2003 Diary

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2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2003 summed up - hot and dry. Odd to think we started the year on a very wet note and most entries mention rain because it was such a rare occurrence.

Apart from the weather another moan would be the variability of some seed which I suppose is inevitable sometimes but still annoying. The gaillardia 'Burgundy' plants I grew from seed last year flowered and of the 3 none were completely 'burgundy' one wasn't even approximately. Amaranthus 'Fat Spike' certainly wasn't. Antirrhinum 'Apple Blossom' threw more washy pinks than the catalogue description [should have checked the Rix & Phillips 'Annuals' book before purchase!]. Nasturtium 'Empress of India' also had some disappointing offspring with normal orange flowers although good forms had a lovely deep red flower and slightly purple flushed leaves. For a longer account of the the year in flower, this is an article I wrote for the London group Plant Heritage newsletter. 2003 - How was it for you?

For a more general account of the gardening year then please read on.

Late Spring - Early Summer : Summer - Autumn : Autumn - Winter

Late Winter - Early Spring
Two months ago I was wishing very hard for rain - but enough already! In the last few weeks we have only had a couple of crisp frosty days. Today it has rained nearly all day with localised flooding and great sprays of water being sent up by the cars out on the roads.

The Prunus subhirtella autumnalis are bravely flowering amidst all this gloom, their little frilled downturned petalled cups dancing along bare twiggy branches.
[02/01/03]

Some crisp frosty days have temporarily seen-off some of the plants that have been flowering all winter including Coronilla glauca 'Citrina' and Correa 'Marian's Marvel'. The arching shoots on Fuschia 'Hawkshead' have shrivelled and Convulvulus cneorum and Pittosporum tobira are looking scorched.

The 'Christmas Rose' [not!] Helleborus niger is just lifting it's buds up from the ground and the pale apple green flower heads of Helleborus foetidus are gradually unbending their necks. Helleborus purpurascens' slatey plump buds are still pushing their way up from the matching earth, and the buds and leaves of the deep purple Helleborus orientalis 'Harvington Shades of the Night' are starting to expand. The deep plum and black colours seem more reasonably priced now as their rarity value has decreased and the 'must have's' have moved on through yellows and doubles to the newest 'star' group I suppose.

At Abbotsbury in Dorset last week it was almost warm, some camellias were already in bloom and a huge Acacia melanoxylon will be marvellous in a few weeks time when it's many buds open.
[03/02/03]

Visited the February RHS show in London for the first time in years. The first morning scrummage was great [as usual], some stands were 5 people deep. There is a technique of edging and insinuating yourself into any little gap and then working your way along the plants for sale. I had forgotten the accuracy required to effect a successful sortie on a stand. The more confident matrons use guerilla tactics, a loud 'Excuse Me' in a county accent and an elbow often gets them to the front of the queue pronto.

Came away with some snowdrops from Foxgrove Plants - 'Magnet', 'Sam Arnott' [strongly scented] and 'Pusey Green Tips' a double with green smudges on the outer petals I also bought a scented Camellia, 'Quintessence' from Coghurst Nursery. Lots of willows and cornus on show and a fantastic hamamelis, 'Aurora', the largest spidery flower I have ever seen on a Witch Hazel in a dusty apricot colour [Bluebell Nursery].
[21/02/03]

We have been spoilt, relatively warmer weather, a drying breeze and some rain. Good growing weather! This year Narcissus 'February Gold' did not make it out in February, this morning the most forward bud was still not quite open. Every day something new is pushing up through the leafmould in the woodbed, the Wild Moschatel is spreading alarmingly, the eranthis are coming up fast and the 'Christmas Rose' is finally out.

My seeds have been whizzing up indoors but perhaps a bit too fast, I am having trouble keeping up with them. I think the record holder so far has been Amaranthus caudatus ['Love Lies Bleeding'] which were up in 3 days in the unheated propagator, the seedlings a rather fetching light pink.

On the allotment I have spent many happy? hours trying to tease out couch grass and bindweed from between the roots of the currant bushes. Autumn fruiting raspberry canes have been cut down and the 'Crimson Flowered' broad beans are starting to emerge from the soil.
[02/03/03]

Late Spring - Early Summer
Well it's raining! We have apparently had one of the sunniest, warmest March's on record - very lamb like! I can't help thinking May won't be quite as dramatic as it normally is as many flowers will already be well advanced. Some blossom has already been beguiled such as the fat chestnut buds already bearing nascent candles. Others however are remaining firmly 'schtum' including acers in the Bath Botanic Garden and the 'wise' mulberry.

