Most of us living in Cyprus won’t experience snow, but occasionally it has been known to occur away from Troodos. There may be a few flurries in the hilly regions, but usually the snow doesn’t settle. Mid-day temperatures can be around 14C-16C during the winter on the coast and a little way inland, but can be much lower in mountainous areas and during the night of course. Some Brassica family plants like vegetables and wallflowers have their own built-in anti-freeze and can withstand winter temperatures, but others prefer not to grow in cold, wet soil and may succumb to the weather if the cold is prolonged. Care should be taken with vulnerable plants on verandas and patios to protect them from extremes of the weather. They are best wrapped in sacking, fleece or the green horticultural material available in garden centres or builders’ merchants. Remember to leave some space around the plant for air to flow or they might go mouldy.
Happily in the early part of January the ‘Halcyon Days’ should come along, bringing us blue skies and calm weather and can last up to a week or 10 days. I am sure that you are already familiar how this quiet weather came about at this time of year. Legend has it that kingfishers need the calm seas to nest in the high cliffs. Of course this relatively still and warmer weather can cause mayhem in the garden as the plants think that winter is over and start to grow rapidly, only to be dashed to the ground when the winter storms start up again and continue into February. There is still a lot of winter to come, so don’t get too complacent. Oh, woe is the life of gardeners – always weather watching!
Unseasonable weather means that bees fail to fertilise flowers and consequently there are fewer fruits, whilst leaves can be shredded by heavy hail storms in the changeover periods from one season to another. We don’t have four seasons like most of the northern hemisphere and move quickly from summer into winter and vice versa. The last few years in Cyprus we have endured much hotter summers with temperatures well above any recorded averages. In my garden this has manifested itself in the loss of mature trees and hedging, depriving the garden of shade and the birds their roosting places. Garden centres import many plants not really suitable for our climate, so do take care when selecting plants that will be able to cope with our weather conditions. The environment where plants were originally found growing suggests where they should grow successfully. The second botanical name of plants, usually written in italics, may dictate from where they originally came – sinensis – meaning China; capensis – the Cape of South Africa; damascena or syriacus – Syria or it may even indicate the colour of the flower such as Iris albicans or Tulbaghia violacea. A little knowledge of Latin or Greek is useful in working things out.
WHAT TO DO IN THE GARDEN THIS MONTH
The first almond blossoms are usually my heralds of the spring to come and I delight in seeing them open up in the winter sunshine. Pruning trees should have been completed by now, although citrus are usually pruned after fruiting, so you can start on them now. When trees like almonds and pecans put on about half a metre of growth a year they can quickly reach gigantic proportions, making maintenance difficult, and fruit or nut cropping almost impossible. You need to lop off some of that growth each year. Pecan trees can reach 20-25 metres in their natural habitat, but they can be dealt with more easily if they are not so tall. Pruning is a vital part of the success or not of your fruit and nut trees. Other than that, what is its purpose? Primarily it is to get rid of any dead or diseased branches and to keep the centre of the tree free of any stems that cross, allowing air to pass through the branches. Almonds, apricots, peaches, plums and cherries belong to the prunus family, all of which can suffer from canker. You can spot this easily as the bark oozes gum and large parts of the tree fail. Some suggest spraying with ‘Cuproxat’, a copper-based fungicide, but we have had little success with it. By cutting branches off above the ‘ooze’ it may be possible for the tree to grow on for a few more years, but once the tree has canker it is almost certainly doomed. At this stage there is really not a lot that you can do about it, other than fell the tree and grow something else instead. Some areas in Cyprus are prone to canker, like the valley in which I live, so we have given up growing these trees and are concentrating on citrus and figs instead. You may find that some citrus leaves have mottling between the veins of the leaves at this time, which usually means that they are short of zinc. This can be remedied by spraying the leaves with 5 litres of water into which a level dessert spoon of zinc chelate has been added.
Ripe citrus fruits in the orchard are a haven for Mediterranean fruit flies. They will lay their eggs inside any members of the orange family and grapefruit too, although lemons and limes seem to escape this fate. The way to spot whether a fruit fly has been at your fruit is to look for soft patches with a little hole in the centre, from which the grub will drop out when it is ready to pupate, which it does in the ground – so don’t bury infected fruits because you are giving them the ideal spot to hatch out loads of Med flies, as they are commonly known. Don’t bring infected fruits indoors as the warmth will encourage the grubs to fall into the fruit bowl, which will quickly turn into flies in the warmth of house! The whole cycle from egg to fly takes only 20 days!
Although the ground should be very moist after all the rain we had in December, it is relatively cold and it would be better to wait until late February until you plant any new trees and shrubs. Ideally late October and November are the best times for this as the earth is still warm then and there may be some rain to help things along. Seeds of last year’s annuals may have germinated already, and will probably last the winter, but hold off sowing any new seeds for a while as they may just rot in the cold ground or provide food for ground feeding birds, which are deprived of other nutrients at this time. Sometimes seeds from other countries don’t germinate, resulting in disappointment. I have some extra acclimatised seeds from my garden and will gladly share them with you. They are ‘Matucana’ sweet peas; Nigella damascena; Cerinthe and pink and white hollyhocks. Just send a stamped self-addressed envelope to me at 3 Andreas Miaoulis, 7647 Mosfiloti stating which you would like and I will get them off to you.
Having painted a picture of doom and gloom there is always the bright side to look forward to as the first spring flowers brighten up the borders and the sweet smelling narcissus open their lovely heads in the slightly warming rays of the sun.
POTM Narcissus ‘Salome’ AGM
There are gardeners who declare that pure yellow is the colour for daffodils and there are many old favourites such as ‘King Alfred’ which fit that bill. Narcissus ‘Salome’ is equally as reliable and a fantastic looking flower in the early spring garden. It is such an excellent bulb that the Royal Horticultural Society awarded it an AGM – Award of Garden Merit – a high accolade. Having been bred in Ireland by Lionel Richardson as long ago as 1958 it is not a new bulb, and is still popular although not as well known perhaps as ‘Cheerfulness’ or ‘Ice Follies’. Nevertheless Salome is a most attractive addition to flower beds and even in pots.
Preferring a moist but well-drained soil, Salome will grow in a sunny spot equally as well as a shady spot. Like all bulbous plants they should be given a high potassium feed as the leaves die and start to make the flower for next season. Don’t remove the leaves until they have completely died down. Plant new bulbs between 10-15cm deep, remembering that like many other bulbs, they can irritate the skin. The flowers of this large-cupped daffodil can exude a strong vanilla scent and will grow up to 9cm across, so they put on an impressive display when they appear in early spring. One of the most intriguing features of this pretty daffodil is the way the ruffled cup changes in colour from butter yellow to apricot as the flower matures. For maximum effect grow them in great drifts.
