March 9th

Mar19

So normally my earliest of springtime posts build and build to a crescendo of oversharing of snowdrop photos and snowdrop stories… but not so much this year. We were locked in winter from December on through to the very last days of February, and it was just by good fortune or blessing that snowdrops were up and close enough to flowering to look presentable for sale at the Galanthus Gala on the 28th. But the garden was a different story, and far from presentable. March 1st had most of the snow melted and cleanup began immediately. Trimming and raking in a cold wind, trimming hellebores and unburying winter aconite in snow squalls. Tylenol and Motrin for winter-lazy knees and back. It all had to happen in just a few days because we went from tundra to short sleeve weather faster than ever. Things sprouted overnight and were in bloom by the afternoon. It was all too much of a rush.

One of the world’s favorite snowdrops, ‘S Arnott’ is sturdy and fragrant and pretty much perfect.

I was away on the next weekend, and in a way it was sad since the weather was nice enough to spend a whole day just poking around and sitting around and taking it all in, but I did make an excellent trade. There was a tour of several wonderful snowdrop+ gardens in the DC area and the plants were at a peak and the touring company was an A-list group of galanthophiles and the snowdrop-curious.

From a few scattered plantings, the winter aconite (Eranthis hiemalis) and snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) are finally beginning to make a show along the street.

Back at home the weather continued to warm. Nine days after the Gala everything had come into bloom and it was the fastest season I can recall. That Tuesday was beautiful and I raced home for most of these pictures and to just have some time to sit around and watch the flowers sway in the breeze, listen to the bees, and just take in the sights and scents of springtime bloom returned.

Even in the back garden some of the snowdrop singletons have finally become patches, and Begonia House doesn’t even look as squalid as usual.

But then over the next two days it became warmer and warmer still. June weather. Snowdrops find June weather to be exhausting and a sunny, nearly 80F (26C) day put many over the edge even if it did make for a good strolling day. Except for the storms which followed. Punishing downpours and wind for most of the night, followed by cold. Snowdrops can handle a good deal of weather but this was pushing it.

I love the Irish snowdrop ‘Kildare’. Such a nice form with green lines tracing down the outers, he’s a real beauty but never sells well because he looks floppy and anemic in a pot. I’ve noticed one or two other favorites do that, perhaps they’re offended to think I’m abandoning them to the sales table…

Just over a week into snowdrop season and it felt like it was over. Cold weather returned, more grey skies and the garden had that drowned rat look to it… but let’s look at a bunch of favorites from this year before we talk about wet rodents and such.

Yeah in spite of not wanting to like him, ‘Trumps’ keeps putting on a better show each year. Nice markings on an interesting pagoda-shaped bloom and a good grower as well.

I’m fortunate to have a spot which ‘Rosemary Burnham’ does well in and glad to be able to show off the patch even though she’s a little faded from the sun. Last year she didn’t look as good, so this spring was a relief!

I was somewhat whiny and offended last year when I dug a few bulbs of ‘Bloomer’ for the Gala table and they didn’t sell. Maybe my price was more the reason since I possibly didn’t want to part with them because it’s also a favorite drop.

‘Mother Goose’ is one of the drops which I dreamed of growing for years before finally tracking down and fitting into the budget. I’m quite happy with the golden inners.

A snowdrop with more of an apricot inner, ‘Shorbuser Irrlicht’ has a glow which I did not think I’d like when I saw some of the first photos. I thought it looked a little muddy or faded, but in person? It’s delightful!!

Oh, it’s not all snowdrops. Here’s a double Eranthis hiemalis ‘Gothengurg’ which I like a lot. Not a sheet of color-showy, but cool regardless.

‘Midas’ has golden inners matched with bright gold on the outers. A fine drop even if the outers fade faster than I’d like… but when it’s good, it’s great!

The snowdrop ‘Cliff Curtis’ is another favorite from year to year. A subtle smudge of faint green with two darker dots inside are the kind of details snowdrop weirdos love to go on about.

Galanthus ‘Magnet’ in front, and ‘Not Magnet’ behind. I think they look the same but was informed the one is not the true ‘Magnet’, so of course I had to get another from somewhere else, and now I’m sure they will tell me both are wrong. Oh the weirdos at it again.

Tuesday, March 9th was likely the peak of the snowdrops, or at least the peak of me being able to enjoy them. Wednesday was a late night and then the weather went downhill thereafter. The following weekend I went pansy shopping with friends and only forced them on a brief snowdrop tour in the cold, downtrodden garden beforehand. They claimed it was still full of snowdrops but it all looked hungover from the heat and cold and storms and I was not having it. Sunday was a little warmer. I’ll post a few more photos, and I’m still of course pleased it’s snowdrop season, but don’t fear the avalanche of endless identical photos filling this blog with white and more white since it’s not happening this year.

Have an excellent week regardless, and don’t let my gloom dampen the joy which is yet to come!

