A frozen winter wonderland…
Posted on | January 9, 2010 | 5 Comments
Our frozen Isles thanks to the Met office Satellite
It’s amazing how much can happen in life let alone the garden when you don’t blog for a few weeks! It was rather a quiet Christmas for me as my father of 96 passed away on Dec 23rd and there has been a lot to sort out which has been rather frustrating to say the least, as everything shuts down over the holiday period. His funeral has been put off until Mon 25th Jan, when the ground will hopeful have thawed out a bit by then – or will it! At least the days are getting longer now by around one minute a day, which always makes me feel hopeful.
What happened to the mild winter? So we are now having the coldest winter for 30 years! This is not only going to be a test for my garden, but everybody else who has dabbled with borderline hardy plants in recent decades. For many years now I have boasted that the garden never gets much below -3C and now the garden has experienced at least double this with added wind chill.
My oldest clump of Musa basjoo is around 25 years old and has never lost a stem throughout this period. Up until five years ago I built wooden towers out of old builders pallets filled with straw then covered over with roofing felt to keep out the rain. Needless to say I have wrapped nothing since then. I’m guessing that though the trunks are pretty substantial, they must be frozen solid by now. At least I will find out if they live up to their name of the root hardy banana! Last years cold weather did cut my Musa sikkimensis down to the ground after about eight years growth. Luckily the clump came back with a vengeance in the spring growing back up to about twelve feet tall by the autumn.
I wonder how my Tetrapanax papifera has fared – though it should shoot from the ground again if the top growth is frozen (I hope). It will also be a good test for the many gingers that normally come through the winter un-protected let alone many of the other borderline plants lurking in the garden. I wouldn’t be surprised if all my Cordyline australis get cut to the ground as they did in the 80s. Luckily all the really tender perennials were brought under cover before the cold weather hit – in fact all the cannas were dug up the day before the cold weather set in. These are all snug under the bench in one of my 20×10ft Polly tunnels. The warmest tunnel (lined with bubble insulation) has been down to a chilly 4C over the last two nights as the two kilowatt heater struggles to keep everything cosy.
The main bed in the desert garden was covered with polythene in November, so hopefully all the cacti and succulent lurking underneath should be OK – I hope!
Xerophytic plants lurk below a thin shroud of polythene...
I spent a few hours in the garden today taking photographs, but had to stop when I couldn’t work the buttons on my camera as all my fingers had turned to sausages’! My cats were running around as usual, totally oblivious to the cold, especially Dweezal, Tink and Dog (dog is a cat). I also took a few photographs inside my tree house which is kept at around a toasty 6C as it is full of plants as well. I also have another Polly tunnel that is kept a few degrees above freezing which is also crammed full of plants. On the side of my house is an old conservatory filled with Brugmansias and other tender things at around 5C. I shudder to think how much my electricity bill will be this winter…
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5 Responses to “A frozen winter wonderland…”
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January 9th, 2010 @ 11:38 pm
So sorry to hear about your father. It’s always such a shock to lose people, no matter how long they have been with us.
Love the pictures – don’t those bamboo stems look fabulous in the winter sun?
January 10th, 2010 @ 12:04 pm
Sincere condolances on the death of your father, he lived to a good age.
The snow is a test to all of us, but it is pretty spectacular!
January 11th, 2010 @ 9:37 pm
This is certainly a testing time for exotic gardeners -look forward to hearing which outdoor plants has survived the big freeze this winter.
Will think of you on 25th Jan – praying for sunshine and warmer weather for your difficult day.
January 12th, 2010 @ 11:26 am
I’m so sorry to hear about your father, 96 is a fantastic age.
Lovely photos as always, especially of the cats.
Best wishes
James
January 13th, 2010 @ 5:39 pm
Thank you all for your comments about my father – yes, 96 is an excellent age and he had a good life, so no regrets there.
I also can’t wait for good weather to return, I don’t really do winter very well especially when it is so dull and overcast like today.
Victoria – The yellow bamboo is Phyllostachys aureosulcata Aureocaulis and is one of my favourites as it looks so good in the winter. While I have your ear – I keep forgetting to ask you if you could update the link to my blog on you site, as it says I haven’t posted for six months! Could you please change the link to http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog with a WordPress logo rather than blogger? Thanks in advance – Will