The Big Chill

On the night I left Milan for the Christmas holidays, the temperature was forecast to drop to -14°C (7°F). That's unheard of here. Sometimes in January we might get -6°C (21°F), but that's about the limit.

There wasn't much I could do. The plants on the balcony were already covered in fleece and tucked up against the walls of the house. And quite honestly, I was too busy packing to worry.

But all through the holidays, it was at the back of my mind. What would I find when I got back? Would anything survive?

When I got back, pulling off the fleece to check was not a happy experience. In particular, the succulents had been decimated. The sedum seems to have pulled through, but my lovely, lovely money plant (Crassula ovata) has been frozen to death ...

as has the prickly pear ...

and the mesembrantheum. But at least that saves me having to decide whether to throw it out as I'd been thinking of.

I'm worried to about the aloe. The outer leaves have gone but the centre doesn't look too bad. Will it make it?

I've lost other plants too - the spider plants have been massacred ...

All these are plants which, with due protection, have always overwintered outside without problems. Yet, amazingly, the plants I was most worried about - the annuals that were hardly more than at seedling stage, and the more delicate perennials like my plumbago - all seem to have come through unscathed. I've lost a couple of hollyhocks, but the rest are all there. Even my chrysanthemums - in full bloom when I left. At first sight I thought I'd lost them ...

But look what's happening around the back...


In theory, the coldest period of the year is yet to come - in the next week or so. But fingers crossed that nothing will exceed the pre-Christmas period.

PS : Apologies for the time lapse since the last post. I have been swamped with work. But from now on, things will be back to normal - promise.

Invasion of the Giants

Last year I posted to the effect that my wild asparagus was growing at a rate of knots. Had I but known. Look at it then ...

... and look at it now.

And the pictures don't even do justice to the change. The first photo is of the plant in an 8" pot. The second is of a tub 50" x 18" x 30", more or less. Nothing seems to keep it in check. I even replanted it in the corner just in front of the bedroom where nothing grows. I don't know why that corner's a problem - but I suspect there's not enough light for most plants, but it gets too hot for shade lovers. I can't even grow spider plants there - something else that I usually have no trouble getting to giant proportions.

But the wild asparagus flourished even there. Then I saw it was getting attacked by the plague of green caterpillars that we had (still have, come to that) this year. So I cheerfully transferred all the caterpillars which I found decimating my other plants, onto it. It hardly looks chewed.

So what do I do with it? I suppose after my recent post on the 20 foot agave, I shouldn't even bother about it. And I'm not the only one. I've been planning this post for about a month, but just after the Carnival closed the other day, La Gringa sent me a link to a post called Why do they have to get so big? on exactly the same theme. (I've always said that garden bloggers were telepathic.) And her stuff makes mine look like dwarf varieties. But then she's not gardening on a balcony ...

It does of course solve the problem of what to put in that corner. But if I leave it there, will it be invading the bedroom by this time next year? The only other solution which comes to mind is digging it up, splitting and repotting it, and giving it to people as Christmas presents. The ones I don't like, obviously.