Cleraing up

This weekend was the first since early November which had all the conditions of a good gardening day. The sun was shining, the temperatures were reasonable (9C measured in the garden at lunch time) and there was no wind.
Since there were no excuses I finally embarked of the traditional autumn clear up with some delay.

The nice thing about winter gardening is that you notice things that you wouldn't in spring and ssummer, when there is so much going on. The first thing I noticed is that some of the early Hellebore's are unfurling their flowers already.

But there is something completely different, and surprising I noticed. The intensity in the colour of one of my acers. This is a new acer, only planted last summer, when a large tub became available (after it's previous occupant was killed by the weather, cant' remember now what it was). It is called Acer palmatum 'Winter Flame', and it lives up to it's name. It is a dwarf form of well known Acer palmatum 'Sangukaku', which in my oppinion is not the best both in terms of form and bark colour.


Not sure why I was surprised, maybe becasue so often, the promise of a name is not fulfiled. It certainly is in this case. It also has bright green leaves in summer and a good form which I can still improve on by some light pruning next summer.