Horrific week - cold, frosts, sleet, snow (21st - 26th) showing that winter is far from over. It will be interesting to see if the cold temperatures affect the frog spawn. We shall see shortly. All the Camellia flowers have been badly affected, Rhododendron 'Seta' has had its flowers browned. All the Narcissi and Galanthus are fine as are the Hellebores. The Acacia seems to be fine as is the Corylopsis. Look back at February 2004, it almost seems that history repeats itself with the same weather patterns.

We should have known really - 'If Candlemas Day be fair and bright,/ Winter will have another flight:/ If Chandlemas Day it be shower and rain,/ Winter is gone and will not come again.' The old sayings are often right and really tells us to mistrust a mild february, it is as if winter is not over until we have suffered a bit! Biologically, it is of course important to control some of our natural pests (paraphrased from The Times Garden Review, Katherine Swift, p.25, Sat. February 26, 05).