Severe winter

So are we in for another severe winter? It`s September the first and this Clematis Armandii is already in full flower. 4 months early.



Lots of berries on the Mountain Ashes too. Get your woolies ready people.:rotfl::rotfl::gnthb:

 

It was 7C here as I was going to work this morning.

And its only 1st Sept, I hope its not a sign of things to come.

 

Exeter airport was 4c last night! and it is still summer.
I hope we don't have another winter like the last but anything is possible.

 

I think this came up last year.

I and several others reported noticing the profusion of berries and that it was considered as an indication of an expected hard winter.
Old folkelaw is often right.

 

I don`t remember an Armandii flowering this early. I am expecting a harder winter than the last.:gnthb:

 

Cringe ,shiver,shiver at the thought of a repetition of last winter

 

Gogs, up there you had better hone your igloo building skills.:halp:

 

I still need convincing that plants can see into the future.

They can only respond to past weather conditions.

 

Ha ha Dai :lollol::lollol:

 

Pete is right.
The profusion of berries is nothing to do with the winter to come - it's an indication of a good spring past.
Yes, last winter was cruel for all of us - quite unprecedented in recent years, but we have had a glorious summer.
I gather it has been dire over parts of England - but not so here.

 

The mountain ash are in fully 'berry' here too. But my Asters are still to flower, although the Asters in the public planting displays in town are in full bloom and have been for a couple of weeks.

I don't mind a cold winter, providing it's not a heavy snow winter. But having lost several half hardy plants in the last couple of winters I have learnt lesson and am sticking to fully hardy perennials. Apart from my lovely Lemon Verbena of course!

 

It was a glorious summer here too Alice - less than perfect weather really only occured in August, and that was only compared to the hot sun and balmy days of May, June and July. In August it rained a bit, wasn't too windy and there were a few sunny days. Now that the kids are due back at school the sun and blue skies have appeared

 

We will know if the plants are right or wrong in 6 months.:wink::gnthb:

 

Hi Sussexgardener. It wasn't just half hardy plants I lost last winter. Some "fully hardy "plants just succumbed :(
Glad you had a good summer. It's been just lovely here.

 

I've already decided to re-organise the rabbit shed* and will be adding an extra shelf. My wife has accumulated fourteen medium to large patio pots to house various plants and the less hardy ones will be going in there, the small trees, orange, lemon, olive will get their "tree cosies" on again and be placed up against the house wall sheltered by the side fence.

*Rabbit shed.

In 1975 when our daughter was seven, as she'd cared for her one rabbit in its ouside hutch for a year, cleaning it out and feeding it religiously every morning for the best part of a year in all weathers, I rewarded her with a shed which I built myself. I made six hutches which were lined in banks of three each side. Over the next few years (well months actually) she acquired several rabbits and guinea pigs. She religiously cared for them all. She bought her last one when she was fourteen, as most of the others were getting on or had died through natural causes.
She left home at eighteen for Great Ormond Street and after qualification got her own place and didn't return home to live.

"We" had that rabbit for a further eight years!

Although it's been a bit of a work room and garden tool store for over twenty years, we still call it "the rabbit shed."