Heavy rain weighs on gardeners shoulders
It appears that the current wet conditions in the UK have created a new horticultural condition -
GREEN FINGERED GRIEF?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/18/gardens.gardeningadvice
The RHS reports that half of all callers to its plant advisory service are currently expressing concern about their damaged plants. It appears that many gardeners feel personally connected to their plants as they have often been nurtered for many years or given as a gift by someone special.
This new condition has been on the increase since the hottest summer on record in 2006 followed by the wettest in 2007 and another very wet August this year. Our changing climate is introducing new pests which can cause serious damage to plants when they are at their best. Lily beetle, horse chestnut, leaf-mining moth and the devastating rosemary beetle are just a few of the overseas visitors that you may have noticed?
Leigh Hunt, the principal horticultural adviser at RHS Wisley, explains that “gardeners often go through the same stages of grief - shock, denial, anger, depression and acceptance. These feelings are often laced with guilt, for having failed to treat their beloved plants correctly.”
Mr Hunt suggests that the most important stage of this grief cycle is “acceptance” so he tries to console callers by reassuring them that they are not alone. An example is the honey fungus affliction to which he replies “they are in good company - Kew Gardens has it, as we have at Wisley”
The good news is that our soggy summer this year has not YET beaten 2007 when during June and July there was 10.6 inches of rain and just 303 hours of sunshine compared to 7.4 inches of rain and 358 hours of sunshine in 2008.
However, the amount of rain that has fallen over the UK in the past week may mean that by the end of the month August rainfall will break new records:
August 12th - Norwich received 1.5in of rain - 3/4 of its monthly rainfall in two hours
August 13th - Suffolk had 1.2in of rain in 3 hours - normal August rainfall being 1.9in.
August 18th- Northern Ireland received a months rainffall in two hours
DO GARDENERS WEEP WHEN FLOWERS WILT?
IS THIS JUST A SILLY SUMMER STORY?
LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS?
Filed in Climate Change, Climate Change in my garden One Response so far
Diana Korchien on 31 Aug 2008 at 11:36 am #
I should say so! And not just wilting flowers but ’sudden death’ amongst long-lived favourite shrubs. This year I have lost a ‘lapwing’ azalea, covered with powdery mildew. It had never had this before and was thriving since 1987. I also lost its supposedly hardy immediate neighbour, an enormous rock rose which had been in my garden since 1993. I do wonder what made these deaths occur and keep flagellating myself about not having fed the azalea as regularly as I should have done. But the rock rose is a mystery - it began to die off in chunks earlier this year and never revived.