THE STORMS COME.

The dry weather has given way to strong winds and heavy rain with gardening becoming something of a hit and run affair. The last of the surplice plants were dispatched to their finale resting place at the end of last week. These included some large potted Japanese maples and some seedling Daphne's. So at last my garden is back to what passes for normal in these parts.

The pond plants are dying back in preparation for their long winter rest and the fish are only looking for food every two or three days now.

The Autumn crocus that is popping up in the raised bed looks very delicate but is standing up to the weather astonishingly well. Even after a fairly wet and stormy night I was surprised to see that they had survived unscathed. Tulbaghias that were sown late last year are coming into bloom and are surprisingly hardy here is spite of the tender warning in some of the magazines. I have planted all except two of them in the peat bed in the front garden. The hardy cyclamen are still one of he best plants in the garden at this time of the year, and have been in bloom since august and are still going strong. One plant of Cyclamen Hederifolium in the front garden has produced much larger flowers than any of the others and has been marked out for special attention. All the seed will be saved in the hope that it will reproduce true to form. The seed of the Hederifolium that was sown at the end of the summer is germinating well with all the pots covered with nice dark green foliage.

It goes some way to prove that Cyclamen seed is as easy as any other to germinate when the seed is fresh. I always sow straight from the pod where possible.

Now that the bulb frame has got a good soaking that has started the bulbs into growth it is time to put on the frames. The pots are plunged in sand and any sunshine won't be strong enough to dry out the pots until the spring.

With a fierce storm forecast for Saturday night it was time to close down all the glasshouse lights and louvers and make secure anything that might fly around in the wind and cause damage. The storm raged most of the night and lived up to the predictions of eighty miles per hour gales. But as Sunday morning dawned and with daylight coming early because the clocks went back one hour, no damage was immediately apparent. A later inspection also proved that indeed this was the case and the garden was unscathed in spite of the severe gales. A little bit of preparation is well worth the effort as according to the radio reports lots of trees were down and electricity supplies interrupted in the surrounding countryside.

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