Relentless
Yesterday was the first half decent day for weeks. A strange bright yellow thing appeared in an unfamiliar blue sky and the mood changed entirely. If we’re lucky maybe we’ll see more sunshine today before the deluge resumes on Friday. The soil is sodden.
First Storm Ciara and then, barely a week later, Dennis the Menace. The roaring wind and torrential rain has indeed felt relentless. Frost, snow, sleet, hail, thunder, we’ve had it all. This tree fell just six feet away from two large crates packed with brand new paving slabs. Which would have proved expensive..
It could have been worse. The landscape may have changed somewhat around the garden, and we will need to find a window in the decorating diary to get the chainsaw out, but the river is well below us and stayed within its banks. I feel for the many people in the UK who have been flooded or still under that threat. I know only too well from our own skirmish with a burst water pipe last year just how long it takes for a house to dry out. And of course that water had the advantage of being clean.
Fewer trees maybe but there are plenty enough left. And now possibly more light?
Always the prospect of more planting opportunities..
Iris reticulata ‘Natasha’
Under the protection of glass there are still bulbs to enjoy.
Pools of colour are starting to emerge outside too including this one right by the kitchen window. The heather spreads quietly and blooms reliably year after year. Erica carnea ‘Nathalie’ fringed with the black mondo grass, Ophiopogon planiscapus Nigrescens. And the odd photobombing crocus of unknown ID.
Helleborus ‘Harvington Double Yellow Speckled’
But the flower of the moment has to be the hellebore. They will take whatever the weather might throw at them and come back for more.
I did wonder if hellebores would survive at all when we first moved into this garden. I brought with me several roots but they never did particularly well. It didn’t help that the pheasants viewed them as sport. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been so bad if Ptolemy et al had needed the blooms for essential winter sustenance but no, all they ever seemed to do was sever the flower from the stem with surgical precision and leave it, intact, lying on the ground. Clearly umbrage was taken somewhere though I never did work out quite why.
Turned out all it needed was patience on my part. First for the pheasants to tire of that particular game and second for the plants to get themselves established. Hellebores take their time. But even the weakest growing, like Helleborus x hybridus ‘Harvington Black’ above, seem to get there in the end given the right spot. I used to think they were shade lovers. Maybe that was right in my previous garden where summers were drier and warmer. But here, in my heavy and winter saturated soil they seem to need a fair bit of sun.
Helleborus x hybridus ‘Harvington Lime’
The jury is out on the colour combo here. I think I like it..! In the background, the New Zealand pepper tree Pseudowintera colorata. Perhaps it works better with the black hellebore (which is also planted alongside it).
Helleborus orientalis ‘Harvington Dusky’
Helleborus ‘Cinderella’
Helleborus ‘Lost Label’
Fuchsia arborescens
Back in the greenhouse the July/August blooming fuchsia has now fully opened and there are more buds still to come.
And what do we have here?
Stickyflorus chinensis.
Yes I know they’re on the naff side. The trouble is there is nowhere in the greenhouse from which to suspend the more traditional hanging fly papers and we’re suffering a veritable invasion. Tiny black flies are everywhere. Not just in the greenhouse either. In the cold frames, in the potting shed. Even inside the heated propagator for heavens’ sake. They appear to lay their eggs in the soil. Yellowish green bugs climb up the stems of the tender young plants and suck them dry. Do the bugs then mature into the tiny black flies and the cycle start over again? Or do I have two different sets of invaders? The fly papers attempt to divert any passing winged beasty and they do seem to work. This was after just one day, there are many more stuck there now. It remains to be seen whether they work well enough and if, as is claimed, the papers are safe for bees. Hopefully the problem will be resolved one way or another before it is warm enough to open up the greenhouse to bees.
Grevillea ‘Canberra Gem’
Also now fully open in the greenhouse. Complete with bugs. Little blighters.
Splendid photography of both woodland and blooms
Thanks Derrick. Credit must go to the rare sunny day.
Beautiful photos. I especially love your gorgeous hellebores. I wish mine would flower! Patience needed I suppose. Wishing you a good March in your home and garden.
Thanks Linda. Hellebores do seem to need a year or so to settle in. Once they start though there’s no stopping them!
Hope you soon get some dry, sunny days to tackle the outdoors clean up and to eradicate the bug population. Grand photos. I’m sure the sight of any bloom lifts your spirits–as your photography does ours.
