FAREWELL TO FEBRUARY - BRING ON MARCH MADNESS!!

Hello - a changeable week on the old weather front - but one thing does stand out - it is much milder!! We actually reached the dizzy height of 10 degrees yesterday - and the plants are already starting to respond!

The buds on many of the Prunus are starting to swell - and also the Quinces are showing signs of life again. The Hawthorn hedging is beginning to think about coming into leaf - so they do soon change once the temperature goes up.It has however been a very,very wet week - almost 2 inches of rain has fallen here over the last four days.

THE PHOTO ABOVE IS OF VIBURNUM BODNANTENSE 'DAWN' ENJOYING A RARE MOMENT OF SUN!

But we push on regardless - and Liz has almost completed grafting the ornamentals - and has just about wrapped up the apples too - so we are ahead on that one. Hedging orders are flying out - and we are really starting to run low on stock.

With the warmer temperatures - and longer days - we are getting a lot of visitors to the nursery, and they all remark on how cheerful and positive I am - and wonder why!! - well it is very simple - either you are going to get depressed by all this weather and take a bleak outlook on life - or you take my side - and be cheerful and positive- and look forward to all the lovely things that will happen in the next few weeks in the garden!!!

A BRILLIANT SPLASH OF COLOUR FROM MAHONIA JAPONICA - ENJOYING A SECOND SET OF FLOWERS AFTER THE COLD WINTER.

Life is far too short to be miserable -because you are a long time dead!!

So, we say farewell to February - and hello to March madness.

Why is March so mad?? On the nursery front, it is the great rush to get all those plants in the ground that you had not been able to plant over the winter - and it is also the time when nature really starts to wake up - and make up for lost time.

Make sure you don't get swept away in the rush!! Get ahead as much as you can!

UNTIL THE NEXT TIME -

RICHARD