Re: Winter Survivors' (?) Report

Reading Tim's lament (and I do sympathise Tim) I'm prompted to put in
my own report from about 300 or so miles south of where Tim lives.
You'll see just how different a comparatively short distance can make.

As far as temperatures go, winter here has been unexceptional, with
only 3 air frosts - 2 at minus 1C and one at minus 3C.  All of these
occurred between Christmas and Dec 30 with nothing since.  Late autumn
gave us twice the normal rainfall in October and November and December
confounded us by missing out on the normal week of bitter north
easterlies at the start of the month.  It further went on to give us 5
days above the magic 15.5C (60F) and before Christmas Eve, the lowest
night temperature was 8C.  Most of my Cannas were flowering almost as
well in December as they were in September!  3 frosts put paid to the
flowers, but were not enough to cause them to die back.  

January arrived mercifully mild with 5 - 7C nights and 10C days for
the first few days, then an icy wind came in from the north east and
stayed for 13 days.  Temperatures fell to 3C at night, barely rising
above 6 or 7C by day, but it felt much colder than that.  Thankfully
rain held off so the wet soil from the previous 3 months had a chance
to dry out.  By the third week of January, temperatures took a
noticeable jump and the wind subsided.  In no time, large Acacias
burst into bloom and by the first week in February, these were joined
by purple leaved plums (Prunus cerasifera 'Purpurea').  

Since then it has continued to be mild and in the past week, we've
seen some pleasantly warm days with several hitting 16C.  Spring
flowers are out in abundance - Daffodils, Crocus, Hyacinths, Primroses
and Polyanthus.  Acacias dealbata and baileyana are massed with bloom,
a few Kowhais (Sophora microphylla) are out as are ornamental peaches.
Daisy bushes - Euryops sp. are all clothed in bloom and the first
white spears of Zantedeschia aethiopica are just pushing through the
leaves.  All in all it is pretty colourful here at the moment.
Currently nights are falling to between 4 or 5C although last night it
went down to 3C causing a bit of frost rime on the car.  

Losses have been very few and utterly non-sensical.  Brugmansias have
hardly been touched - even those fully exposed in pots, but a
previously happy Eriostemon buxifolius has turned its toes and gone to
the great compost heap in the sky.  Predictably I've lost a couple of
young 'Triangle Palms' - Dypsis decaryi.  These hated the wet and were
on the way to rotting well before any cold weather arrived.  However,
the equally tender 'Butterfly' or 'Areca' Palm - Dypsis
(Chrysalidocarpus) lutescens has already sprouted back into growth
despite a severe toasting.  Oh, Washingtonia filifera and Brahea
armata are showing rain damage to the leaves, but are otherwise firm
and healthy.  The rest of the palms - Phoenix, Butia, Sabal,
Chamaedorea, Chamaerops, Trachycarpus etc are in rude health - many of
them haven't stopped growing.

Aloe arborescens has been reduced to stumps, but looks as though it
might recover.  The wet was responsible for this as it was for seeing
off Aloe ferox, even though the latter was looking fine, firm and
healthy until about 2 weeks ago.  It may recover from the roots, time
will tell.   Some of the Lampranthus and Delospermas took a bit of a
hit, but only those which were not trimmed back in late summer. Those
which were sheared and therefore nice and bushy, are fine with a mass
of flower buds showing. That's about it really.

On the plus side, despite harsher winds than the previous winter, Musa
basjoo retained its leaves.  I only cut them away the other week
because they were badly shredded and looking like tattered flags.
Normally the first hint of frost blackens them.  Musa sikkimensis  -
(hookeri) this one a 'seedling' some 8 feet high, has held it leaves
well and their more leathery constitution has equipped them well
against the wind.  In the past week, basjoo has grown it first leaf
for the year, making about 15" of growth in this past week. Tiny,
seedling Nikau palms only 6 or 7" high with the first few leaves were
forgotten and left outside.  That minus 3 frost should have seen them
off, but have grown new leaves instead.  

A Valencia orange ripened its fruits by early winter, though I hasten
to add, they were not the big, juicy monster one normally expects from
that variety.  A cool summer ensured they just about got to tennis
ball size and with no sweet inner pulp.  Nevertheless, they have been
highly ornamental all through winter and had enough oils in their rind
to make a very fine orange sauce to go with the Christmas duck.

Hedychiums and Cannas are shooting strongly now they have been cut
back, with several producing 12" high sprouts.  C. 'Orange Durban'
(mis-named as 'Tropicanna') has even opened its first leaf.  Solanum
laciniatum never really stopped flowering and is now carrying about a
dozen panicles of flower, despite having had about 8 feet of growth
cut away a few weeks ago.  In one corner, a clump of 'crab cactus' (we
call them Christmas cacti here) - Schlumbergera truncatus, is carrying
a mass of buds and Callistemon citrinus 'Splendens' is swelling
noticeably.  

Bilbergias  - nutans and x Windii have buds in their funnels while
Tillandsia juncea continues to put out the occasional royal purple
flower from last summer's flower spikes.  To cap it all, at the base
of a sheltered wall, several large Clivias have not only thrived, but
have produced flower spikes - this is virtually unheard of in the UK
and came as an almighty shock to me.    

Being near to the sea, sea temperatures have a definite effect here
and they are slowly rising, indicating that warmer times are
definitely on the way.  With a potentially early start to the growing
season, I'm full of optimism, fingers crossed.  So there we are, two
totally different tales from either end of our land, but compared to
the US, the distance is barely a hop.  

Dave Poole

Torquay  UK
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index