GARDENER'S WORD

It snowed a few days ago and the temperature here, high on the Pennine Mountains in West Yorkshire, is freezing cold.  The snow is lingering despite the sunshine and blue sky.  My car is still covered in icy snow, the road is covered with ice, and my Ragdoll cat, Alfie, and I have not been venturing out.  We are both whining about it now.  I've been watching the birds, particularly the Collared Doves and Thrushes, coming and going from my bird feeding station and the seed feeders are emptying fast.  As nearly all my store of wild bird seed has now gone, I boiled some rice and formed it into balls.  A year ago I bought a huge bag of niger (or nyjer) seed, thinking I was being clever and getting a bargain, but the birds have shown little to no interest in the special feeder for that tiny, dark brown seed.  Goldfinches are said to be attracted to niger!   So, I have rolled the rice balls in the niger seed and the visiting bi...

At the Royal Horticultural Society garden centre in Harlow Carr today, inside the large greenhouse annexed to the shop, they had counters full of colourful cyclamen and poinsettias. While I have never been particularly enraptured by poinsettias, I do love cyclamen.  Out of kindness, I don't buy them.  I used to, many moons ago, but I have never bought a cyclamen yet that I have not swiftly killed off.  There must be a trick to keeping them alive but it is one that I have never learned.  Cyclamen 'Metis' Cyclamen.Org FAQ (external link). I understand that it is an art to get poinsettias to flower just at the right time for Christmas.  It's all to do with keeping them in the dark for a period of time, or something.  Actually, it's the colourful bracts, not the insignificant flowers, that attract all the attention.  These shrubs used to grow in gardens when I lived in the Caribbean and people would grow them next to a shrub that would flower whi...

At the Royal Horticultural Society garden nursery today, in Harlow Carr, I saw a small selection of Hellebores.  Some looked rather bedraggled but others were quite lovely, especially Helleborus 'Verboom Beauty' with its beautiful butter-coloured stamens. Helleborus 'Verboom Beauty' - 17 December 2014 I don't know if hellebores are picky kinds of plants which need to be in a 'just so' position in the garden, or what.  I mean, I bought one in a pot a couple of years ago and it was not happy when I planted it in a small, south-facing border, at the top of my garden where others things grow quite happily, and it subsequently and rather quickly died.  Yet, at the front of my neighbour's house there grows a huge white hellebore which has spread out, and has flowered profusely and for many weeks on end throughout winter and early spring for the five years that I have lived here.  It has never been tended, weeded, fed, or watered.  It has been totally neg...

I visited the Royal Horticultural Society garden nursery today at Harlow Carr and although it was relatively quiet, compared with spring and summer months, there were a few things that caught my eye.  First and brightest was the small, potted, Skimmia japonica 'Temptation' with it's cheerfully bright red berries and shiny, fleshy leaves.  What a gem at what a price.  Quickly I put it back and took a photograph instead!  Imagine having this wonderful evergreen shrub growing in your garden in winter though.  Apparently it is a self-fertile variety so no need to buy more than one.  Skimmia japonica 'Temptation' - 17 December 2014 Skimmia japonica 'Temptation' has small white flowers in spring which attracts pollinators.  It will accept any aspect, and likes neutral soil.  I read that it has bushy growth, is ideal for a container, and only grows to about 2ft.  Hmmm, a rose of mine was supposed to grow to 2ft but it reaches 5ft! I und...

It's a busy time in the garden for the birds eating the seed, and for me filling the containers!  My garden has become very popular as the weather gets colder.  The thrushes seem to love the home-made fat balls for the birds  that I have hung out in a special holder.  Thrushes dining on home-made fat balls I've not seen too many grey squirrels lately but one visited the other day and it is easy, by one photograph in particular, to see why people call them tree rats.  Personally, I think they are enchanting and entertaining creatures and they are welcome to dine at my expense any time they like.  Grey squirrel helping itself to bird seed Grey squirrel showing its white underbelly. You can see why some people call them tree rats. Six sparrows on one feeder helping themselves to bird seed.

Nothing much of interest is happening in my garden now that winter is here.  There is the occasional shabby rose opening from a ragged rosebud, and a few penstemon flowers are still looking nice, but the cold and wet weather has given everything a miserable cast and I have to admit that I am not a winter gardener.  What interests me now is the birds and I get so much pleasure watching them arriving in my garden despite costing me a small fortune in bird seed.  Unfortunately, I cannot get great photos of them because I have to take them through the kitchen window, or they fly away the minute I open the door.  And, invariably, I have the wrong lens on my camera.  If I go and change it, by the time I get back the birds have flown.  I really ought to get out of the habit of leaving my macro lens on, at least for now.  Goldfinches having a feast Goldfinch checking me out A Chaffinch waits in the wings while the greedy sparrows fill their b...