It’s been a pretty interesting 2013 so far; starting way back in December! Rain, grey, cold, snow, ice. All the sorts of things you’d kind of expect during December and January in greater London, but not this contantly. But even with reasonable expectations, the weather has been a lot worse than any of us needed for the past 5 weeks.
But suddenly, today, we seem to have had a reprieve! The temperature was up to 5C. The sun was out. And amazingly the first signs of spring were showing!
I have new red shoots on my roses, colour on my Spirea, and plump buds on my Camellia ready for spring.So that meant it was time to get outside, see how plants have fared, and start the cleaning, preparing, and trimming for the new year.
Overall, in spite of the recent cold, things seem to have fared pretty well. Most of the plants look in reasonable condition and I’ve only lost one pot to the recent freezing weather.
I started with my rose which I’ve been slowly training into a fan over the last couple of years. Today it’s had a pretty good trim, removing some large, but inconveniently growing stems and trimming smaller ones from the fan. I’ve found that with this particular rose the act of lying the main branches horizontal has a dramatic effect on its growth and flowering, like most climbing roses.
This poor thing was first installed in a location that was far too shady then forcefully moved to a new location where it struggled for a while. It’s a Dublin Bay rose and, with good training, can produce a huge number of impressive red flowers throughout the summer. The blooms have a really classic rose shape but no scent at all.
Here’s one of the better flower pictures from last year.
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