Iris

 And while we're on the subject of flowers in Winter, this winter-flowering species of Iris is looking pretty.

Pansies

 A little tub of cheerful pansies in bloom in the middle of Winter.   In a warm spot by the back door.

Springtime jobs

I've had a bit of a medical hiatus over the last couple  weeks, so no blogging.   But yesterday was a pretty day, sunny and not too cold, so we took the opportunity to prune the climbing roses on the lodge.   Not a very rewarding actvitiy at the time, since the rose has nasty thorns and I always end up with the tips of a few thorns irritating my finger tips.   But I hope that the reward will be in the form of lots of big, scented flowers in due course.   The rose is Ena Harkness; hybrid Tea, blood red and with a sweet perfume.

We shred the cuttings as we go.  That reminds me, the shredder motor is leaking oil.  Must get that sorted.   The pic shows us partway throug the job - you can see where we've been and how it was beforehand.

Exponential growth

Exponential growth happens when the rate of growth of something is proportional to the amount of the something that you have.  Doubling every day is an example of exponential growth.

Plants, until they approach their natural limits, tend to exhibit exponential growth: the more leaves it has, the faster it can make new leaves.   My Wisteria has been growing exponentially for a few years now, and it was time to prune it.  Drastically.

Wisteria sends out creepers to explore growth opportunities, and these can get everywhere, and when they get there, they get thicker as they age.   So if they get into the roof, they can prise off the tiles, or if behind a drainpipe, they can prise it off the wall.   My plant was under the tiles and behind the drainpipe.  Time to act.

Wisteria is a stringy plant, so if your pruning shears are not sharp or there is the slightest gap between the shearing blades, when you try to cut the branches, you will end up with two bits of wood joined together by a tough stringy bit that is hard to break.   The first thing I had to do was get a new set of shears.

It was a three-day job, yielding three trailer-loads of clippings to take to the dump.   Some of the creepers were amazing - one that got under the tiles must have been 6 yards long when I pulled it out, and must have grown entirely parasitically - it can't have got any light where it was.