In the middle of December we had a very cold couple of weeks, where the temperature dropped to minus 8°C in Coolwater Garden in Ireland. As a result, we appear to have lost or received severe damage to quite a few plants. The West Garden was much more affected than the Water Garden. For example, Tasmannia aromaticas in the West Garden were decimated, whereas those in the Water Garden were untouched! The same applied to Hebes and other plants.

In the first pic above, you can see birds waiting for some seed to be scattered on the ground. In the second pic, our Eucalyptus sturgissiana had half its foliage blackened. But in the third pic, Osteospermums seem to have survived, which is amazing.

The plants fared much better in the Water Garden pictured above, thank goodness, although there were casualties among the Aeoniums, Echeverias, Lampranthus and other succulents. Some plants in the Alpine House, which did have a frost stat on, also sucuumbed, including our Fuchsia boliviana “Alba”. Euphorbia succulents took a hit too. Let’s hope we don’t get such low temperatures in January and February. Fingers crossed.

October was unseasonably mild this year and it is shown by these plants holding onto their leaves and this lonely water lily still stubbornly flowering at the very end of the month.

This “Forest Pansy” & this Fothergilla major changing colour fairly late.

However, most of Coolwater Garden is evergreen and can be enjoyed year round, as witnessed by this Euphorbia mellifera, etc.

And last, but not least, Nerines with their normal spectacular Autumn show.

Primula capitata growing in limestone scree. June was a month of not very good weather and we’re hoping that July will avenge that. The forecast for next week is good, thank goodness. Below is pictured Armeria maritima naturalizing between the Namurian flagstones in Coolwater Garden.

This is one of the ponds in the West Garden. On either side of the water feature is the Newt Hotel for our resident population of newts. Whether they actually make use of the facilities provided, we don’t know 🙂  Next to this pond is a bank of Osteospemums interspersed with Alliums.

And finally Clare showing a two Buff-tip moths on some bamboo getting personal.

Above are pictured members of “Mediterranean Plants and Gardens” who visited Coolwater Garden on the 26th of May. And below we have pics of some of the boulders and rocks strewn around Coolwater to provide a background for the Alpine plants. These ones below are all limestone rocks and boulders. They come from the same strata of limestone as in the Burren but are from an exposure in Co. Limerick.

Our new Alpine House is slowly getting populated and below is a shot of some of the Lewisias in it.

In the picture above, you can see the damage caused to two of the Japanese maples by the cold, desiccating winds this Spring. We’ve completely lost about twenty plants in total including acacias, azoras, etc.  It wasn’t an extreme cold, just the cold, drying winds. It has even affected our flowering cherries: the pic below is of the best this year of the three.

However, sheltered by the new Alpine House, this Magnolia stellata “Goldstar” sailed through and gave us the best display it has ever given.

And, of course as usual, Androsace sarmentosa never fails to perform. It’s very, very slowly spreading around as well and is quite welcome to do that.

Yep, the weather in March here varied enormously. From 18° to -4°C. The top picture is of a sunrise over the water garden. Pic below is of one of the Drabas in the Alpine House.

Another inhabitant in the Alpine House is this Candle Plant from South Africa.

Tulips alongside the water garden: these faithfully come up every year.

A Sebaea, which prefers damp neutral to acidic soil, growing in a cattle drinking bowl.

Saxifraga “Red Poll” growing in tufa, no soil.