The last in my quartet of posts about Frost for this winter. Roll on spring as opposed to spring on rolls.

‘If winter comes can spring be far behind’ or should that be changed, due to global warming, as the season merge. Due to lack of seasonal frost many spring flowers have been appearing through late Autumn and my Primula and even Wallflowers are showing lots of colour.

What we need is a series of crisp hard frosts to let everyone and everything know that the season has changed. Animals can go into hibernation (instead of the squirrels stealing the bird food) and plants can become dormant or die back as they are programmed by nature to do.

My Dahlias have given sterling service but now I wish the stalks a happy burial on the compost heap but I always wait for them to catch the frost first. Other plants are looking forward to getting frosted and what will the ‘sprouts taste like without a bit of cold weather.
If it was rain that encouraged winter dormancy then everything would have shut up shop way back. The soggy ground would appreciate some frost sending worms deeper and breaking the claggy ground.

Bulbs need some cold weather to develop the best roots so come on Jack lets have some cold weather. In previous years I have lifted crowns of Rhubarb to get a bit of frost but I am leaving them in the ground this year and will see if it has a negative effect or not.

So come on Jack Frost get on your Icicle and pedal down and arrange a cold snap for British gardeners.