Garden Report 2007 - 20

I interrupt coverage of India for a garden report.

I admit the garden is not ablaze with colour, but when I wandered around with my camera it was surprising how many plants still had the odd flower.

As expected at this time of year:

Both of my mahonias are in their full glory at the moment


as is my inherited hellebore (Helleborus niger/Christmas Rose).

Only one of the hellebores (Helleborus foetidus) I brought up with me was large enough to flower last year. However, they all appear to have matured well over the year and are now in bud.

We were told we had some very heavy frosts while we were away, and again this morning. This does not seem to have deterred many of the plants from continuing to flower unseasonably.

The lupins are still going strong, and yet another of my new ones has thrown up a flower spike since we got home.

Both my clumps of osteospermums still have a few flowers and buds. The frost does not seem to have initiated any die-back of the foliage as yet.



A few of the roses are also holding out, even if they look a bit scabby...

The autumn heathers which are dotted around the high bank and the long bank are still looking very good.

In the trellis bed one of the chrysanthemums still has a couple of flowers and the achillea is still doing well.

In the pots by the house there is a particularly good show being put on by some self-seeded pansies.

The felicia in another pot, that had been bought as a 'hanging basket annual', but survived last winter still has a few flowers on it now.

Other than these there are still a few flowers on a lot of my aubrietas, and the viburnums are looking strange now that most of the leaves have dropped leaving bare stems with the odd small cluster of flowers.

I can already see signs of the snowdrops and the early crocuses coming through.

The garden really needs a tidy up of all the autumn debris. Ho hum...