January! There is a breath of spring blowing through our garden now at Ednovean, bringing a tide of promising fresh green shoots from the earth and setting the early daffodils dancing on the breeze.
Spring comes early to Cornwall and the daffodil fields are starting to bloom around the country lanes just as winter reaches it zenith and the garden has brought its own relentless energy to renewing itself for the seasons to come.
This January in Cornwall
Clouds have cocooned Cornwall in a somnolent light this winter wrapping us in a warm blanket of air yet clearing occasionally in the late afternoon to give us a triumphant golden hour to crown the day.
It is often in that last stolen hour that I set of through the garden with the camera, accompanied by a delighted Spud-cat galloping ahead and sprinting up the palm trunks to show off.
Weird and wonderful early spring
This weird and wonderful Cornish spring has brought French lavender into flower beside tiny Daffodils on a sheltered banks and Geraniums into early flower in terrace pots. Maybe I should have thought more about the likely combination as I brightened up the view from a bathroom window but really I wasn’t expecting them to flower at the same time!
Daffodils for Christmas
I found the first blooms of the sweetly scented Soleil d’Or opened properly on Christmas morning and over the last month arising tide of yellow has caught my imagination. I’ve planted most of the large swaggering blooms away from the main garden in a sheltered more naturalised area with a successive drift leading back towards the palm avenue, so that when the time comes for the leaves to settle back to the earth they are out of sight of the house but with the prospect of a delightful pilgrimage to “See how the Daffodils are doing!” every few days.
There is a spring welcome at our entrance though, as the tiny miniature blooms give dashes of yellow amongst the box balls and retire at the end of their season so much more tidily than their large relatives!
In case of frost
We do have the occasional rare frost one so far this year but at the moment with an eye to the weather patterns developing in America I have draped old nets over the most tender succulents and we ferried a couple of pots into the Garden room just to be on the safe side as we head towards February with the end of winter in sight with start of the Meteorological Spring on the 1st of March. Looking back over last Januaries Diary of a Reluctant gardener though i do believe spring was further ahead last year
Did it snow yesterday in West Cornwall?
Last night’s the snow flurry missed us – we miraculously inhabited the ten square miles of Cornwall that had rain instead – I’m not sure if I’m pleased or disappointed!
