Six on Saturday - My first in 2024

 The soggy, damp, dismal, dark, depressing weather we experienced during December seems to be temporarily replaced with more seasonal weather. A few bright skies and actually being able to view sunrise at around 8:15ish this week, has done me and the garden a world of good.  Having had a bad dose of some virus, being able to view the garden from the conservatory has been a boost as I recovered.  I also enjoyed reading everyone else's posts on SOS, and it was lovely to receive a nice card from my SOS sister on a plant based theme of course!

The ground is still not suitable to work with, but a few leaves have been picked off the gravel area.

Jim with his large garden compared to mine is our 'anchor man', and it is there that I am linking this post, if you go there, there will be others linking in, and you may well be entertained by reading some of the posts.

1. I've looked around my small back garden and found a few things which caught my eye this week, and willing to share.  Since before Christmas with the mild weather some of the earlier snowdrops have been tempted out, sadly a few clumps have been nibbled 'petal-less' by itinerant marauders.  These two seem to have escaped so far, and now the cold weather has arrived, hopefully they will stand for longer.  

Galanthus Fieldgate Prelude: An early flowering snowdrop with inner markings that fade up towards the long bottle green ovary.

2. This group of Galanthus Godfrey Owen here opening up in the sun, is thriving. The clump was divided, the second half placed in a more shaded part is a poor sight.  Since this is one of the first varieties  up early in the year, the second clump will be repositioned not far away, in a better spot.  Even Mr S noticed the difference in this snowdrop. The inner three perianth segments have similar sizing and length to the three outer perianths and are pure white, giving the blooms a more fulsome look of six perianths or as I explained to Mr S 'petals'. 

What I am finding with the early snowdrops, is that the clumps on 'higher ground' and those that the catch the sun are less prone to being nibbled,  which is an excuse to do some moving, and also not getting too excited about adding different varieties to the garden. 

3. The low sun has also been catching the Cornus, making it live up to its name 'Mid Winter Fire'. Yes there are two Cornus here, one bought at the gardening club under a different name, and the other one bought from a nursery.

4. In the winter there is nothing quite like fresh herbs to pep up dishes, and several parsley plants  grown from seed have done well. Having sown the seed and succeeded I shall be doing this again in a couple of months time, as these plants will probably go to seed at the start of summer.

5.  I noticed last week that Pseudowinteras were having their turn, not to be outdone, here is a lovely 'Red Leopard', which I moved from its shady summer position to one which gets better light.  I shall continue to grow it in a large pot so that it can be moved as the seasons change.  One year the leaves got scorched badly by the strong sun. In the summer its red spots are more prominent, a little like my own freckles I would suppose. This plant was first bought in 2016, and am only now starting to use it in cooking and am enjoying its spicy peppery influence in winter casseroles and soups.

6. Now it is obvious that the slightly etiolated growth first appearing towards the end of November is a flower spike.  This is the first time I have had Aeonium Velour come into flower.  To be fair, I had always broken up the plant before it had reached this size, but had not got round to it in the autumn.  

The lack of sun over the last few months has caused the usual lovely maroon colouring to replaced with green,.  Once it has flowered, I'll be breaking off a couple of the rosettes to start new plants, and if there is room in the front garden, the rest of the plant will spend its last season planted straight into the garden.

There always comes a time when, as plants mature or grow too large for its space, there is the wrench of having to 'despatch' them, and for favoured plants there is the process of 'regeneration' by this I mean taking cuttings or stolons and planting back up in new soil, ready to go for another few years of enjoyment and then process starts all over again.