Dasha, 'Anouk' does well in its first year I find, but by the 3rd season I think it starts to deteriorate and in a pot can suffer winter wet. Here's mine just now, those lower shoots are developing flowering buds, but most is on top. This lavender is cheap to buy, so I don't mind if they don't last long.. I think this plant will look much better in another 3 weeks or so. I am now taken by this Lavender 'Victory', which has larger flowers and a more open habit. Remains to be seen how it survives winters.

That is strange indeed, but thanks all, for confirming I am not going mad! Don’t know when it went as I haven’t checked in for a while. Yeah we talked about starting a new one at the end of this month, Pete but that wouldn’t delete the old one. ETA.. Right, I’ll just go ahead and start the new one if that’s OK with Marlorena and everyone, lets hope it sticks around!

@Peter Aberdeen not one and the same as @PeteS? I was entranced by your pros @Peter Aberdeen in your post 5 months ago. such keen references to William Shakespere and Robert Frost! Ah. The rose that refused to climb as instructed - how inconvenient when she chose not to bloom for an arrangementnshe never agreed to, in fact one hidden from her. i see the pruning for what it is: not gardening, but disposal cloaked in metaphor. you speak in verse to veil exploitation, call it poetry when it is PATTERN - manipulation manipulation, deception deception, the harvesting of trust for private sport. Low context now: women are not cultivars, and backyard swinging is Not Soulwork. Whatever mask you wear, be it Frost’s regret, Shakespeare’s flourish or Maya’s name, it does not conceal the culture youve created, nor the harm it has done. but still, like dust, I’ll rise. Like air, I I’ll rise. Out of huts of history’s shame, I rise. Up from a past thats rooted in pain, I rise. Into a daybreak thats wonderously clear, I rise. Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise, I rise, I rise. oh…does my sexiness upset you? does it come as a surprise? that i dance like ive got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs? too bad the theatre in your mind sio rich with metaphor and masked intention wasnt spent tending the one who stood by your side, ride or die, like a penguin in winter. but instead, you picked the garden bare, mistaking conquest for connection, and called it cultivation. @peteflowers

Islay, sorry did not get back to you before….I’m sure there must be animals kept outside in Italy in May in the warm temperatures, I’m just saying that I travelled across the country up the north and down the west by train, parts of Veneto, Lombardy, Piemonte and Liguria and did not see one animal. I looked up the internet as I thought this very strange and found other stories of people who were equally confounded. Apparently it is a thing that particularly dairy cattle in some areas are kept indoors the whole year and fresh grass is cut and carted to them daily. Called ‘zero grazing’ I guess I’m used to seeing herds of dairy cattle Fresians, Jerseys etc in paddocks here in Australia plus huge herds of beef cattle, mainly Angus and of course many many sheep… when driving through the countryside. I am unable to link to articles but have posted some screenshots that may enable you to follow up if you are interested.