Hoping hellebores will survive cold weather forecast for this weekend

My hellebores are in bud.

I am hoping they will survive cold weather forecast for this weekend.

I like hellbores. They flower for such a long time. I buy plants and plant seeds where the label says "flowers July to September". I think, "Great, 3 months of flowering". What they really mean is that sometime in that 3 month period I will get a few days of flowers.

Hellebores, however, are in flower for about 2 months. As they flower in winter I don't see them very often!

They are good for Queen Bumblebees out and about early in the year.

A Guide to Garden Wildlife

Just listened on i-player to BBC Radio 4's "A guide to garden wildlife" (Radio 4 Monday 9.30 am).

I have always hoped that the pile of cuttings I have rotting away under my wisteria is a good refuge toads and insects in winter. It seems that it could be particularly good for hibernating queen bumblebees. And hellebores are a good food source for them when they come out of hibernation, and I have several of them.

(I like hellebores, as they flower for ages!)

They were also talking about providing a home for red mason bees (whoops, didn't write down their name straight away so might not have got that right) as they are very good pollinating insects at the beginning of the season. I saved the stalks of the fennel when I cut it down in the spring and could use these to make nests next spring. Needs to be put in a sunny position, which severely limits its location in my garden in the springtime!

There was a comma butterfly in my garden this morning. Cycling back from helping out at the after school club at the kayak club, I passed the short grass near the ice skating rink where there were two green woodpeckers sitting in the grass. I've seen them flying before, but never still like that,

Bike ride and signs of Spring

When I got up it was bright with a little blue sky so I planned to go for a bike ride. By the time I had washed it had clouded over and looked like rain so I decided I wouldn't. By the time I had finished breakfast sunny again, so I went before the weather changed it's mind! Just in case it did rain, I went on one of my shorter routes - about 6 miles.  It had started to spit with rain just before I reached home, but that soon stopped, so sawed up most of the rest of the cherry branches.

Snowdrops and daffodils just showing through. Very pleased to see the clump of snowdrops I had tansferred last year "in the green" from the back garden to the front garden are is showing signs of life as the leaves had died immediately whereas the leaves of the untransplanted snowdrops hadn't.

Hellebores are also in bud. Hellebores are great, they flower for 2-3 months.

Snowdrops (single versions) are googd for pollinator insects, and hellebores are good for queen bumblebees.