This pot has been going strong since 2019. It’s brilliant for a couple of weeks at this sort of time and then dies down completely for the rest of the year. Well worth keeping while I’ve got space in the service area.

These have been in their pots since Autumn 2018 and Autumn 2021. They’ve had rather dull leaves for several months. They’re said to flower in late spring to early summer, but I’m not sure thay ever have. Probably not worth keeping in their pots. Plant them out somewhere.

This is (or was) the biggest of my phormiums in B1. I reduced it quite a lot by cutting all round the base. Unfortunately the inner leaves have responded by flopping as badly as before. Perhaps I’ll get some new growth.

Nice to have something in flower at this time of year. The sarcococca is said to be scented, but I don’t get it. I’ve now got some nice clumps of snow drops front and back.

I got my  plant in August 2019 and put it in a terracotta pot. The plant label said hardy to -5° C, and I’ve kept it outside ever since, but it hasn’t looked entirely happy.

The RHS says it can be kept outside in the summer, but not below +5°C, so I’ve brought it inside for the winter.

Last year I had so much water soldier I was giving it away and putting armfuls on the compost heap. This year it had all disappeared. I saw a few remains covered in great pond snails, and again suspected their delinquent behaviour. See here and here.

I put a plant kindly donated (returned) by Annie in the pond yesterday, and today shook these snails off it. There were no snails on the plant when I put it in the pond. I’m afraid they went on the compost heap.

Next day

Not as many as yesterday, but still a substantial number. And at least ⅓ of the plant has been eaten.

The hypericum ‘Hidcote’ in F2 put on a terrific display, but they’d got too big and dominant. See these pictures from last year. There were originally four plants here. One I dug out in 2019. I removed another today and cut another right back, leaving just one untouched.

I had plenty of sun loving perennials in pots to plant out in the gaps.

The santolina clearly likes it here. I’ve taken some cuttings, and I’ll try to reduce it’s spread over the pavement. Perhaps it will grow a bit from the base now its no longer covered by the hypericum.

When I got compost from various sources during the spring compost crisis, I tested each batch by growing some broad beans in pots of each. They all did well, with no sign of persistent weedkiller damage. It seemed a shame to put the healthy plants on the compost heap, so I grew six plants on in pots and eventually got a few tasty beans from them.

Spectacular fruiting bodies in this pot. They’re not growing on the plant, I’m glad to say, but presumably on all the wood in the late lamented Cowbridge Compost.

What is the fungus? Might it cause trouble?