Too early to draw any conclusions, but I'm getting a distinct
impression here ...

It seems that the 'down south' gardens are doing really quite badly.
Mine's bad, but in terms of numbers of species in flower, I think have
more than anyone except Sacha (and that's a large 'plantsman's' garden).
So, instead of what I was expecting - producing a pathetic list to put
alongside everyone else's long list of exotics - my garden is in fact
holding its own ;-)

... so - is it that this winter is a good deal colder than normal down
south, and therefore things have been hit quite badly? Whereas up here,
it's only marginally colder than normal, and we already plant for this
sort of weather, so we haven't been hit quite so badly?
--
Kay