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GBBD February 2011

Five years ago Carol at May Dreams Gardens invited Garden Bloggers to join her in posting the blooms in our gardens on the 15th of the month. Today she is still hosting this very popular Meme which has brought so many like-minded people together. Carol, our thanks go to you for another successful year 🙂

Gardeners of all kinds and from many countries have since met, shared plants, seeds, tips and garden visits. Many friendships have been struck and many more meetings will take place in the future, of that I am certain.

Although, in the main, I am seen as a bird and wildlife blogger I do feel very much part of the garden blogging world too and have enjoyed many exchanges and chat with my fellow garden bloggers. I’d like to take this opportunity to say thanks to you all for your continued friendship 🙂

February 2011 is much like February 2010 in my Scottish Garden. After another very cold and prolonged snow spell (from Novemeber to January) it is behind in blooms from 2009.

In 2009, the Crocus was fully out as were snowdrops. You’ll see their slower growth for 2011 in the second montage below. No Crocus colour yet and only one Snowdrop bell which hasn’t opened yet.

Clicking on images will enlarge them

Wisteria flowers suffered last year too. We had noticeably fewer. Perhaps it was the cold that hit them too. I can’t be certain of that. However, the montage above shows (pic on right) that frost/cold has hit the stems and you can see that the flower buds there are less plump and look weaker.

A second pruning is due on my Wisteria which will take the stems back to two sets of buds (always a shame to cut away healthy looking ones) so at this stage the weaker ones will go. Although, I only had a quick look around with my camera today and maybe other stems will need to be cut away completely if there is too much die back.

This morning saw a frosty start and by the time I went out with my camera many leaves (like the Hellebore above) were looking like it had been raining. I was delighted to see flower buds with them today.

However, on the main, my Perthshire Garden is still in a relatively sleepy state. Many plants looked like they were beginning their Spring growth after the snow finally cleared only to be teasing us and showing no hurry now.

In the absence of colourful blooms, the montage below shows the many textures of the garden at the moment. It also shows an oily surface on my small rock pool pond telling me there are leaves decomposing at the bottom. I need to get my net out there and do some fishing 🙂

The final image from my garden today is probably one that is common in many gardens throughout the world at this time of year. The corner collection of mixed plants, potted up waiting to be tipped out and planted in the garden. Ah… I’m getting itchy feet looking at them tonight 🙂

In celebration of five years of Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day I felt some colour was in order. Purple Iris with yellow Roses caught my eye in the supermarket yesterday and here we have (very quickly thrown together tonight) an arrangement at my front door that we can enjoy for the moment.

Now… this arrangement then got me remembering some yellow summer colour blooms, bees and butterflies on a garden visit last July. I wonder if anyone recognises where this was. I’ve been selecting and cropping many more images from this visit which will be coming soon.

Being absolutely honest, I’m never in a hurry for summer when we are in February. There is a part of me that is quite happy with the slower pace of the garden just now. It won’t last much longer I know, but it is a great time to start planning in ernest for the garden year ahead.

Wishing everyone (especially those taking part in GBBD) a great gardening year ahead! I’m off visiting now to see what’s going on in your gardens in February 2011. I’m heading over to Carol’s post where you can see them all there too 🙂

13 thoughts on “GBBD February 2011

  1. aloha shirl,

    i love your mosaics and yes even the foliage/texture ones. i'm amazed by the huge stand of yellow ganazias? you have in the summer by your pond – gorgeous…

  2. Thanks for catching us up, Shirl! Do you think that 2010 and 2011 were really late… or that 2009 was a little ahead of schedule? Just curious, because here 2009 was an early spring for us–but not until late March, really.

    By the way, lovely job with that arrangement! 🙂

  3. Beautiful textures, and you are so right not to be in a rush for the seasons to pass, all too soon we will all be feeling overwhelemed by the Spring rush to sow and plant and prune, so enjoying the relative quiet while we can just makes sense!

  4. Oooh that arrangement of Iris and Roses is just delicious Shirl!

    There is so much in your garden just waiting for milder days, I'm sure it will be a picture once again this year.

    I love all that beautiful, golden colour from your garden visit in July, so cheerful to see on a rather cold February day!

    Good luck with the fishing 🙂

  5. Your garden appears to be full of promise Shirl. Those yellow roses are my favorite and the iris really does show them best. Wow.

  6. Things are behind here too Shirl but it is still encouraging to see signs of new growth. I have a similar collection of plants looking for homes and am musing where they will go but all in good time 🙂

  7. Hello everyone, hope you all had a good week 🙂

    Our temps dropped on Friday night, curtains opened to a snow covered garden on Saturday morning. Delighted to see this morning we are back to a green garden again 😀

    noel, thanks I enjoy both making the montages in photos and in the garden too. Ah… that yellow planting was at the Botanical garden in Wales… it was quite a sight to walk by. Oh… I wish…. I had space enough for a pond like that 😀

    Kim, it was nice, I enjoyed the catch up too! Looking back to my GBBD post for 2008, crocus were in full bloom then. I didn’t post for 2009 but had a crocus in flower on the 9th so I’m guessing if the rest weren’t in flower they were at the very least fully in leaf. Little growth at all has been seen this time. Scotland has always had to deal with snow but even for us winter this year and last have been harder and England have had their share now too. Thanks, I litterly threw that together for my photo and noticed a number of the iris flower petals were bent back… oops 🙂

    Rosie, thanks, I enjoyed my browse around yours. I am a photo montage fan too 🙂

    Janet, thanks. I couldn’t agree more. Enjoy all your seed sowing, planting and pruning in 2011 🙂

    Jan, thanks! I’m not a full fan of either but this really caught my eye in the shop. Lol… waiting for milder days indeed… on Friday afternoon we were cutting felt to recover our shed roof and on Saturday morning we had snow covering it. Phew… it’s gone again! Oh… I’ve lots more colour from that garden visit sitting in wait 🙂 Fishing still needs done… oops 🙂

    Lisa, I like promise for the garden, don’t you? Yes, I really was taken with that flower combination when I saw it in the shop. Neither flowers would I buy usually. It is still looking good at my front door – that reminds me I really should add more water to the foam 🙂

    Cher, thanks… for visiting too 🙂

    Anna, I was expecting that you might be behind as you’ve had a colder time of it too. Ah yes… that musing is the fun part of having a garden don’t you think. We are luck we have enough space to muse 🙂

    Andrew, thank-you! Interesting timing for your comment. I get phases of wondering does anyone really want to read my ramblings that I spend a tad too long doing. I try to mix up my postings to keep things fresh (ish) but they seem to miss the mark with readers 🙂

    fer, thank-you! Yes, 5 years indeed. I didn’t post in the very beginning but do remember the times when Carol had the time to visit us all and tried to leave her a surprise for her visit 😀

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