For a number of reasons that I will not bore you with we have lost our telephone landline and with it our broadband connection. What was meant to be a delay of a few days before service is restored has now turned into 2-3 weeks.

The whole thing has been so aggravating that we have changed our suppliers and restarted the process from scratch. Hopefully we will have everything back to normal on 7th February but I am not holding my breath.

Computer offline

Here is a pretty flower to lighten the mood!

Snowdrop 'Sam Arnott'

It was called “Fantastic Thailand” and was designed  by Thailand’s Nong Nooch Tropical Botanic Garden. Each sculpture is covered with flowers individually hand-crafted from petals and leaves. They must have used thousands of them over the whole display. It was awarded a Gold Medal and certainly deserved it.

Fantastic Thailand

Fantastic Thailand

Fantastic Thailand

Dragons

Elephants

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Catmint and cat

First crocus of the year opens to the sun

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Cyclamen coum

Primula

Erysimum

Mystery flower

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Frosted Dahlia

Though the foliage may be dead the tubers which lie under the soil are perfectly fine. I cut back the foliage leaving a short length of stem and remove as much soil from around the tubers as I can.

Dahlia tubers

I then place the plant in a pot and cover the tubers with dry compost leaving the stems uncovered. This worked for me last year so I am happy to repeat the procedure.

Tucked into bed for the winter

Each pot is placed in my greenhouse alongside the other tender plants I overwinter there. An electric fan heater keeps the temperature just above freezing and I will not water the Dahlia pots until next year. If the compost gets wet the tubers will rot so no watering until the first green shoots appear in Spring.

The greenhouse

If the tubers survive I will plant them out in the garden once there is no chance of frost and there will be colour once more. Something to look forward to during the dark days of winter!

Dahlia 'Smarty'

Hellebores

Here a piece of old junk….

Old tin bath

….becomes a garden feature.

Full of flowers

(I had better make clear the Hellebore picture was taken in 2009 – some of you thought they were flowering this November. Unfortunately not!)

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Salvia elegans in the fading light

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Nasturtium with orange flowers

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Top of the garden

But further down there are still Dahlias, Rudbekia, Nasturtiums and Salvias giving their all. Look at the ridiculous red Salvia elegans against the greenhouse on the left, over five feet tall. It was planted in my small herb border and has flattened every herb within reach.

Middle of garden

Middle of garden from another angle

Even a late  Centaureaflower  has appeared, despite the fact that it is surrounded by six seed heads from its companions who finished flowering over a month ago.

Centaurea macrocephala

Slightly to the right in the picture below you can see the foliage of my new Witch Hazel, planted earlier this year. I am looking forward to seeing the flowers appear next Spring but in the meanwhile I make do with the colourful autumn foliage.

Bottom of the garden

Hamamelis 'Vesna'

On a sunny October day if I want to imagine it is still Summer I look at this Rose. She is a beauty and she will continue to produce a late flush of flowers until the first heavy frosts send her into hibernation.

Rosa 'Ghislaine de Feligonde'

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