Happy New Year

Eranthis hyemalis - a double seedling from 'Lightning'

The mild weather has continued and plants are continuining to develop apace. Several more snowdrops can be added to the Christmas list and both Crocus atticus (sieberi) 'Firefly' and 'Bowles' White' are spangling the lawn. The earliest winter aconites are also out, the reliably early 'Zitronenfalter' and 'Lightning', plus some double-flowered seedlings from the latter, while many hellebores are also opening early flowers.

As well as being mild, December was by far the wettest month of a generally dry year, with 124 mm of rainfall recorded here. It brought the rainfall total for 2011 to 674.4 mm, surprisingly higher than in 2010, but still very low.

2006 (Jul-Dec) 547.2 mm

2007 1024.7 mm

2008 1079.0 mm

2009 774.7 mm

2010 630.0 mm

2011 674.4 mm

Mean rainfall for the past five full years is 836.6 mm (32.9 inches).