A Quick Look Around

General Interest

It has not been a week for gardening. Bad weather put it out of the question early in the week and and all things Christmassy occupied the latter half. Christmas Eve was a bright, if cold, day and rather than let the week pass without any sort of report on how things were in the garden, I took a quick walk around with the camera, snapping as I went. It was a walk without plan or purpose so the photographs are random shots of the garden on Thursday last.

The ground is still saturated which makes any work in the garden out of the question. We have had some night-time frosts though noting particularly serious yet enough to warrant covering the tender plants in the glasshouse. In the garden, there are a number of snowdrops in flower and a great number with snouts above the ground. There is a kniphofia in full flower, one with an unusual acid-green colour which flowers for Christmas each year and produces an extraordinary number of flower spikes. It has the same name as the rhododendron which is also beginning to flower at this moment – ‘Christmas Cheer’. Only one witch-hazel is in flower to date and it is always the earliest here – Hamamelis x intermedia, with bright yellow flowers. Others will follow in the next few weeks.

It hasn’t been the greatest year but one where we appreciated our gardens all the more as they gave us a great place to pass our time during the various restrictions on our movements and socialisation. Many gardens have improved during this past year and many gardeners are all the better for their gardens. Let’s hope the coming year will be a better one, one when we need worry less for our health and where we will be free to meet and enjoy our family and friends.

Christmas is passing and the New Year will be with us shortly. Best wishes to all who drop in here to keep an eye to what I write. I hope you enjoy this slideshow of images from my walk around the garden.

I’m sharing this blog with a group of fellow bloggers who contribute to a “Six on Saturday” theme which is hosted by “The Propagator” on his blog site. To read more contributions to the Six on Saturday theme go to The Propagator’s entry for today, scroll down to the comments and you will find other bloggers have posted links to their Saturday entries there. Lots to read!

Published by Paddy Tobin

A keen amateur gardener. Interested in wildflowers with a particular interest in native Irish orchids.

Published

18 thoughts on “A Quick Look Around”

    1. Sometimes it’s the little things which bring the greatest happiness. I “chipped” a few particularly precious snowdrops in 2019 and am delighted to see them coming into growth at the moment. They won’t flower for another two years but where there’s growth, there’s hope.

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    1. That kniphofia is really extraordinary – from Mary O’Connell a few years ago. It is unusual that it flowers at Christmas but also for the huge number of flowers it produces. A great plant.

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  3. Wonderful slide show Paddy, I have enjoyed your blog this year and in particular your inspirational photos, which have a wonderful delicacy about them. Your are right that for us gardeners, hardship is always made more endurable by the pleasure that our gardens bring us. All the best for 2021!

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  7. Another admirer of that kniphofia here. It looks magnificent. I was also very taken by the display of pots with the grasses and the Christmas Rose, which looked delightful. It shows off the shorter flowers much better than having them at ground level.

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  8. Amazing what a little sunshine can do for the view, I far prefer this to the drizzle and gloom of rain. Of course it helps that I don’t have to slog alongside. I notice there are no photos of soggy soil and mud-caked boots, and and I appreciate that.
    Thanks for the photos and Happy Holidays!

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