Winter has now progressed into February a month of weather extremes and of plenty of interest in our garden. So here are my February pages from my Garden Journal 2021. I hope you enjoy seeing what has been happening in our Avocet patch.
The first page for February began with me writing, “February is such an unpredictable month where the weather is concerned. This is reflected in the unpredictability of the garden. Our hellebores opened later than usual but were worth the wait, as were our Winter Aconites.”
Every February we pick several flower heads of different hellebores to float in a dish to see these lovely blooms close together side by side.
Our Winter Aconites have been a little undecided about when to flower this year, a few opened very early but then a gap followed before any more came out to share their shiny golden flowers with us.
Winter flowering bulbs were the theme of the next page where I wrote, “Bulbs are so important in our garden at this time of year. Each one that comes into flower seems so special, Iris reticulata, crocus, winter aconites, Cyclamen coum and a few of the earliest narcissi.”
Another of our favourite winter flowering bulbs features on the next page, Snowdrops. I wrote, “We have snowdrops growing in almost every part of our garden and now some patches are large enough to need splitting once they finish flowering. We mostly grow the Common Snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis with a few doubles, but in recent years we have planted a few named cultivars.”
Witch Hazels feature next, “Our three Hamamelis, Witch Hazels, H. ‘Diane’, H. ‘Jelena’ and H. ‘Harry’ have been sharing their brightly coloured and sweetly scented blossom with us for quite a few winter weeks. As the petals begin to fall the deep maroon/red flower bases provide new interest.”
Foliage takes over next and it provides much more subtle colours, mostly shades of greens. “When we work away at our borders in the second half of February we are amazed at how much fresh foliage growth there is to see. Arum varieties look at their best now. They are joined by carex, cyclamen and celandines.”
More bulbs appear over on the next double page spread, this time crocus. I wrote, “Crocus are the bulbs that add so much to every part of our garden. Here is a gallery of photos taken throughout the garden.”
My last page for this month looks at some of the garden tasks we have been tackling. Here I wrote, “As February draws to a close we start to cut down grasses and spent perennial flowered stems to make way for future growth.”
We managed to acquire two new to us cultivars of Iris sibirica, ‘Ballerina Dance’, ‘Butter and Sugar’ and ‘Hubbard’.
So that is it for my February entries in my Garden Journal 2021. I will be back with my March reports.
greenbenchramblings 