Friday Fabulous Flower - Royal Hort Society photographic competition 2013

TPP is surprised people have not been dunning him for the lack of FFF blogs even though it is the off season for flowers.  Really, you people are just too polite, too quiet for your own good.  Well, here's a nice link to images from the UK Royal Horticulture Society's 2013 photographic competition, and yes, it has more than one FFF!  Gardens are so marvelously cheering to see during the winter. TPP's favorite of the images shown here is the view of the Kentwall Hall moat, sans moat monsters.  Last summer the Phactors added a photograph to their art collection that had that same quality to it, almost a still life painting what with the way the light and colors seem.  So enjoy, and don't look at the weather system strung out to the west that is to bring more ice and snow for the whole weekend polished off by more sub-zero weather!  

Spring flowering - 2012 & 2013

Spring 2012 was quite bizarre, and while spring 2013 is decidedly late, it's closer to the norm than was 2012.  Yesterday's post snow storm warming resulted in late crocus, aconite, and Iris reticulata popping into bloom as well as the culmination of a very long prelude of hybrid hellebores. This brings the total number of flowering events for our estate to 8 as of March 28th.  Last year the unseasonably warm weather pushed spring flowering along so fast that 92 flowering events had taken place by the same date!  That like 1/3 of everything in our gardens, before April 1st!  2012 was totally out of whack.  In 2010 and 2011 the number of flowering events by 3/28 was 10 and 11 (aconite was new in 2011 accounting for the difference).  Lots of plants are just waiting for a bit of real spring weather: American filbert, numerous bulbs, Abeliophyllum, Cornus mas, Forsythia, Helleborus niger.  And of course the early spring garden work is behind schedule too, but the cold frame crops will be planted this weekend, which is just about normal (~April 1th) for around here.  This also means that the beginning of field season is just around the corner too.  Hope someone burns TPP's prairie! 

Late Spring 2013

Data is the stuff that keeps you from disremembering things wrongly.  This morning Mrs. Phactor says, "It seems like a late spring."  Actually, it's not so late except in comparison to the truly unusually early spring of 2012.  So what does the data actually say.  As of March 17th, only 3 things have flowered, and two of them just barely: witchhazel, snowdrops, and early crocus.  Hellebores are showing colored buds, and a warmish day would have them open, but none are in the immediate offing.  Here's the list from 2012 as of March 17th (in order): witchhazel, snowdrops, early crocus, late crocus, aconite, hellebores (hybrids), scilla, tiny crocus, American filbert, Iris reticulata, dwarf daffodils, lungwort cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), early standard daffodils, Helleborus niger, European filbert, Abeliophyllum (dwarf forsythia), creeping charlie, periwinkle, spice bush, bloodroot, forsythia, Japanese pachysandra, Korean azalea, Nanking cherry, Kaufmanii tulips, Pieris, winter hazel, spring beauty, star magnolia, rue anemone.  Up to now in 2013 - 3 flowering events; last year at the same time 31 flowering events. So yes, 2013 seems pretty late, but if you go back to 2011 and 2010, then 2013 doesn't seem quite so late.  As of now 6 things had started flowering in 2010 (one was a variety of witchhazel that has not flowered since having been severely pruned by bunnies).  In 2011 there were also 6 plants in flower by the 17th of March (a new aconite).  So in this TPP totally agrees with his esteemed associate to the north at the Plant Postings blog.  Since at least another week of rather cold weather is still forecast, 2013 flowering schedule will probably fall further behind that of 2010-11.  This is the vagaries of weather, not climate.  One the whole it was a mild winter.  A couple of nighttime lows flirted with 0 F. There appears to be more plant damage because of the lack of snow cover so that growing tips of shoots and leaves have been damaged.  My helianthemum looks rather shabby, but should recover, and a newly planted Leptodermis may be toast. Every thing else looks fine.  Last spring, the unseasonable early warm weather resulted in no apples and no pears because they then got frosted.  Late springs are a bummer because of cabin fever, but it's safer for gardening with less chance of frosty surprises.