Season catch-up

[laurieuk]

Back in March we where 16 days behind with the season based on the flowering
of group of daffs that over a period of 30 years normally flowered on the 12 March this year flowered on the 28th.I have just cut my first sweet-peas which started to flower  at  the normal time (chelsea week) so things do catch up.Thes are from an October seed sowing, I always sow on October 8th which gives me a good root system to get the plants going as soon as they are planted out end of Feb.

[laurieuk]

[Robert_Brenchley]

Everything's been growing like mad, all blooming at once, and the bees have done much the same. Normally colonies start to expand at the beginning of March, then hit full strength in mid-May, with this time being the peak period for swarms. Mine didn't do anything till the beginning of April, then expanded double quick. They now have full-sized broodnests, though I'm not sure the actual number of adult bees is as high as lat year, and one of them was raising swarm cells last week. Last year there was honey being stored by the end of the first week in May, but then it was all eaten during the cold spell which followed. This year there's been nothing stored at all, but that's due to the very late start, as it takes six weeks to produce a forager from an egg, coupled with cold weather for the last couple of weeks.

[laurieuk]

Just alond the road is a place called Brenchley I wish it meant you lived nearby , we had the best lot of apple blossum for years but not a bee in sight. :'( :'( ???

[katynewbie]

;D

Brenchley? I was brought up in Paddock Wood, just down the hill!

[ACE]

I suspect the early flowering plants rely on temperature but the later ones are triggered by longer daylight hours. Strange things are a happening now though. Last year I missed a lot of my californian iris because I was away at Hampton. This year they are out now, 6 weeks early.

[Robert_Brenchley]

My ancestors on my father's side came from Brenchley, but I've never been in Kent myself. If you know Bunce Court (I'm not sure exactly where it is, I believe it's a few miles from the village), it belonged to my branch of the family, and was lost under tragic circumstances. There was a fire in the stable in January 1861, and my great-great grandfather, Charles Brenchley, rode nine miles to get the fire brigade, spent the rest of the night fighting the fire, then died of what I suspect was pneumonia. He left a nine-year-old son, Thomas, and the estate (I don't know how much of an estate it was, but that was how it was described to me) was put in the care of a bailiff, who bankrupted it. I remember one of my great-aunts going on about how the family had 'come down in the world'.