The perils of perennial plants in snow

1eleagnus snowed inAh, I hadn’t thought of that. I’m just in from bashing snow off some of the shrubs.

And as I have planted almost two hundred of them over the past year, I didn’t think about this tricky cold week.

The poor olive tree outside our bedroom window is bowed down with heavy snow.  This has been an exceptional week for the white stuff. 1eleagnus1

Actually I seem to recall I have to do this job every few winters or so.  But I almost missed some of the cistus shrubs in the shade garden; they were almost hidden entirely by snow.

If a plant is completely covered I don’t mind. Like the santolinas.

They can stay cocooned under the duvet.  But the big shrubs like the eleagnus have branches which risk breaking under the weight. oliveinsnow

I took a broom and went shrub thumping.  And just in time. It’s not the sort of pruning I was planning when I wrote out my To Do list.