Here are some more eye popping colours, the cyclamens are in full flower.

One more, in a paler pink.

This white cyclamen has been flowering since long before Christmas.

The Sarcococcas are still in flower but it will only be a few more weeks and then it’s all over.

I have 3 Sarcococcas, one Sarcococca confusa which was on the previous photo and two Sarcococca hookeriana var. digyna like this one. I’d love to have a few of the other types too, being evergreen they bring interest to the garden wherever you put them. They are so easy plants to deal with all year round and every winter they burst into these pumps of delightful perfume. Who can ask for more?!

Well, the only thing one could ask for would be non-stop flowering I suppose – like my Primula vulgaris! Most of them has been flowering since I got them in September 2012, without a break during last summer! I wonder if they will go on this summer too....

This primrose took a summer break like it should do, and started again last autumn, I love the dark red colour.

The first crocuses are out of the ground, not fully open yet, but at least you can see they will become blue.

Can’t wait for them all to burst into flower, to me that’s a great sign of spring.

Down here in the woodland corner there is a mix of all sorts of spring plants and some has even had to go into pots for now, waiting for a permanent place in the garden.

But the plants I most of all connect with February are snowdrops and hellebores and I have lots of them in flower right now. February is also my father’s month, his birthday is the 29th February, which means he has only had a ‘proper’ birthday every 4th year. While preparing some photos and video shoots of hellebores for this month’s Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day I received the phone call telling me that my father had suddenly and unexpectedly died at home in Spain, where my parents live. That was last Saturday, 8th February - 3 weeks before his 74th birthday.

I decided to make a movie of my hellebore and snowdrop photos and took as many snowdrop photos I could this week in between the rain – to make a movie for today. The music is a requiem I have been listening to for a while and feels strangely coincidentally appropriate right now. February with it’s hellebores and snowdrops will forever remind me of my father.

Please change the setting to 720p if you have download speed for it, the photos are high enough quality to be viewed in full screen.



The music was Pie Jesu from Fauré Requiem D minor, op 48.
To see flowers from gardens all over the world, please visit the host of the Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day meme, Carol at May Dreams Gardens.
Until next time, take care.

64 comments:

  1. Your flowers are amazing!
    So very sorry to hear of your father's death
    Lea

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    1. Thanks for your kind sentiments Lea - and yes, some of my flowers are even amazing me right now because of the mild weather they just go on and on.

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  2. Even with all the bad weather there is so much to see in your garden. The polka dot cups with bulbs are so cheerful even without blooms. Wild weather the world around it seems.

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    1. Wild weather indeed!
      Those who forecasted another month of this here in UK might have been wrong, it seems now the jet streams that dictates our weather might be on the move. Hurray! But…it won’t stop raining completely, and the wind will still be with us, just not as bad as it has been. Some consolation I guess. The flooding issue is still there though, there’s a lot of water that needs to drain away.

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  3. Things are certainly ahead of our garden. Our next door neighbour has geraniums on flower in his front garden, He is not an experienced gardener and last year I was telling him that the plants would die overwinter - he will probably never listen to me again!

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    1. If he is rather inexperienced he probably will listen to you if you say every winter is different; this winter was an unusually different one! That’s why his geranium survived :-)

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  4. I would love to come walk through your garden today, staying on the paths, of course. So much to see! Thank you for sharing it with us for bloom day!

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    1. Thank you for coming to visit again, and I’d love to have you here in person, you can pop in any time :-)

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  5. Quite a story. I have a cousin in England and we are keeping him in our thoughts! Thanks for all the beautiful blooms.

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    1. Thanks, and welcome to my blog. I have been let off very lightly, with just a bit of wind damage here and there in my garden so far. Not sure if the saturated soil has done any damage yet, time will tell.

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  6. Your garden doesn't look worse from the weather. It is mighty fine with all the buds and green. Here it is all snow covered and COLD. I hope it dries up before you anticipate it doing so. You just don't ever know anymore. Happy GBBD.

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    1. Thanks, I hope my garden dries up soon too! And I hope you guys get a warm spring soon so you can thaw up :-)
      Happy GBBD to you too!

