Spring 2015

Spring got off to a good start with abundant rain in March, which gave way to warm, sunny weather in April.  Then it got weird.  At the beginning of May the temperature reached into the thirties, breaking the all-time May temperature record for Europe in Sicily.  Barely two weeks later, on 14 May, a mass of hot, dust laden air from the Sahel, blown round the bulge of Africa, came blasting across the Iberian peninsula.  That all-time May record was broken again, with 44C recorded near Valencia.  Here in Mallorca, Alcudia topped 40C, pretty crazy given that the sea is still below 20C at that time.  At Alconasser it reached 36C, with a strong wind making for conditions in which you hope not to see a fire starting.  Fortunately the whole event was short, over in a day, without the damage to olive flower that can occur with prolonged spring heat.

That unsettling foretaste of climate change notwithstanding, spring produced its usual floral glory. Here is Cistus albidus, a plant which has re-colonised an area which had been completely covered by rubble a few years ago.  It flowers over a long period, from March into June, with the peak around May.

The iris has got to be one of the greatest garden plants for this climate, producing a magnificent display around the same time, and requiring absolutely no care at all.  What I haven´t established is if it has any use; I have read some claims of medicinal properties, but remain sceptical of their scientific basis.  It is widely grown in gardens in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, where folk do not normally go in for suburban fripperies, but I did not have the persistance at the time to find out what it was grown for.  It forms a dense mass of rhizomes which may be effective at preventing grass cover but, unlike Chasmanthe, it does not die back in summer.  Here it's growing around vines, which do not appear to be bothered by it.

And of course at this time of year we're looking forward to lots of lovely fruit.  Well, lots of is still a bit optimistic, but trees in their fourth and fifth years are producing a nice little crop. This blossom is on one of the Menorca apple varieties planted four years ago, which have been slower growing than the stone fruit, but seem to be doing well. 

The citrus which I have dug up and potted are thriving, while those still in the ground are barely growing.  I think think the cypress trees along the edge of their terrace are to blame, their roots coming up below the irrigated citrus trees.  The pots are in the same location, so it can't just be the spot that doesn't suit them.  I have a few gigantic containers, but the effort required to fill them is considerable and not particularly back friendly, so I´ve only done one so far.  I filled the bottom with half rotten pine wood, partly to fill the space, partly as an experiment in container hugelkultur.