The two sunny days dried out the soil quite a bit. If only it would stay that way for a few more days I’d be able to get to work. But no. Severe weather warnings for the next three days and a lot more rain. It is never-ending. Our outside work has stopped now. We need a digger back for the final lot of wall footings.. but it’s too wet!
Stickyflorus chinensis! LOL! Caused a big guffaw! I think they are called thrips – beasties that is! Let the spiders play catch with them and the stickyflorus will be a big help. Beautiful fuchsia and you even caught a snoozing lacewing under the Lost Label hellebore! And that name just reached me! Hahaha! I do love the double heads on them, so pretty. Sadly I left two maroon doubles with my old neighbour when we moved – but they died. 🙁 No propagating them now.
Can’t believe the rain – and sleet! In between the two named storms there was a lovely midweek convection storm complete with thunder and lightening around 8.30pm! I think the nearest we had was Tiverton and Taunton – most being around the coastal areas. I do hope we get some decent weather soon – the veg plot is reverting to wilderness. Maybe I should grow rice.
I too had thought about rice. Or watercress? Cranberries? There must be something.
I had to go back and look for the lacewing. So there is! Well spotted. It’s often only when the photo appears big on the screen that I notice these things. I was trying hard to get a bee, there have been plenty around the last couple of days. Sadly none of them wanted to play ball.
Cranberries sound good. Used to live near watercress beds – that would be nice, although I fear it would be washed away! Not seen many bees lately – the wind has been too strong apart from this evening when it dropped. No bees at that time! Oh and Storm Jorge (named by the Spanish) is on its way. Expect more high winds and torrential rain. I cannot express my feeling of joy when I found that out! NOT! Batten the hatches and be careful of more falling trees. Off to bed and a sulk methinks. xxx
I do think it’s unfair. It’s not as if we don’t have enough storms of our own. Can’t we slap an import tariff on it or something? Or self-isolate it?
😂 Oh if only we could! I’m sitting here listening to the rain lashing against the windows. I feel so sorry for poor little lambs making their debut into this mess.
Yes it was a rough night but hopefully it’s getting better next week? Keeping everything crossed!
Oh such deliciousness….the flowers of course…not the downed trees or the bugs
It’s lovely to see the garden coming back to life. I’m so ready to get back out there but I’m having to be satisfied with pricking out seedlings for now!
Your hellebores are gorgeous.
They’re one of my favourite groups of plants. Perhaps because they are so early and herald the end of winter.
Lovely flowers despite the sodden ground. I wish I had a hellebore collection half that splendid. I hope your weather improves soon and you get a chance to dry out. Please redirect the rain our way – we’re headed into drought status again.
It seems to be getting worse. Non stop rain all day today. You can have too much, honest!
I’d been following your horrible weather so I am glad to hear the damage was no worse. We are in for a bit of a warm spell. I always get nervous in March that it will warm up to much, push plants along and then go back to freezing weather and snow. But the sun is so welcome and your Hellebores gave me a beautiful boost. I just ordered three H. niger ‘Tabby’ for their wonderful silver foliage.
I had to look up ‘Tabby’. The foliage is gorgeous. There is no UK source sadly although I found your post about it back in 2016 on page 2 of the google search! I’m glad you managed to track some down.
It sounds as if you have had the kitchen sink thrown as you as far as the weather is concerned Jessica. What a piece of good luck that those paving slabs remained intact! We’ve had it all too bar the snow and are still waiting for that half decent day. ‘Natasha’ is a most appealing iris and oh what a beautiful bevy of hellebores. Don’t ask me how but every time I have hung yellow stickies up in the greenhouse I’ve ended up with my hair stuck to them. Not nice.
I managed to avoid sticky hair, thank goodness, but the yellow stickies have attached themselves to the sleeves of various fleeces so they’re a bit fuzzy around the edges now. I am properly fed up with the rain, as I’m sure you must be too, all day today without a break. Odds on for a hosepipe ban this summer?
Beautiful blooms Jessica. Your garden always looks good, even when the weather is bad 🙂
Hellebores are fairly indestructible thankfully. Not everything is as rosy. An ever increasing number of Spring flowers I’m thinking really need to be in pots so that I can keep them under cover. I don’t have the space for that sadly but they really struggle to thrive in this sodden soil.
The flowers are such a spirit lifter – thank you! I wondered how you were faring with all the rain. Trees downed will give you different light, and I’m glad the pavers were spared! We still have about 8″ of snow on the ground, but daytime temps are supposed to be above freezing for then next 2 weeks, which is astounding! Global warming affecting Minnesota, I think.
