Capricious spring

So a few days ago I was walking along my very own garden route from Dulwich to Herne Hill farmers market. The sky was clear blue, it was even slightly warm and there was plenty of wildlife about. The daffodils were just starting to come out, as were the crocus and winter-flowering clematis.

Fast-forward a few days and it feels like we are back in January. There are a couple of inches of snow on the ground and we have our own winter wonderland, even here in Dulwich woods, with an icing on all the trees like a Hoar frost.

This demonstrates the capriciousness of spring. You seem to be moving forward and then suddenly , maybe because the wind direction changes, you get some cold weather. This last flurry of snow from Siberia has been quite severe by modern standards of mild winters. But, as we are not into March; hopefully it will not cause as much damage as say a late frost in May,  which I recall ruining all the Magnolia blossom a few years ago.

Here in London ,the golden rule is that, or at least we were taught at horticultural college that we have never had a frost later than the 15th of May. So, at that point you can plant out summer bedding. Of course, people often plant out bedding in April and  get away with it.

The other worry with late frosts ,since we are on the subject, is with fruit blossom. Invariably, if a plum or pear (which are particularly susceptible to frost because they flower in mid-March) have no fruit it is because it has not been a dry, warm spring. This might be because the cold damaged the flowers or prevented pollination.

On the plus side, Dulwich wood was spectacularly beautiful in the winter sunshine this afternoon. So perhaps winter is not always a dull,grey and extremely drawn out period of cold fingers and sad thoughts.