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  7. Hi Helene, i am sorry about your storms and floods, we get the worst of them these past few years. It is good there are not much destructions and deaths when they visit your country, unlike here!

    It looks like your garden is very much protected from the calamities. They are still looking very good and unstressed at all. I love the snowdrops, although i've seen it only once in person, in Turkey that is. So i always look at the melting snows in temperate country blogs, if only for the snowdrops!

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    1. I have a very sheltered garden in inner East London - that protects my garden from a lot of the bad weather and the area I am in is protected by the flood barrier in the Thames River. Unfortunately you don’t need to travel that far from my area to find thousands of houses that have been flooded, many thousands more that had to be evacuated and hundreds of thousands that has lost electricity for days with the recent storms. The one we had last Wednesday was particularly bad with several people losing their life. My garden is sadly not representative for how many people have had it the last 2 months.

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  8. I have been following news of the storms through another UK blogger and you all are in our thoughts here in upstate New York, even as we battle snow and below zero (F) weather. I also wish I could take a walk in your garden as mine slumbers under piles of snow. Crocuses and rhododendrons at the same time - mixed in with camellias. It makes me dizzy, and hopeful that spring will make the extreme weather in the world subside. I am sorry for the loss of your father.

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    1. Thanks for your kind words, I have also followed the news from your area – and don’t envy you the winter you have. The only consolation I can offer you is that when the weather turn and it gets warmer, spring will probably be very swift and it will all melt and be over with in a week or two. That’s how spring always was in Norway, where I am from – 5 months of snow, one or two weeks of spring and then it was summer! Hopefully the snow cover you have will protect your plants through to the thaw, snow is an excellent insulator. Bare ground frost is so much more destructive to both over ground and underground plants.

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  9. Hi Helene. I am sorry to hear of your storms in the UK and the news of your father. Your blooms are a beautiful sight for sore eyes as we are still buried under a blanket of snow. I knew we could rely on you for some encouragement and high hopes with all your new growth.

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    1. Thanks for your kind words Lee.
      As for my reliable new growth – I have plants in flower all year round, can’t remember a single week without any flowers since I moved in here 12 years ago – I deliberately made it an all year garden so I could enjoy it in the winter too :-)
      Glad it gives you hope, spring will come eventually, hope you won’t have to wait too long!

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  10. My condolences on the loss of your father. The snowdrops are a lovely tribute.

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    1. Many thanks for your sympathy, much appreciated.
      The snowdrops get better and increase in number every day, I think there are still about half of them not yet in flower on the shady side so they will be quite a sight when they all are up.

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  11. I had a clematis armandii in my last house, bought as a very small plant, and like you I had to wait a while to see (and smell!) it in flower. It finally made it the month before we moved out!
    So sorry to hear about your father Helene. Jx

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    1. Thanks for your sentiments Jessica.
      I have never seen Clematis armandii in flower for real, only on photos so obviously never smelled it either – can’t wait for it to finally flower, as last spring it was just too small to do anything.

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  12. Dear Helene: So sorry to hear of your father's passing. And I have been thinking of the U.K. with all the news of the high winds and flooding. I hope that trend shifts soon. It does appear that you've skipped "winter," though, and when those Clematises and Camellias bloom--wow, your garden will be like paradise. Take care in the rain, though.

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    1. Many thanks for your kind words Beth.
      The bad weather has brushed lightly over my garden but so many people has had it so very difficult. There are two different theories going right now – one is that we are in for another month of the same storm and rain, the other theory is that the jet streams are slowly moving north and giving us more stabile weather in a week or two. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see who’s right!

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  13. Dear Helene, As I read your posting I was amazed to see all your beautiful blooms in spite of the rain you have been experiencing. Like Carol, I would just love to walk through your garden right now. We are completely snowed-in and experiencing subzero temperatures. Then I read and was saddened to hear about your father. I watched your video and was brought to tears by the lovely images and beautiful music! As I watched, I sent up a prayer, with love, for you and your family. P. x

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    1. Dear Pam, many thanks for your kind and heartfelt words.
      I would love to be able to invite you for a walk in my garden, if only you lived a bit closer to me!
      The rain has not made in damage to the plants already up in my garden, I think it has just been beneficial really. And with the kind of winter we have had, the plants have really enjoyed the mild temperatures. The plants I am worried about are those underground – all my dahlias, which I never lift, all the lily bulbs and all the many herbaceous plants. Will they have started to rot in this water saturated soil when not really taking up or needing much water until emerging?
      Time will tell!

