Spring ... on it's way?

[Odsox]

While I had the camera out I thought you might like to see this pic.
But I have to say that spring is definitely a bit on the late side, hardly surprising I suppose as we had the coldest December in living memory here. My neighbour has daffodils out but he is closer to the sea than me, mine are now growing like mad but will be at least another couple of weeks before the first flower as the stems are only 3 or 4 inches tall at the moment.
But, we have at least a week of sunshine forecast so things are definitely on the up at last.

Crocus.jpg (120.57 KiB) Viewed 2592 times

[Millymollymandy]

I have been talking about this on a Brittany forum cos after 10 days or so of really unseasonal mild weather there are signs of spring everywhere, at least a month too early. Thankfully we have cooler, sunnier, frostier weather forecast cos I don't like the fact I am seeing green buds unfurling on my hydrangeas in the middle of January . In my wild bits I've got goosegrass, nettles, celandine and even a dandelion flower which is just crazy!!

Happy to see the snowdrops practically growing before my very eyes and all the buds on the hellebores though, and the primrose flowers.

Thankfully our December wasn't as cold as normal so certain plants which have been trashed (not the roots, just top growth) in previous years are still OK.

[Green Aura]

Bugger off Tony, I was nice about your tomatoes but now you're just showing off

Having said that, I think my fig is a bit confused. In the space of a week it's shed last years leaves, grown three new ones and a fig! I don't know whether to take the fig off or not - it's the first it's produced.

It's looking a bit like a demented punk with a big green nose at the moment

[oldjerry]

GA,dont know what happens in Scotland(quite literally) but the figs I've always picked are those that appeared the previous year,so go steady with the thinning.

[Millymollymandy]

Leave the fig, if only to see what happens! I have a fig and we've never had anything off it - it produces a few babies which drop off in the winter - too cold here for that sort of thing I reckon. I wouldn't have gone out and bought one, this one was already here.

[Odsox]

I had a fig tree, but had to chop it down a couple of years ago.
Mine had two crops each year, the ones that overwintered as pea sized fruits ripened in June and the fruits that formed in spring ripened in early September and continued until the weather worsened Novemberish. The larger unripe fruits then dropped off over winter but the really tiny ones were the ones that ripened next June ... and so on ad infinitum.

[bonniethomas06]

Oooh figs

Did anyone watch that programme on TV about the fig wasp? Basically, every species of fig has a complimwntary species of wasp to pollinate it. The wasps bury into the fruit, do their thing inside it, and the female lays eggs inside. This had the benefit to the fig of her dragging pollen into the ovary.

However because it takes a while, by the time the wasps want to leave the fruit, only the female can squeeze out of the tiny hole, leaving the males to die inside the fruit.

So every fig contains the corpses of dead male fig wasps. Eeeeurgh!

I hate myself for being so squeamish, but I couldn't even bring myself to eat the fig and vanilla trifle I made on Christmas day!!

[bonniethomas06]

Oh yeah, and spring... (got distracted with fig wasps)

No sign of anything here. No daffs poking their way through and no snowdrops either. Lovely to be outside in the garden though, tidying up and cutting down overgrown things, after all that snow.

[Odsox]

So every fig contains the corpses of dead male fig wasps. Eeeeurgh!

Maybe that's the case in places where wild figs grow.
The fig wasp is a very specialised insect and relies totally on the fig tree to survive, just as the fig tree relies on the wasp to pollinate it's fruit to pass on the next generation of seedlings.
In the British Isles there are no wild fig trees and hence no fig wasps, so every home grown fig fruit is probably sterile but certainly doesn't contain any wasps.

[Stonehead]

Spring? Spring? People were saying it was spring at this time last year. And what happened? Heavy snow and freezing weather right through into April, with the final snowfalls in May. I was cutting back raspberries today, first time I've managed to get to them in two months, and I was kneeling on concrete hard ground. The only thing that will be breaking through our frozen soil anytime soon is a mole with a jackhammer...

[Milims]

I noticed that the daffodils are beginning to sprout in our garden - but there's bound to be more snow as we always end up with lambing storms

[happyhippy]

Well we had a quick look around our garden last Sunday and to our amazement,yes we have bulbs growing!!! We planted then last last year and yep their up!Our tulips(were already here when we moved in)are now up by an inch,yes the end of winter is near!lol I have started already looking at seeds ect,have you?

[becks77]

Yes , yes spotted 2 primroses and a couple of green shoots on the daffs and the fennel is putting out teeny weeny ferny bits.....gotta love spring time