Rhododendron Scintillation

When I started to rearrange my garden I wanted to plant as many evergreen shrubs as possible. But I had to take into consideration the climate in Poland, especially winters which can be snowy and cold. We have here 5 different USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) hardiness zones from 7b to 5b. I will publish another post dedicated to winter hardiness zones in my country to make it more clear for you. 

A large number of rhododendrons can withstand low winter temperatures in Poland. One of them is rhododendron Scintillation. It is an extraordinary shrub growing up to 1,5 - 2 metres high and similar width. It blooms in May and flowers can live for 14-20 days. This plant is very hardy and can survive -26 C without any winter protection. 

Leaves are quite big, a little bit eliptic, 15-20 cm long. They are deep green, glossy and shiny. Scintillation should be planted in partial shade, it can grow in full sun but then it needs more water. In fact almost all rhododendrons should be watered regularly. But be careful and do not overwater the plant. Soil shoulb be acidic but reach in humus and always moist.

Flowers are quite big, pink and really beautiful.

 

I can recommend this plant for everyone who would like to have in the garden a beautiful evergreen shrub with extraordinary flowers in spring.

Stay tuned with my blog! I will soon publish new posts about different plants, botanical gardens and parks. I will also inform you how to take care of  lawn. Best regards!

Climate in Poland

Hi again. Do you remember my last post here? I decided to reactivate my blog in English. Once a week you will find here some interesting (I hope) information about my garden and evergreen broadleaf plants. We still have winter in the central part of Poland. -3 at night, +2 during the day. But some heavy frost is coming to my area from "lovely" Russia. Anything they bring is so nice...

Nothing has changed in my garden since last Sunday so i think it's a good time to present you some information about the climate that we have here in Poland.

Poland has a moderate climate with both maritime and continental elements. This is due to humid Atlantic air which collides over its territory with dry air from the Eurasian interior. As a result, the weather tends to be capricious and the seasons may look quite different in consecutive years. This is particularly true for winters, which are either wet, of the oceanic type, or - less often - sunny, of the continental type. Generally, in north and west Poland the climate is predominantly maritime, with gentle, humid winters and cool, rainy summers, while the eastern part of the country has distinctly continental climate with harsh winters and hotter, drier summers.

Winters in my area can be snowy and cold. Sometimes temperature at night drops below -20 C. 

 

There are also some frost free periods when temperature even at night does not drop below 0 C.

Generally, Poland receives all kinds of air masses typical of the northern hemisphere. This results in a variable climate and considerable problems with weather forecasting. Poland's climate is also characterized by substantial weather changes in consecutive years, caused by disturbances in the pattern of main air masses coming to the country. Summer may be hot and dry a few times in a row and then it becomes cool and wet. This phenomenon tends to happen in several-year cycles. 

Summers can be very hot. Sometimes temperature reaches more than +38 C (in shady places). It can be much warmer in the sunshine.

Poland's climate is also strongly influenced by the lowland topography of this part of Europe, stretching from France to Ukraine. Not stopped by any natural barriers, air masses move quickly from the Atlantic or North Sea. Another factor is the country's location, far from vast water bodies (the Atlantic Ocean) and close to extensive land areas (Eurasia). The Baltic Sea is a major contributor to the climate of north Poland while the southern part of the country is also affected by the Black Sea.

We have four seasons in Poland. Spring arrives in March, bringing mainly sunny days after a period of alternating wintertime and springtime conditions. Summer, which extends from June to September, is generally more humid than winter. July is statistically considered to be the most humid month of the year.  Showers and thunderstorms alternate with dry sunny weather that is generated when southern winds prevail. Early autumn is generally sunny and warm before a period of rainy, colder weather in November begins the transition into winter. Winter, which may last from one to three months, brings frequent snowstorms but relatively low total precipitation.

USDA zones map shows the hardiness zones in Europe. Zones 6 and 7 are most famous for Central Europe (Poland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia...).

All information in this post is based on materails available on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Poland) with my additional correction. Another source that I used to create this post was official promotional website of the Republic of Poland http://en.poland.gov.pl/Climate,305.html

All the pictures were taken by myself in my garden.

Evergreen garden is back!

Hello my Dears! I haven't been here for such a long time. No posts, no comments, no pictures, no advices. But I'm back! Hope you will be back too. Starting from today every Sunday afternoon I will publish a post in English where I'll describe some plants from my garden, I will give you some advices sharing with you my experience in gardening. Everything, or maybe I should betters say most of information will be about evergreen broadleaf plants. But I will also show you my short or longer trips not only to different places in Polad but also abroad. We will visit some parks, botanic gardens and historical places. Everything scented with my favourite green colour. 

As I'm very interested in evergreen broadleaf plants there are lots of them in my garden. I live in Poland, close to Warsaw, on its south western suburbs. It's mostly 6B  USDA zone, but the place where I have my garden has local microclimate. There are lots of trees here and the forest is just outside the boundaries of my town. 

I will tell you something more about local climate at Brwinów and Podkowa Leśna in next posts. Now let's concentrate on things that happend in my garden last year. 

January brought some winter landscapes to the area where I live. Unfortunately in the beggining of 2016 there was a strong frost (-22 C) and no snow. Some plants did not withstand this.

 February was not so cold, with lots of sunny and warm days. I mean with the temperature about  +5, +8 C, which is warm for February here. For the first time I took part in National Meeting of Garden Blogers. It took place in Poznań during International Fares "Gardenia".

 March let me plant some flowers typical for incoming sring. They were so lovely!

Magnolias started to bloom in April. Next two pictures were taken in Botanical Garden in Powsin. I spent few plenty days in Georgia in the second part of April, visiting Batumi, Gori, Tbilisi and other beautiful towns that names I canot remember. They were very difficult.

May gave some time for asaleas and rhododendrons. I love them! I also loved few days in Milan, Bergamo and by the Como Lake in Italy.

Summer started in June. I opened my garden for visitors during one weekend in June. We celebrated Open Gardens Festival.

I visited a few nice Polish small towns and parks in July.

August. Top of the summer! It was not as hot as in 2015 when we experienced 17 days wit more then 30 C. My cat called Dyzio was very inrterested in ivies this month. 

September brought some showers that were very useful for tha planst bloomind at the stairs home.

One of my Japaneese maples looked so beautiful in the middle of October.

Some changes occured in my garden in November. I hope there were the last ones.

And December as usually gave us a gif of hoarfrost. It looked quite nice, didn't it.

See you next Sunday afternoon! Cheers!