Today, it is a pleasant, almost balmy 14C, with a milky late winter sun. What a pleasure it is to work in the garden after such a desperately long and dreary winter. Many of the more tender perennials are covered with the leaves and old stems from the plants themselves, left, in not so attractive piles over the crowns, which, have hopefully been protecting the roots and young shoots from the dreaded permafrost that set in a few weeks ago. I have not dared to look underneath to see if they are still alive. The urge to remove all the garden detritus is overpowering - I must resist this for a few more weeks yet. I have to repeat to myself, ‘it is still only February', though in my mind I am at least a month ahead of this.

When the weather has been freezing, I have spent many a pleasurable day in one of my poly tunnels; at least it feels like spring in there! The seed pods on one of my favourite gingers Hedychium wardii (pictured above) have been a joy to behold through the dark days of winter as the seed pods have slowly split open to reveal such lusciously beautiful fruits. These, have now been removed and the soft red flesh washed off to reveal the plump, glossy seeds within. Some fifty or so have now been planted in a half pan tray and are nestling inside a warm propagator, alongside countless Coleus and Tradesacantia cuttings. Having never grown fresh ginger seeds before, I have no idea how long they will take to germinate, so I am full of anticipation for the first green shoot to appear.

The Musa basjoo clumps are looking rather forlorn with their shroud of dead leaves which I must also resist the urge to remove for at least another month. Although the power of the sun is getting stronger by the day, March can be very cold as winter clings tenaciously to the garden.

As for the cats – despite the higher temperatures, they still prefer to prop themselves up against the radiators in the house, or curl up in piles in my airing cupboard.

This reminds me - I must put some wire mesh over the front of my poly tunnel door as the cats love to curl up on the seed trays in the propagator – they have no interest in plants, just heat!

Will's Exotic Garden

www.exoticgarden.com

I have dragged myself into the blogosphere, screaming and shouting. Do I really want to write a blog - will anyone read it? I hope at least one or two avid gardeners will pass a glance at my ranting and ravings. Seeing that I seem to spend so much time at my computer, rather than in the garden (especially this winter) I may as well write a little more! For those who have never heard of me, or my garden, it is approximately one acre in size, on a south facing slope in Norwich, Norfolk, in East Anglia – that is the bit that sticks out on the east coast of England. My speciality is growing exotic plants in supposedly chilly Norfolk.

The garden definitely has its own micro-climate as it is surrounded by tall trees and shrubs on the North, East and West sides, thus protecting the garden from most of the prevailing westerly’s and frigid easterly’s when they appear. When the weather is cold, I like to sit in my rather large tree house, way up in an old Oak tree which overlooks the garden and across the valley to the south.

I have been growing the root hardy banana Musa basjoo for twenty two years without a loss, and the clumps are now rather big, with ten or more beefy trunks in each group. Four years ago, I decided to throw caution to the wind and stopped wrapping them - a huge task involving wooden builder’s pallets and dozens of straw bales. Then what happens? We have a really cold winter. I cut through one of the smaller stems that had rotted down a couple of feet to find a green centre, so, theoretically, the large trunks should be fine, though I will not find out until April, when hopefully they should start to come back to life as the weather gets warmer. Late winteMy beautiful gingers on the other hand – I’m not so sure about. I cautiously stuck a finger into some Hedychium gardnerianum tubers up to the first knuckle – hmmm...

I also have a xerophytic garden (plants that dislike water) where unfortunately several succulents and some Agaves have turned to pulp, though many of the larger ones seem to be fine, again time will tell which have really survived such a long, damp, winter. I was really disappointed that unlike the rest of the British Isles, we had at the most one centimetre of snow for half a day.Hopefully in the next few days I will be able to get back out into the garden, when it is not quite so soggy – I will know it is time when my six cats decide to un-glue themselves from the radiators in my house!