I am pleased to see that a banana [Musa hookeri] is sprouting. I have had the seed for a couple of years and the first batch did not germinate even after soaking. I just plunked these last one's in compost in the heated propagator [no soaking] on 6 March and hey presto!
[01/04/03]

May Day dawns cool and sunny, more heavy downpours are expected. Easter and the weeks running up to it were generally very dry, warm and sunny. The first few days of recent rain refreshed many plants which put on a spurt of new growth. But with the welcome rain come the creeping, slimy molluscs, wreaking havoc on hostas, dahlias and assorted seedlings.

I am waiting for the first roses to come out, Souvenir de Madame Léonie Viennot [vigorous pink/apricot climber] is neck and neck with Louis XIV [small deepest black-red rose] to be the first out in my garden. One of the tree paeonies has 8 buds this year which are just on the cusp of breaking out, the white slips showing and the scent already present.

The swifts are back, screeling across the sky - Happy May Day!
[01/05/03]

At 10:00am on the Dorset coast it pelted with rain for 15 minutes, here in Somerset not a drop just more of the muggy sultry stuff we have had for a few days now. Campion in shades of vibrant pink through pastel to white are studding the hedgrows.

A frost 2 weeks ago wiped out my first planted out sweetcorn and all but one pole bean. Today the newly sown sweetcorn are already pushing through in their pots.

Visited Pan Global Plants in the new location, just wish I had space for some of the trees and shrubs that Nick Macer sells. Bought an Epimedium wushanense 'Caramel', spiky beige stars on long spindly hard stems held well above the foliage, this joins E. omeiense 'Akame' which I bought from him last year. It was a picture through May with red and gold starry flowers. I have so far found these harder leaved evergreen epimediums slightly better able to stand up to slugs and snails [E. grandiflorum 'White Queen' and 'Lilafee' were both wiped out].

My Rhododendron fortunei which is in a pot, flowered for the first time this May, palest pink [nearly white] loose flowerheads and scented - lovely.

Onwards and upwards, plants to water and other people's gardens to enjoy, overflowing at the moment with oriental poppies, iris, roses and honeysuckle.
[01/05/03]

Summer - Early Autumn
We have had some lovely sunny, warm weather interspersed with showers [which helps]. The once flowering old roses are in their final throes,' Ispahan' was first to start and looks to be last to finish this year. The annuals in the red bed and the allotment are beginning to kick-in, Eschscholzia 'Inferno' and Nasturtium 'Empress of India' in the lowering light really do make my eyes ache with the intensity of the colour!

In the hedgerows there has been an explosion of Bath Asparagus [Ornithogalum pyrenaicum], wands of pale green starry flowers. Spotted orchids are dotting the roadbanks.

I picked blackcurrants and redcurrants on the allotment which have been jammed and jellied. I have had potatoes and the first broad beans and peas ['Crimson Flowered', 'Purple Podded' and 'Telephone', all from the HDRA]. The squash planted a few weeks ago is putting on about 6 ins of growth a day ['Chioggia'] and I hope to have my first courgettes ['Bolognese', from Seeds of Italy] this week. On the down side the asparagus beetles are massing and the broad beans are lousy with blackfly despite the busy ladybirds.
[01/07/03]

It was lovely weather for the Carymoor Environmental Centre open day. The sensory garden was looking very abundant. The most popular plants on my plant stand were Lychnis arkwrightii 'Vesuvius' which has large single orange 'campion' flowers over bristly green and maroon foliage, and an annual [which put some people off] Zinnia 'Red Spider' which is fun. The Achilleas also caused interest in shades of russet, tangy yellow and deep red. It was good to meet and chat with people with widely different plant interests.

One fascinating occurrence was a dust devil that whipped itself out of a gust of wind into a tiny mini tornado which lasted no more than a minute, quite amazing.
[13/7/03]

It is raining - the blistering weather we were having has retreated, plants are perking up somewhat as a result.

Visited Knightshayes an NT property yesterday, wowed by two Rhododendrons in flower, both had a sweet slightly medicinal scent which wafted around the gardens. One was R auriculata the other 'Polar Bear'. It may seem odd to have rhodo's now rather than in spring but they were gorgeous!

The late borders are starting to kick-in, heleniums, asters, zauschneria, zinnias and dahlias; shrubs such as lespedeza, hoheria, eucryphia and indigofera are also in flower or just about to.

On the allotment the squash has gone crazy, the first sweetcorn is flowering and the beans are flowering [approx a month later than last year because of the late frost we had - actually not true having checked the 2002 diary it is about the same time!]. Self sown sunflowers are nodding in random places and I have cut some of the gladioli for the house, nothing like a bit of exuberance and abundance!