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  14. I love your garden, especially your fuchsia and your unique cups. My rhododendrons look so poor after ash fall. I have to recovery my garden soon. Colorful garden, I want to see your spring garden 'soon'

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    1. Thanks Endah, my spring garden is on the way, there is not really a kind of firm date for when autumn ends and winter starts – and equally no firm date for when winter ends and spring starts, in terms of when plants come up and flower. It’s all very fluid dependant on many factors like temperature, precipitation and sunshine. This winter has been very mild, but because of all the rain there has been very little sunshine. On the other hand, if we had more sunshine, it would have been much colder so the plants would have been delayed by lower temperatures.

      Officially, spring starts 1st March here in London and it certainly does in my garden – if not before. I suppose it all depends what you use as a marker for ‘start of spring’ . I don’t think you can use hellebores and snowdrops as they are so early as January in my garden, but crocuses and daffodils are certainly spring flowers in my book. The crocuses have started to open up, the daffodils will come soon :-)

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  15. Your flowers are beautiful! I followed your link from Carol, and I'm very glad I did. Your garden is an inspiration of colors.

    and such a wonderful video to pay tribute to your father..

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    1. Hello Renee and welcome, I am glad you followed the link :-)
      I hope you stop by some other time, there’s lots more to see here!

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  16. You have an amazing amount in bloom, Helene, especially considering how waterlogged you are. You must be so impatient for the weather to improve. The iris in the tea cup planters are going to look so beautiful, and the clematis will be a picture. I had never appreciated the complexity of snow drops before with their green stripes and a double form. Deepest sympathy on the loss of your father.

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    1. Thanks Marisa for your kind words.
      It has been a glorious day here in London today, and when I came out in the garden, two Iris reticularis were waiting for me in full flower in one of the teacups! Just one day late for getting to the GBBD, but I will make a separate post when they all are flowering. The two so far are gorgeous, dark purple in colour with yellow markings.

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  17. Lovely post ! I enjoyed the snowdrops movie! I so needed it! Sorry for you father loss! You were lucky to have him in your life for so long! I wasn't so lucky and lost him 10 years earlier.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words, I am glad you enjoyed the movie.

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  18. So much to enjoy in your garden Helene. Overhere the weather is the same as yours. Yesterday the storm was howled around the house and if I step in my garden it looks like a swamp at the moment. Lets hope for better times.
    Have a wonderful sunday Helene

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    1. The storm Friday was probably the worst I have experienced this winter, I didn’t go to bed until early in the morning, I wanted to keep an eye on things in case something blew over and would come crashing in. The weather presenters on TV keep repeating that the weather is going to get better from now on, but at the same time we are getting yet another deep low pressure on Thursday and Friday with lots of rain and wind so I don’t know….perhaps not another storm but it will certainly be windy, and more rain. Not really out of the woods yet, but hopefully soon!
      Have a great week :-)

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  19. I am so sorry to hear of your loss, Helene. May all your lovely flowers bring you some comfort during this time.
    Here in the U.S., the weathermen are so busy covering all the snow and ice storms, including parts of the country that usually don't get them, that I've heard very little of the storms in the UK. Sounds like you have had a bad winter, too, just of another sort. Your garden is amazing and certainly doesn't seem to have been affected by all the rain.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words Rose.
      Living here in London I have been fortunate in terms of the weather, and my garden is particularly sheltered so the little damage I have had isn’t much to talk about. But the news over here is filled with destruction to properties and businesses every day and people have lost their life too. It has been a bad winter and it is not yet over for many parts of the country – all the water has yet to drain from fields and rivers and will need to go into larger and larger rivers before going out to sea. That takes a long time and in the mean time, people get flooded.

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  20. This winter seems to be a season of drought or drench. But your garden is full of so many plants that don't do well here. It must be your milder climate and wet, wet weather. I'm waiting for my sweetbox to bloom, too. It's fragrance reminds me that winter is almost over. That camellia is incredible! It seems to be enjoying all the extra water.