It is really quite frightening how rapidly the climate is changing. I think we’ve only had two or three nights this winter when the temperature has actually dropped below freezing and that is unusual for us, even with the general trend of winters becoming milder. It’s also the sheer volume of rain and the strength and duration of the storms. Flooding in some areas of the UK has reached unprecedented levels.
As others have already said far more eloquently, beautiful, beautiful. “Spirit lifter” , “deliciousness”, I wish I had a hellebore collection half that splendid”, yes, yes, yes.
Be aware that there are some gardeners in California wistful and jealous of your “sodden” soil.
And I am just as envious of all your sun and warmth. It’s all about balance isn’t it. Neither of us have that any more. Abundant sunshine interspersed with regular showers of rain (ideally at night) wouldn’t that be just marvellous? It’s very difficult to stay cheerful when week after week after week the days are cold, grey and wet.
Oh wow! That’s what Paul and I are saying as we look at all the colour in this post…gorgeous photos, we enjoyed them all. However, not great having so much rain..if only we could divide water evenly across countries! I guess water and dampness plays havoc with older buildings like you cottage? Even when we lived in Sydney, in an old house, we had rising damp on the walls of our house, and it was very expensive to fix. Hope that yellow ball in the sky visits often.
I can’t get my mind around the possibility of damp in Sydney but then I suppose I have only been there in the heat of summer. If we get a dry and warm summer here it will do wonders for the house. It really needs a break from builders and their plastering, the windows open to the sunshine and some proper air circulation. I can only hope!
Oh My God!!!! Cinderella is DIVINE!!!! I love Hellebores but that is a whole new level of perfection! i’m going out to order some!!
Cinderella is one of my favourites, although I admit to having a lot of favourites! I hope you find one, it’ll be worth it.
What glorious photos, Jessica – and I hope you resolve your bug issue. Certainly not what you want now you have a glorious greenhouse with plants blooming despite the conditions outside
I blame the mild winter for the bug invasion. I’ve moved some of the herbs out to the cold frame in the hope it will slow the bugs down a bit (but not the plants!)..
The relentless wind and rain is starting to to get me down but like you I consider myself fortunate that is is little more than an inconvenience. We have lost a couple of fence panels but it’s nothing compared to those enduring floods. Being in a new house and garden it has been a thrill to see all the hellebores emerging. Not that I have a clue what each one might be!
It’s one of the joys of taking on a new garden, you get surprises for a year at least and sometimes beyond that. Your predecessors obviously had good taste. Sadly I didn’t inherit a single hellebore, just plenty of weeds and overgrown shrubs!
You have a lovely collection of hellebores. Shame about the trees but as you say the space provides new opportunities.
It is a shame about the trees, I hate losing them. But it’s nature’s way of creating new opportunities I guess.
My greenhouse is a haven for small nasty green flies.
I have had to give up using the sticky yellow papers. They seem to be catching an awful lot of ‘friendly’ insects, a Daddy Long Legs being the latest unfortunate victim. But I think they did their job in the short term. The black flies and aphids were mainly on some herb plants that I had. Coriander was devastated and I will need to re-sow. Parsley appears to be recovering in the cold frame.
Thinking about you and others in England as we get all the corona virus updates. My Minnesota garden will help me keep my sanity in these trying times. It is thinking about waking up for the spring. Just thinking, mind you. The snow is mostly gone, and daytime temps are above freezing, although we could still get a blizzard! Spring cleanup will be occurring soon. Roses look like leaf buds may be swelling. Daylilies are showing a little green among the dead leaves. So far, ONE tulip has poked a tentative leaf out. I planted several hundred last fall. Sadly, it appears that something has dug up almost all the tulip batalinii ‘Bronze Charm”, which, because they are smaller, weren’t planted as deeply as the others. Darn squirrels and/or rabbits!
Thinking about you too Susan. It is difficult to avoid the widespread panic that we are all facing, fuelled in part by the media. I don’t know what I’d do without the garden in times of crisis and right now all I want to do is shut the gate on the world and get busy with dirt under my fingernails again. It anchors you like nothing else.
I’ve had the same problem with tulips and I suspect it is either mice or field voles here because I can see their tunnels just under the soil surface. They got all but one Tulip ‘Peppermint Stick’, the sole survivor is sticking up out of the ground like a middle finger prodding the air!