Ate my first fig from 'Brunswick' , altogether a different size and shape to 'Brown Turkey'.
[1/08/03]

August was dry here apart from one downpour in the last week. Trees and plants look exhausted and there is a crackle of desiccated leaves underfoot. Shadows are lengthening; the dews are heavier; Cyclamen hederifolium are out in the botanic garden and in mine also.

The Hedychiums [H.spicatum and 'Assam Orange'] are in flower adding an exotic splash to the more tired offerings in pots. The Rudbeckia 'Chim Chiminee' are starting to kick-in and lift the flower power in the red bed. The only Dahlia to have survived the ravages of the slugs in the village garden, is the deep red cactus, 'Summer Night' which seems pretty robust growing from last year's tubers which were left in the ground over winter.

On the allotment the first sweetcorn were delicious eaten entirely on their own, just steamed - nothing more. Fig 'Brown Turkey' continues to ripen and produce sweet, fleshy brown figs from the first figs that emerged this spring, I don't think the second flush will ripen in time [they didn't]. [01/09/03]

Autumn - Winter
I seem always to be complaining about the weather - how very British!

On September 24, snip, snap the first frost of the year harried some of the poor tender things into submission, glancing along the squash leaves but not enough to flay the nasturtiums and dahlias yet. It helped to speed the leaf colour, suddenly there are deep red guelder leaves and golds and coppers on beech and horse chestnut. The sloes have an intense bloom this year which catches the eye in the hedgerows.

In the village garden some of the asters are hanging on for rain, very reluctant to open, impressed this year by 'Andenken an Alma Pötschke' and 'September Ruby', nice clear rich colours, both of the novae-angliae tribe.

I have also been admiring Fuschia 'Hawkshead', delicate green tipped white flowers with skirts of the palest, palest pink, which goes on willingly until the first heavy frosts and then sprouts again in spring if knocked hard back - gorgeous.

Autumn must be 'icumen in' - I am listening to Miles Davis a wintery activity!
[1/10/03]

Rain, what a sweet relief! Last weekend the chalk hills above Westbury were dry hard bitten pastures, the winter corn dormant, fields powder white. The Speckled Wood butterflies flickered down from shedding trees to lie in patches of sun on a rutted farm track.

This weekend we have had buckets of rain and strong winds, and are battening down the hatches for gales! The rooks have been hurtling past all day playing with the gusts of wind and I have been watching the outrider clouds for the next weather front sail in from the Atlantic across the Mendips.

Despite more nipping frosts some leaves are only just turning, perhaps they have been hanging on for the moisture, roses, apple trees, willows and Toona sinensis included. Sturdily flowering still are some of the asters, Verbena bonariensis, Penstemon 'Garnet' and the gaillardias which have stoutly flowered all the way through the hot dry weather. The eschscholzias have also re-grouped and refreshed since some late summer down- time, leaves are perky and they are flowering again.
[2/11/03]

We have had quite a bucketful of rain since the long dry period, but are apparently still under threat of water shortages next year!

Visited Tate Modern to see 'The Weather Project' by Olafur Eliasson. I have to say I found it disturbing and not at all meditative, 'Comet in Moominland' came to mind, but plenty of other people obviously found the huge turbine hall filled with mist and a looming 'sun' more calming.

As plants really begin their sink into winter decay there are already signs of the new year. Arum 'Chameleon' is up, and the leaves of Pulmonaria angustifolia subsp. azurea are starting to poke through. In the bulb pots a frenzy of rooting has been taking place.

In the cold frame I am getting some sporadic germination. I sowed Barnhaven auriculas and primulas as instructed, watering the seeds into the gravel spread over the seed compost.

On the allotment garlic and red onion sets have gone in and leafmould has been put on some of the beds as a mulch.
[1/12/2003]

We are soon upon the shortest day, the sun is now very low in the sky barely touching most of my garden and leaving streets and pavements in shade all day. Though I know the worst of winter weather is yet to come in January and February with the really swingeing cold and frost, at least day by day it will be getting lighter.

We have had a few frosts and clear sparkling days to give us that 'crisp' and wintery lift. I have tucked up even more of my 'tenders' as they were beginning to look very unhappy in the damp conditions.

Whilst many plants are now dormant some seedlings are attempting to germinate in my cold frame. Helleborus odorus sown this spring and H. orientalis sown in autumn have started, and the Barnhaven primroses and auriculas sown a few weeks ago are showing in amongst the gravel.
[19/12/03]

@Kari's garden 2003 - 2009