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    1. Thanks Tammy, I inherited the camellia with the house, I have no idea how old it is but it is somewhere between 30-50 years old. I don’t do anything to it, no water, no fertilizer, no mulching, nothing at all, the only thing I do every 4-5 years is to give it a good prune, as it gets very heavy on the sunny side over time, a bit lopsided. This year it’s overdue a prune so when it is finished flowering I will need to get the big loppers out!

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  21. Despite the very wet and stormy days your garden looks amazingly green. I like the cups and saucers which soon will show flowers and the nursery shelves full of pots, and you are going to sow more....... Love this, or....are we just mad......no, it keeps us busy and gives us a lot more energy in life. So, happy gardening and spring is in the air, definitely!

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    1. I sometimes ask myself too if I am mad to buy more plants, and sow and make cuttings and divisions….but somehow I always manage to find room for more plants! I love pottering around in the garden so even if I end up giving away some of my plants then that’s fine, I love the thought of my plants growing in someone else’s garden and giving joy to other people.
      Oh, by the way, the Irises in the cups and saucers have started to bloom, today! Just one day too late for a photo here, but I will post later.

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  22. I am so sorry to hear about the death of your father. Your tribute is beautiful in every way and so appropriate for a February birthday. I hope your flowers can lighten your sadness just a little.

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    1. Thanks for your sympathy Carolyn, and yes, it does help a bit being able to spend time in my garden these days – I try to be outside as often as I can, even if the weather is not brilliant, as long as it is not pouring down.

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  23. Helene, I too am so sorry to hear of your father's death. Sad news, my thoughts are with you.
    You've lots in bloom and as has been said your garden will a comfort too you. Are you sure you haven't been feeding those Fuchsias steroids ;)
    I had heard the weather was supposed to let up next week but obviously not if you've been forecast another month of it. I hope it's a quick month.

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    1. Thanks for your kind words Angie, much appreciated.
      You are not the first one to suggest I have been feeding my fuchsias steroids…but nope, all they got was slow release Miracle Grow ONCE back in May last year, since then I haven’t given them anything except water if they needed.

      I keep hearing that the weather storms are over, and then I hear we are in for yet another bad spell on Thursday and Friday with lots of rain and wind, possibly not as windy as last Friday but still – I don’t think this is quite over yet but it would be lovely if those that says it is were right!
      I am definitely ready for some warm sunshine and a long spring :-)

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  24. I don't know how you manage to pack so much quality into such a small space Helene. Beautiful.

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    1. Thank you Rick, I have been ‘packing’ for the last 12 years and it has been a bit of a trial and error but I have found out that you can have a lot more plants in a small space than you think! I keep saying my garden is full, and then I squeeze another 100 plants in…so I’ll stop saying it’s full – it’s just ‘quite full’. I have 70 new plants on order for delivery mid March and I am going to start sowing 1st March. Lots. My garden will be filled to the rafters this summer too :-)

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  25. I am so sorry for your father's sudden passing. Your video is a wonderful memoir to him. My own father also passed away on February 8, in 2008, two weeks before his 88th birthday. You will be in my thoughts and prayers. May spring come to you with no more storms this year.

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    1. Many thanks for your condolences, it still feels quite unreal, 10 days later.
      There are small signs of spring arriving, even though more rain and wind is forecasted it will not be as bad as it has been. The flooding risk is not over but London is protected so I don’t think my garden will ever be at risk, only being water logged from all the rain.

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  26. Helene - so sorry to hear about your father's sudden death. My sincerest condolences.
    Too bad about the terrible winds and storms! Hope they calm down soon.
    Your beautiful flowers have not suffered at all - they are as gorgeous as ever. I live vicariously through you - our flowers are still months away.

