Gifts of Nature

[igenlode]

I found a four-inch piece of baguette buried in a flower-pot this morning -- presumably a gift from the squirrels (whom I had almost forgotten about). Fortunately it was a pot which I had already removed the plants from; I have been trying to clear them gradually, since most things have now died back and I need the space. Probably the squirrels actively went for the bare earth...

Sadly this particular gift is not edible even by my standards, and will have to take up space in my rather small food recycling caddy :-(

I still have one calendula and a pot of corn-marigolds (probably self-sown late plants) in flower from the autumn, and was astonished to discover that my sole surviving pansy had put out a new flower on December 31st -- presumably having been tricked into thinking that spring was come by the rise in temperatures!

(click to see all three images)

Comments

[betweensunandmoon]

Pretty!

[igenlode]

The dark red pansies are very attractive, but they shouldn't be blooming in midwinter!

[sallymn]

They may be out of season, but they are pretty!

[watervole]

I've got a rock rose, a geum and some corydalis all flowering at present.

That's global heating for you. I've been in this house over 40 years, and I'm seeing quite a change in what will grow where in the last ten years.


The hot dry summers are creating real problems for some old favourites - I've been able to transplant some elsewhere, but I can't do that for everything.

[igenlode]

Trying to keep stuff alive in pots with hot roots over the last summer was a nightmare -- but I'm surprised the flowers survived the long freezing period before Christmas this year. All my herbs died down, but it seems to have fooled things into thinking that we'd had an early winter and must now be starting on springtime...