2020: what a weird year.

 Most people will remember 2020 as being the Covid-19 year, but to us gardeners, it has been the Year Of Weird Plants.

For example, here are some Asters in one of "my" gardens:

Usually they are about waist height - these are tall Asters (Michaelmas Daisies).

As you can see, with my fork for scale, not to mention the greenhouse ("The greenhouse?" "I told you not to mention the greenhouse!"), er hem, they are now taller than I am.

Then there's this:

This is common Honesty, Lunaria annua: normally it's about waist height, sometimes a little less.

This - right - is a 6' high fence, including the trellis section. 

(Which was my idea, by the way: the neighbour put up the fence but it was only 5' high, and my people wanted a bit more privacy. So I suggested bolting a strip of trellis horizontally along the top: and lo! and behold, increased privacy but it let the light through, it baffles the wind, and best of all, it didn't make the neighbour cross!)

As you can see, the Honesty is very nearly up to the top!

Then we have the whole "flowering-out-of-season" thing: 

Here's a common or garden Wisteria, famously a plant which flowers in early spring.

Here it is - right - a week ago, that's the middle of September.

*sigh*

 

And it doesn't end there: 

 Here's the Kerria - another famously spring-flowering shrub - which not only flowered in March as it was supposed to, but had another go in August.

And talking of August, I have a photo which I took last month:

How weird is that - left? 

24th August, and all the sycamore leaves were falling, the Hemerocallis appears to be done for the year, and the Hellebores are perking up, as though it's already winter!

And don't get me started on fruit and veg: we had not one but four late frosts this year, after a mini-heatwave. So, many people are finding that their fruit trees have very little fruit on them this year, particularly apples, which seemed to bear the brunt of the blossom damage.

 

So, all in all, 2020 has been a weird year.....

 

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