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    1. The weather has improved, today is actually quite a nice day with sunshine – I am on my way out in the garden now. But by the end of the week it’s back to rain and wind for a while so we have to enjoy the fine days while we have them. The garden doesn’t suffer though, the mild weather and the rain is just doing the plants good, it’s only me that can’t cope so well in the rain :-)

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  27. Hi Helene, an absolutely fabulous post. The weather has been dreadful, We also have had so much rain, but no flooding. We have had a few days with sunshine recently which cheers one up no end. Glad you showed pictures of Clematis armandii, I am now positive this is what we have in the garden, just starting to develop buds now. Very fond of your cyclamen, I see them growing weel around here and will definitely be introducing them to our garden. Yo really cheer me up when I see what can be done with a small garden, although I think our back garden will be smaller than yours. When we build the extension we will be left with a garden space of only, 28ft x 25ft, we have a reasonable front garden as well.

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    1. I don’t do Imperial measurements so well, so I have done some calculations: If your back garden will be 28’ x 25’ after your extension is built, that is 8.5m x 7.6m, a total of 64.6 m2. Compare that to my garden, including the small passage down from my back door where I have my nursery shelves, and my garden is 65.25 m2 - almost exactly the same!
      Although mine is only 4.7m wide at the widest point, long and narrow compared to your more square one. So yes, when looking at my plant list and photos you should get an idea what you can manage to squeeze into that space if you stack well, get rid of some or all of the lawn, and use a shoehorn! Mind you, you have a big front garden too where you can grow lots of plants, mine is absolutely tiny and mainly occupied by my two rubbish bins.

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    2. Helene, thanks for the comparisons, you have given me encouragement.
      Going through your post again, I realise for whatever reason at the time I missed the last few paragraphs. Although we have only met through the blogosphere I feel that I have come to know you well enough to pass on sincerest condolences from Myra and myself at the sad passing of your father..

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    3. Thank you so much Alistair, much appreciated.

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  28. My sincerest condolences on your father's death, I'm so sorry, dear!
    I love your new plant Daphne, its flowers are pretty.Wonderful vernal garden is despite of rainy and cloudy weather, Helene!

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    1. Thank you for your kind words Nadezda.
      My garden is certainly vernal, even though spring doesn’t start until 1st March according to the meteorological calendar or even 21st March according to the astronomical calendar – in my garden spring started about 2 weeks ago and with no frost in sight the next few weeks I think this is it, winter is definitely over, not that we have had any winter at all, but we certainly won’t get any now. If we do get some colder nights or even some snow flurries it will be gone again very quickly and not do any damage.

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  29. Don't you just love the media reports on bad weather... it happens here too, whenever there is bad weather it's a weather bomb or a superstorm. I think nature has been pounding on you guys a little too hard though, it's time for her to ease up!
    I think we are in for a hard winter, as ours generally follow the northern hemisphere pattern. So it will either be cold and snowy or wet. Not looking forward to it either way!
    So sorry to hear of your father's passing. Hellebores and snowdrops are a wonderful way to remember him.

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    1. Thanks Ruth, the media has been full of the weather news, today they reported that we indeed have had the wettest winter on record – the last 250 years! It seems to be easing up a bit although it is still raining almost every day. I hope you are not inheriting this weather!

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  30. Hi Helene,

    Your gardens look wonderful! I long to see some green around here, but the snow is still piled high. I must tell you my mother's birthday was also February 29th. When she was still with us we always celebrated it on February 28th. I'm so sorry to hear of his passing.

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    1. Thanks Donna, we always celebrated my father’s birthday on the 28th too, if there wasn’t a 29th that year. I hope spring will arrive for you soon, this winter has been hard for many of use in so many ways.

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  31. I am so sorry to hear of your father's passing just a few weeks before his 74th birthday. It must have been a great shock to get the news so unexpectedly over the phone. I am so sorry for your loss Helene!
    Your garden looks so very green and despite the excess rain there seems to be lots of buds. I love the little movie. The music was beautiful and haunting. The images divine and the perfect bit of spring to cheer up a grey winter day here in Canada.

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    1. Thank you for your condolences Jennifer, much appreciated. We have had another shock today, my uncle died this morning. He was my father’s only sibling, was 7 years younger and had been ill from heart failure for a while. I can’t believe they died just 13 days apart.

      The feeling of spring is moving forward with big steps right now, I need to take some more pictures as so much has started to flower this week. I will try to take some this week-end.

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