Winters And The Garden - 12 Ansell Road

It’s with some trepidation that I start to look outside to see what is left now the snow and ice are finally disappearing. It would be the winter before my first ever NGS open day that we have the coldest, longest and snowiest spell for at least three decades.

As you can see if you look at the entry for my garden, the design has remained largely unchanged in the last 80 years and some of the plants have survived the infamous winter of 1947, the gales of 1962 and the more recent winters of 1979 and 1986, not to mention the Sheffield Floods of 2007.

I hope that this winter hasn’t killed too many of these surviving originals, including a number of rose varieties which are now difficult or impossible to purchase, such as Mrs. G. A. Van Rossem, which amazingly had a flower just opening as the snow fell on November 29th.  Thankfully most of the roses here were planted in either 1929-32 or in 1953, and only three or four have died since, none in previous winters, so the hardiness of the rose family will hopefully keep mine alive to see another year. I’m less confident about the Rhubarb, which suffered with Honey Fungus two years ago and was just starting to look vigorous again.

I know, however, that I have certainly lost a great many of the more recent and tender additions to the planting, such as the Echium, many sedums (of the houseleek variety), at least one miniature Hebe and the Brugmansia. Fortunately these can be easily replaced, though it will take several years (without repeated icy spells) to get the houseleeks back to the mass that they were and to grow a Brugmansia to the size of the one that has succumbed. Fingers crossed, though, for the Abultilon Magapotamicum, which amazingly still has flowers clinging to dear life now that the snow has melted away from the frozen branches.

There’s been a little damage to non-plant items too: the pipes in the greenhouse have all burst,  despite the heaters working hard to keep the temperature above zero, and my water harvesting tank appears to have a leak or perhaps have split as it is almost empty. Certainly the pump connected to it has been destroyed by freezing.

It’s not all bad news though: the harsh weather has undoubtedly killed off a great many of the local slug population and will have reduced the numbers of other pests and diseases, and the snow and ice have both made the garden look quite spectacular.

Astoundingly the Bird Bath fountain has continued to run throughout the whole of December, despite the continually sub-zero temperatures,  as have the fountains in the ponds. Both the bird bath and one pond fountain  formed the most spectacular ice domes which covered over the whole of the water jets, leaving the water playing eerily on the underside of the ice.

The hoar frosts also provided outstanding beauty on leaves and garden furniture.

As well as the pictures shown here you can see a great many more photographs of the snow and ice in the garden on my web site at http://web.me.com/poptasticdave/Site/Horticulture.html - click the “winter” season link to go directly to the latest pictures.

As things start to thaw out it’s already amazing to see how many crocus bulbs are showing fresh green shoots and how fresh and crisp the Primula Denticulata leaves are, with some new growth on them. The birds are back in force too, feeding in great numbers and enjoying the bird bath once again now that they can actually get at the water.