On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 16:00:52 -0000, "Miss Perspicacia Tick"
wrote:

~jane wrote:
~ I've just been doing a cross reference with last year, and I think the
~ majority of the daffs in my garden are later this year.
~
~ From last year's photos, the jetfire narcissi were out on the 13th Feb
~ whilst this year the buds aren't even bent over yet. (Though they
~ ought to be in this wind!) And the Tête-à-têtes aren't out either
~ (except in one hanging basket, which is always early). Last year they
~ were out on the 5th.
~
~ I feel pleased/relieved when they are later, these days.
~ Snowdrops are well and truly out at the moment and all the clumps I
~ put in last year look fantastic.
~
~ And I've got my first seeds sown! Hurrah!
~
~
~Where are you? South Bucks here and we've had daffs out since the middle of
~Jan (my grandfather - Essex - claims to have had some budding before
~Christmas). The snowdrops have been out for weeks and we have a trough by
~the french doors with a crocus mix in which has just begun to explode. The
~blue flag is also out (though you can hardly see it as it's swamped by an
~enormous fatsia).The cyclamen are in full force - and looking spectacular
~down by the pond.

I am in the Chilterns, so not too far from you I think. But you know
what microclimates are like in hills... hence I compare with my own
records of the same flowers opening last year.
~
~We have both Jetfires and Tête-à-têtes in pots by the back door and they're
~out, as are the Peeping Toms planted on our first cat's grave (Mum's idea -
~our second cat was called Poppy - so no prizes for guessing what she has on
~hers!)
Good idea.

~There's a pink camellia by the patio doors with a few blooms on, though I'm
~not sure it's that hardy so it could be damaged if there's a frost (and it's
~freezing here, so there most likely will be).
My poor camellia got neglected last year - it's potted because of the
chalk - so I didn't water it enough in the crucial July period and so
it's got no flowers this year. I really did badly with the house
garden last year what with my distraction (wedding), it was all I
could do to keep up the lottie.
~
~Granny's just a blooming nuisance - never stops (for their Golden Wedding in
~'93 my grandfather, a past president of the RNRS, had a rose named for my
~late grandmother, it's a prolific climber with peach petals with pink tips
~and green and copper foliage. Blatant plug alert!!
~http://www.roses.co.uk/acatalog/dellabalfour.html)
Wish I could do that for my mum - it's their GW in September. She'll
have to put up with gold roses all over a cake instead.

~Today is bitterly cold (wind chill factor lowering the temperature from the
~advertised 6°C (42°F)) and it will freeze tomorrow night.

This morning was one of those where everyone was playing scrape the
windscreen.
~
~Whoops! Sorry, I've strayed OT, I do apologise! I'll shut up now! ;o)
well not really - I'd have thought frosts are on topic for gardeners!
~
~Belated Imbolc blessings,
yer wot?


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

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