Posted Tue 28 February 2017 in garden
This is a roundup of what happened in the garden during February.
Don't forget I have just moved in and am seeing the plants grow for the
first time, having to guess at what plants are from last years dead
foliage and the new shoots.
Weather
There was about two whole weeks of dry weather during the month.
The lawn almost dried out! Well not really - the center and right part
was still quite soggy.
Then it rained for a whole day and everything was saturated again.
Bulbs
Daffodils have flower buds but they have not opened yet.
![[4365] Photo 4365](https://www.parabola.me.uk/blog/2017/Feb/february-roundup/img_4365.jpg)
There are montbretia sprouting everywhere, with leaves up to a couple
of inches.
Of the bulbs that I planted, several tulips are coming up, and there
are a couple of either bluebells or muscari. The photo shows one and
a tulip.
![[4386] Photo 4386](https://www.parabola.me.uk/blog/2017/Feb/february-roundup/img_4386.jpg)
The crocuses were not out, one is about to flower and …
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Posted Thu 23 February 2017 in garden
Well this is surprising, I'd never even heard of the Periwinkle (as a
plant, rather than a sea snail) and now I have a flower that looks very much like a
periwinkle flower.
But it is not on the plant in the recent article Maybe Periwinkle? .
Anyway first here is the flower. It is quite small no more than a
centimeter across. It is the only one on the plant and there are no
obvious other buds either.

So this is another spreading plant with much smaller leaves that are
variegated light green and white. It is by the side of the house at the
bottom of the picture below.
It is also spreading by rooting wherever it touches the soil.
This one looks easier to keep under control, but only because it is
more accessible and not mixed up in any other plants.
Since the photo was taken I've …
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Posted Mon 20 February 2017 in garden
I bought some bags of bulbs cheap at the beginning of January and
planted them. I've been waiting for some to show. As it turns out
there were many bulbs already planted in places where I planted my
own, which makes it difficult to tell what is what.
The ones I planted are English Bluebells, Muscari and Tulips.
I also planted a single Allium.
There are now a few shoots that I am reasonable certain are from the
batches I planted.
The first look like it might be a tulip, although it may be a bit
early to tell.

This also looks like it could be one.

This is the Allium. Not a very good picture of it. I partially
excavated it to check up on it as I had forgotten exactly where I
planted it.

Both Muscari and Bluebells look a bit like this, I am going to guess …
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Posted Sun 19 February 2017 in garden
Some new activity to report.
Shoots of what I am thinking is a catmint. Certainly looks like a
mint.

Probably aquilegia


This is growing from the plant that I believe is the Lady's Mantel.

Shoots growing on a climbing vine. Don't know what this is yet.

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Posted Sat 18 February 2017 in garden
I've been trying to find out what the evergreen creeping plant
was. This one here:

It looks like it is going to be a lot of trouble and so I've already
removed a lot of it. I am sure it will grow back again though.
After doing a lot of searches an looking at a lot of pictures I've
finally hit upon something that I think it might be.
So it seems to fit the description of
Vinca Minor
or the lesser periwinkle.
From that article its features are:
- Trailing - yes
- Rooting along the stems - yes, as I was pulling it up it was
clearly rooting where a stem hit the ground.
- Not climbing or twining - yes its not attached to the fence or
wrapped around the branches of the nearby tree.
- Leaves evergreen - yes
- Leaves opposite - yes
- Leaves 2 to 4.5 cm - yes at the larger end of …
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Posted Mon 06 February 2017 in garden
Here is the corkscrew hazel again. Unfortunately the picture doesn't
do it justice, but this is followed by two close up pictures of
the catkins and a bud.

It has catkins that don't always hang downwards.
In pictures of this tree on the web, the catikins seem to be
different. I am therefore a little doubtful on the identification.
Will compare leaves and flowers when they appear.

Here is a new bud with an interesting red part emerging right at the end. It
is fair to say that this is not typical and only a few have this red
end. Perhaps more will later.
Update: as I discovered later this is a hazel flower.

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Posted Mon 06 February 2017 in garden
There are some daffodils now appearing beneath the Choysia bush.
Well probably daffodils, they are much smaller than the main daffodil
patch.



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Posted Fri 03 February 2017 in garden
There is now much more sunlight getting to the garden.
Early in the day it shines between a gap in the surrounding
buildings onto the back fence and border, moving around to the right
side fence. At midday, there is sun on a portion of half the lawn.
By 2 o'clock the sun drops and only the right hand fence get the
light.
There are a few things starting to grow.
Montbretias
Shoots starting to show.

Here is their bulbs or rather corms.
There are a number growing on top of each other, so if you pull the
top one out there are others beneath it waiting to take its place.
They are therefore very difficult to get rid of, they pack the soil
and prevent anything else growing. As I have quite a lot of patches
of this I am going to start removing several patches.

Crocus
So I …
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