dandelion

[beesknee]

Fishing on the tweed today noticed that on the bank dandelions were in flower! whats going on?gorse is also in flower,so mild more like spring than autumn

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Fishing on the tweed today

Show off!
season finished here last month, good fish towards the end but i didn't get a fish

 

[Hivemaker.]

Gorse of one kind or another is in flower nearly all year round,so not really unusual. Miles of it in flower around here.

 

[susbees]

We have both autumn and spring gorse on the farm....two distinct types. And there are dandelions here too. More concerned at the rate the hazel catkins are fattening up!

 

[Chrisfnvs]

i noticed that we have some Strawberries and Blueberries in flower in the garden today along with wall flowers and some lavender Chris

 

[Storm™]

I have had my chives all done and dusted about two months ago. Chopped right back to the stump and placed up against the house to help it make it through the winter. This week its started to flower again.

Figs still growing
Fushia bush still in full flower
GrapeVine cuttings growing new leaves
Last of the cooking apples on the tree
Rosemary flowering again

Glad about the fusia - full of bees today having a fumble

 

[BeeMoustashe]

is there any risk that this will set back plants for spring? I mean, if things are budding up and/or germinating now, and are damaged by the frosts, will we be looking at a dearth next year?

 

[Queens59]

My mulberry is now festooned with small 1/2" fruits...would be good to have mulberries for Christmas!

 

[JamezF]

We have dandelions, lupins, nasturtiums and zinna all in flower at the moment as well as some roses. Next year's broad beans are already out of the ground so they might have to spend the rest of the winter under cloches and I have calabrese in full flower, purple sprouting broccoli ready at last two months early and last weekend we had a (supposedly summer flowering) cauliflower with dinner. The sycamore trees are losing their leaves, but still haven't dropped their seeds, presumably because they've not been able to ripen them. I'm even still having to hoe the weeds off my over-wintering onions.

In eleven days it's December and still there is no sign of the temperature dropping into single figures for anything more than a couple of hours overnight when the sky is clear. I have a bit of a reputation for not feeling the cold, but I only stopped wearing my summer shorts at the end of last month and I'm still not uncomfortable outside wearing a t-shirt as long as I'm moving around a bit. We're not far off the point at which last year we were up to our knees in snow. It is possibly the weirdest year I can recall, weather-wise.

I'm getting the feeling that come spring we'll be talking about very high losses over the winter because many beekeepers just won't have been prepared for how little food their colonies had left in the hive.

James

 

[JamezF]

is there any risk that this will set back plants for spring? I mean, if things are budding up and/or germinating now, and are damaged by the frosts, will we be looking at a dearth next year?

I think it's inevitable. Annuals and biennials could well develop early, flower and then not get pollinated or fail to ripen seed, dying off completely as a result. Perennials that rely on stored food in roots, tubers etc. to flower may well use that up producing useless growth and then fail to rebuild their stores sufficiently for next year because there's insufficient sun to do so. The crocuses in our garden that normally flower shortly after the snowdrops have already flowered and gone. I'd not be at all surprised if they didn't come back next spring, or came back blind.

James

 

[Vergilius]

I'm getting the feeling that come spring we'll be talking about very high losses over the winter because many beekeepers just won't have been prepared for how little food their colonies had left in the hive.

This is exactly what people were saying last November when we had snow on the ground!!!

 

[Storm™]

My mulberry is now festooned with small 1/2" fruits...would be good to have mulberries for Christmas!

We've got mulberries. I've got one in a pot which is two years old - loads of buds but all leaves gone now. But the place we rent has a big one in the ground. Very poor amount of fruit this year. Leaves going fast. Last year it was groaning under the weight. They are my favourite tree. But the owners cut a few huge branches off to get a tractor through. So that may be the reason.
Both are Morus Nigre. Dunno what type after that but there is a choice of three if memory serves. And it's a wonderful story surrounding the mulberry as well.

 

[JamezF]

This is exactly what people were saying last November when we had snow on the ground!!!

Why is that a logical thing to suggest?

My understanding is that the bees don't consume stores at a particularly high rate once they're clustered and a few degrees either way for a couple of weeks at the start of December shouldn't be something that massively messes up managing them through the winter. (Again, my understanding is that) comparatively they consume stores much faster when they're flying and raising brood and there's precious little nectar available to replace what they use, and they may not be able to turn it into honey anyhow.

To me, an extended mild period with limited forage seems to put a colony's survival at far greater risk than a couple of weeks of snow when they're already clustered (or even if they aren't, as I'd assume they'd be forced to cluster at that point).

James

 

[Queens59]

Hi Storm - My mulberry is going to be moving soon. I have it in a pot, but Buckfast Bee Dept. are planting a forest garden of just on an acre and I have promised my Mulberry. I shall 'miss' it - but just another excuse to visit!!

 

[Storm™]

I've never seen one before we moved here. Such ornate trees. So when we asked what it was I had to get one. Hard to find a healthy one in garden centres. Then there is the choice red White or black. Ended up speaking to some Americans. Whilst few and far between here they class them as weeds over there. Much like our ash and sycamore I guess. I just can't wait to get a house so I can plant this potted garden that has accumulated on the decking lol. Holly tree from Epping forest taken as a seedling and stored in a cigarettes cellophane for a week before I could get it home, now 4 foot tall. And a three pronged oak snatched from the blades of a strimmer before we moved here. And the apple from a supermarket apple now 2 foot tall. The mulberry was laying on it's side along with two others. Supported it through the gales and earwig munching and now it's about 8 foot tall. So fingers crossed they will all make it through the winter in their pots. The mulberry is one that's not had an outdoor winter here but it's pot is in a wooden crate to help with the worst of the winter.
The big mulberry is beloved of the bees and wasps and blackbirds. So I can't wait when ours is planted.

 

[tonybloke]

in the back (north) garden we've still got geraniums flowering, and a huge brugmansia is still putting out new flowers. My salvia 'blue and black' is now in flower in the front border, and that's usually a greenhouse specie

 

[Swarm]

It's mental, Tony. The plants don't know what's hit them this year.

 

[Storm™]

Just on ITV news - confused plants in the mild temps, a bananna tree has started flowering in south Cornwall. Many other plants starting to grow early. On the drive there is a cattle grid. As I walked over it I noticed that in the last two days it's become a hotbed of primroses.

 

[The Cumbrian]

Daffodils an inch and a half out of the ground here.

 

[Storm™]

And then it got stranger ..... Thunder and lightening has just started here .... Lol