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LONG Winter's Garden

Dear fellow gardeners,
The winter is still fairly mild here, certainly no excuse to curl up in
front of the open fire and dream the time away with dozens of catalogues
sitting on your lap.
Things have been pretty busy family wise but Kees and I did manage to have
our usual three days down at the country property.   Weeds are still growing
nicely, thank you, so this year instead of mulching after the beds have been
tidied, we decided to thick mulch over the weeds.  I have read that many
good gardeners do this but have avoided this action in the past as I do like
the wildlings to come up everywhere - the granny-night-caps [aquilegia], the
forget-me-nots, the specie geraniums etc -this year they have decided to
greet the wintery world early.   I am hoping the whole excercise will save
us work as it would be impossible for more weeds to appear in Spring than in
the past and also, I always have to pull many of the seedlings out as they
fight with the weeds in trying to outdo them number wise.
I have written of our winter gardens before so forgive me repeating myself.
I will still rhapsodise over the Luculia gratissima and the chimonanthus
praecox growing near the side door, their blooms are bigger and/or more
numerous than any year I can remember.  Perhaps it was our wet summer as
both are growing in a pretty dry spot.   Their combined perfume is enough to
send you dizzy!
Still blooming are the late David Austin heritage Roses and Sea Foam is
bravely still covering its climbing shoots.   Also ubiquitous Icebergs have
a few roses with cheeks slightly blushing with the cold weather.  The
hydrangeas which should be pruned now, I keep the old blooms on till late
Winter in case of severe frost, are producing new flowers scantily and the
Eucryphias are amazingly producing flowers after beginning to show the white
butterflies in March.  Even more astonishing, the red alstroemeria flowers
for its third year of continual bloom.
The Autumn cherry tree is just emerging, the Camellia sasanqua fimishes as
the Camelia japonica starts.   The magnolias are heavy with their lovely
furry buds and the michelia doltsopa is really beautiful with its fat, fuzzy
brown buds. Magnolia stellata already shows her raggedy skirts.
A new excitement is one of the new hamamelis mollis ["Jelena"] that has come
of age and the apricot-brown spiders are delightful, maybe the position is
good with the background light shining through.  I don't know if this is an
early blooming type as the others are still only teasing me that they will
come out next day but I know they will still wait awhile.   
So, with the violents and a few narcissus in flower, one may think that
spring is nearly here but the wise know better.   We will probably have
awful weather early spring, in time to spoil the larger Magnolia flowers and
the Rhododendrons, whose flowering is all too fleeting anyway.
I am very pleased with the Kibbenjelok winter garden. After ten years of
growth, it begins to look very pleasing in the winter months.   The trees
have grown and those planted for the delight of their special bark, are now
showing the stuff they are made of!   Being able to see the bare bones,
broken by the evergreens, is a special winter's delight.   In past years, I
was displeased with the look of the garden and so I realise that this year
the garden is growing up.   All so quickly,or is just that I am growing
maturer and thus able to see the subtle beauty of a still Winters day in the
garden I created.
Regards,
Gay Klok, 2 Red Chapel Ave, Hobart, Tasmania - "Kibbenjelok", Middleton,
Tasmania
http://members.tripod.com/~klok/WRINKLY_.HTM 
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