At last March is here and the garden is a complete mess. It has either been too snowy, too wet or too cold to get out there and do things. We have had snow at some point in every month this winter and it is time to inspect the damage.
I loved watching the way different plants reacted to the snow especially as it melted and the weight was taken from their shoulders. Some pinged back with alacrity, shrugging it off. Others languidly lifted. The Miscanthus particularly impressed me in this respect - rolling up gradually and finally standing tall - like a Pilates move. Others sulked for a while before regaining their original shape slowly like rising dough. The laurel and rhododendrons behaved like this. And some remain subdued and battered, their stems weakened or even broken by the mass that lay on them for so long. This group includes my Clematis montana which has slipped off its supporting tree in an ungainly dollop. My fruit cage has suffered a similar fate - very lop sided with one broken leg.
Things are coming along now, but it all seems a bit late - especially the hellebores that seem to have been in suspended bud for weeks. They are opening at last, heads down as if wary of further wintry weather. They are reliably good here (see picture) and neither the slugs nor the deer eat them - a major plus in my book.
I went to the RHS London show the other week. This early event features spring bulbs from the specialist growers. The displays of snowdrops were stunning and it was almost surreal to step from a bleak London pavement straight into a room crowded with plants (and their loyal suporters) smelling of fresh spring and warm earth. You do not get this juxtaposition with any other flower show. I haven't been to this one before, but I will definitely go again.