Compare with last years round up.

Weather

Last year there was several snow falls before the end of January, but this year there has been none. There were some very severe frosts where all the leaves were covered in ice crystals.

There were 11 days when the temperature dropped below zero and the coldest recorded temperature in the garden was -7C on the last day of the month. Average 4.3C max 11C

Flowering

Not much flowering at the moment

• Cyclamen coum. One of these has spread to quite a large area compared to last year. It is almost as if there are two.
• Primroses
• Snowdrops starting to flower
• Winter jasmine, just about

Bought

Last year I bought some Winter aconites and a Hellebore; neither of them have re-appeared again this year. I am giving them another chance so I got two pots of Aconites and a largish Hellebore.

• …

My HPS seed order arrived this week. I have just compared them to the ones ordered and I received 7 out of the 11 ordered. The ones I didn't get were:

• Veronicastrum virginicum ex 'Lavendelturm'
• Veronica spicata
• Verbena rigida
• Semiaquilegia ecalcarata

So that is four less problems I shall have in trying to find some space somewhere.

The packets all have a fair number of seeds in them, far more than I will need, so I can try sowing under different conditions and times. I'm aiming for getting more than one to germinate this year.

Here is the updated list.

A few leaves of the original patch of Anemone blanda are starting to show. I was surprised to see them this early, so I looked back at previous years photos. Last year the first picture I have is on Feb 4th, whereas in 2017 I don't seem to have any pictures of the first leaves in spite of me having taken pictures of just about every other shoot that appeared.

So they may be a couple of weeks earlier than last year, which is not too strange given that last year was so much colder. I can't say for the year before that, but I guess it is normal for a normal winter.

Overview

The end of my second year in the garden.

Last year was quite unusual in that there was snow and frozen ground, enough to kill off the tender plants. This year there has been barely a frost, and all the tender plant are still alive - past their best of course but still hanging on.

New plants

I bought a few plants that were on sale and planted them in the new section reclaimed from the lawn.

• Astrantia major 'April love'
• Leucanthemum × superbum 'Real neat'
• Stokesia laevis 'Blue star'

New shoots

There are a few daffodils showing, for some reason one of the group always appears much earlier than the rest. Also signs of snowdrops. There is also one or two crocuses and a few of the Ipheion.

What's flowering during the month?

I'm going to stop giving lists of what is flowering during the month, but …

Its nearly the end of the year, and with it the end of my second gardening year.

Last year, there was some very cold weather in December, which finished off the tender plants, but it has been much milder this year and I still have several flowers. More than six in fact, so leaving out the Geum, Helenium, Lavender, Penstemon, Sidalcea and Winter Jasmine.

1 Pelargonium

I planted these all around the garden and they didn't do much, although it has been interesting seeing where they grew well and where not. I suspect that there may still be some interest in seeing which ones are overcome by the cold first.

Anyway, I don't believe that they have managed to get into any of my Sixes, so while there is still time, here is one of them.

2 Coreopsis grandiflora 'Sunray'

This has been flowering non-stop for ages, …

The Hardy plant society do a seed distribution of seeds sent in by members. I just joined at the beginning of this year and I received a random selection of seeds. I only managed to grow three plants from them, all Potentillas.

This year, I wasn't going to order many but I ended up with 11, which may be more than I can easily manage. There is no guarantee that I will get these, and I didn't set up any replacements, so I may have fewer after all.

Here is the order:

There is surprisingly little going on in the garden at the moment. At this time last year there were daffodils appearing and some crocus too.

This Ipheion uniflorum 'Charlotte Bishop' is shooting up leaves just like they did last year in December.

I've planted 50 more of these, along with some I. 'Jesse'. It turned out that the later were very much smaller bulbs than the 'Charlotte Bishop' so we will have to see if they grow and flower as well this year.

Overview

A lot of rain especially towards the end and the ground is very wet. Very little sun gets to the garden at this time of the year.

There is not much to report this month, as things are slowing down and there is there is little new showing.

I started to plant the new bulbs.

What's flowering during the month?

The following were flowering at some point during the month.

• Anemone × hybrida 'Honorine Jobert'
• Antirrhinum majus 'Night and Day'
• Coreopsis grandiflora 'Sunray'
• Cyclamen
• Geranium Rozanne
• Geum 'Mrs J Bradshaw'
• Gladioli
• Helenium 'El Dorado'
• Helenium 'Mardi gras'
• Jasminum nudiflorum
• Lavender
• Pelargoniums
• Penstemon
• Salvia 'Hot lips'
• Salvia 'Radio red'
• Salvia 'Wendy's wish'
• Sidalcea
• Verbena bonariensis

Some pictures

This is Helenium 'Siesta' and the original stems were dying back, while new growth was appearing at the bottom. There are now a couple of fresh flowers.

The snapdragons that were planted …