February 2021 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Mike Ireland]

Mike, your Daphne bholua 'Jaqueline postill' looks very good. There is no frost damage. Here the flowers and some leaves are frozen during the cold period.

Herman we have had some of the worst frosts for quite a number of years & very surprised the Daphne came through with no damage at all.

[cohan]

Herman we have had some of the worst frosts for quite a number of years & very surprised the Daphne came through with no damage at all.

Good news!

[Leena]

it has been warm also here, days +5C and snow is starting to melt, but this warm period lasts only for a week and then colder returns again:(, but not for long I hope.

Hepatica nobilis, Cyclamen coum, snowdrops and corydalis.

Mariette, how beautiful scene, and Hepatica seems like growing from Cyclamen leaves:).

[Tristan_He]

Iris 'Sheila Ann Germaney'. I've had Katherine Hodgkin for a few years now and she does well with me, so last year I bought some bulbs of her siblings! Hopefully they will be just as good.

[Hoy]

Iris 'Sheila Ann Germaney'. I've had Katherine Hodgkin for a few years now and she does well with me, so last year I bought some bulbs of her siblings! Hopefully they will be just as good.

She is very nice, Tristan!

I have tried Katherine several times and she looks very good but the early slugs like her also so she doesn't last more than a couple years


Yesterday we had 10C and a few hours sun!

[Tristan_He]

It's funny how slugs seem to go for different things in different places Trond, because we have no shortage of these here. I have had similar experiences with other plants, where I can grow supposedly 'slug proof' plants only for them to get eaten, whilst supposedly sensitive species are left alone.

[Hoy]

Tristan,

It seems the slugs somehow "learn" what to eat. I had Katherine Hodgkin several years before the slugs "found" it. After that they always take it as soon as it emerge in spring. The same with Lathyrus vernus. I have had many plants for years and it self sowed around. One spring I suddenly found 60 slugs in one plant and after that they always go for it too. Now I pick hundreds of slugs from the L. vernus plants every spring. It has been the same with other plant species too. It is not fun when plants you think are slug proof suddenly are not.

[Gabriela]

Tristan,

It seems the slugs somehow "learn" what to eat. I had Katherine Hodgkin several years before the slugs "found" it. After that they always take it as soon as it emerge in spring. The same with Lathyrus vernus. I have had many plants for years and it self sowed around. One spring I suddenly found 60 slugs in one plant and after that they always go for it too. Now I pick hundreds of slugs from the L. vernus plants every spring. It has been the same with other plant species too. It is not fun when plants you think are slug proof suddenly are not.

How nice to see the sun Trond! not to mention more flowers.
You're right with the slugs. I never had the 'pleasure' to collect so many slugs on anything but I noticed that after one year Gypsophila tenuifolia was eaten almost to the point of destruction (by the time I noticed), they are now trying to do the same while there are other palatable species nearby.
New generations might somehow inherit the 'taste' for some species (?).

[Véronique Macrelle]

it seems that slugs are crazy about rapeseed seedlings and that we can educate them to eat only that !. it would be a way of preventing them from eating our treasures.

but you have to find rapeseed in quantity and I don't know if it can germinate anytime.

I have not tried yet