A Gala Recap

Mar5

As promised, my recap of the single gardening event which I most look forward to each year will be brief. I had an excellent time. I took three pictures. I am not a good historian or social media pro and I apologize, but I wanted to assure you that I met up with friends, made new ones and sold a good amount of snowdrops… and bought a decent amount of new plants. That was the goal and as usual the day flew by and too soon it seems the venue was cleared out and rooms went quiet. If I had to name a highlight it was catching up with friends whom I see far too little, but on a sales note I was most pleased to hear that some of my galanthus will end up on the West Coast in Heronswood Garden. I’m sure they keep impeccable records, and the thought that “Sorta Suburbia” will appear in their database amongst some of the greatest names in modern horticulture wows me. That is unless I got the story wrong. You never know. Maybe they’ll be gifted to someone before they make the flight, but for now let me live my dream.

The Sorta Suburbia contribution to the annual Gala auction. A healthy collection of snowdrops which will hopefully flourish for their new owner.

It looks like all the uncertainty and rush in the days prior worked out. Chipping frozen pots out of the ground, dragging plants in and out of the garage to keep them a bit warmer, sitting a few things under lights to push them along, and then a frenzied last day before when a few last plants were potted up and labels and prices went on. Figures this was also the week when I was staying at work until 8pm and one last blast of winter rolled through. I really didn’t know what would look good until the day before the sale, and that’s when I settled on one of the more important decisions, the auction items. A big pot of ‘Diggory’, a full pot of “Belvedere’s Gold’, and two doubles, ‘Celia’s Double’ and ‘Walter’s Double’. I was especially proud of the two doubles, but I’m afraid my little joke of having them both in there was lost on most people. They come from the garden of Celia and Walter Sawyer, and I suggested the couple should always grow together, but as usual this might be another case of my humor not quite landing. Also I had been planning on dropping the labeled plants off the morning of, but when a text to David Culp about which plant to actually include ended with ‘think presentation’ my entire plan was upended. I never even thought of presentation. I don’t do presentation. Presentation is fancy and those two words made me second guess everything! Long story short, better pots were found by pulling a few houseplants out of their quarters, a blanket of moss was scraped off the frozen earth, and a burlap table cloth was cut up for a wrapper for Celia and Walter. The snowdrops were still safe in their growing containers, but they were now tucked into something much more presentable. I was pleased.

‘The Wizard’ did not sell last year so were replanted back into the garden. One good thing to see was that even after sitting on the driveway for two or more weeks before replanting, these and other unsold plants did just perfectly. I’d hate to find out I was selling plants which would not thrive in their new homes.

Come to think of it there were a few instances of awkward moments and verbal duds. I guess people saw the Youtube tour from last summer or remembered me from the sales table at the previous Gala and my cloak of anonymity is officially torn and trashed. Tops was when a wonderfully friendly person came up to me and told me what a beautiful snowdrop garden I have and it almost became an argument because I don’t really, and was sure she didn’t mean me and kept insisting she had the wrong person. She even added that we had a friend in common and of course I can’t remember names either so that turned ugly as well. I really really hope she did mistake me for someone else because at least she thinks they’re a jerk and not me, but I do seem to remember her referring to me as Frank, so…

At home the beautifully warm Saturday brought on full bloom for the snowdrops near the house. In a close-up it looks amazing!

By Sunday I was home again, and safely removed from people other than those who have years of experience dealing with me, and although it was around freezing all day the sun was out and the snowdrops were sprouting… and I was in a panic because the front yard was a mess of dead stems and windblown trash and that all does not translate to an attractive springtime show. I bundled up and cleared a bunch. Monday after work I cleaned a bunch more and after an icy and rainy Tuesday break I finished most of the front yard today. Today was beautifully sunny and I bet if I didn’t check every snowdrop sprout before starting work I’d have gotten much further, but all work and no play is… sad.

So the snowdrops are exploding and the weather just gets warmer each day and of course I will likely not have time again until this Sunday, but don’t feel bad. I’m doing a few fun things and can’t complain… unless it gets too warm and everything goes over faster than it gets started which is a real possibility with still frozen ground today, yet a high next week of 79F (26C). I hope it doesn’t all burn up though, and I hope things are going well where you’re at and things are just as promising for you. Have a great week.

Not. Spring.

Feb26

So for a few days last week it warmed up, and the snow melted and there was even the sound of rain on the roof, and I’m always surprised by how odd that sounds after months without, but it’s not real. Snow came again, temperatures dropped, and thankfully we don’t have the 2+ feet of snow which my parents had to dig out of… well sort of… my 91 year old father was scolded for trying, but somehow his youthful bride went on to shovel paths to the birdfeeder and compost pile and fortunately called it quits when it came to the mailbox. She reluctantly called in a plow who did the rest of the digging out for them in exchange for a well-earned wad of cash. I held back a laugh when she said she wasn’t sure if my brother would be ok with the plow since he said he would come over and tackle it with the snowblower, but I know how my brother really feels about that job so was glad when things worked out as they did.

Welcome back to ‘Potter’s Prelude’, typically a late November bloomer, but due to a late start and then a couple months in the freezer, he’s only just now thawing out and coming back to life. Snow is a great insulator. Temperatures down to 0F and these delicate blooms are still perfect.

It was great to see plants again and poke around a bit and even clean up a few snowdrop patches, but it does not feel like spring yet. That’s a surprise from someone who will declare the season as soon as possible, but things are still sleepy even with a string of above freezing temperatures and a steady melt. The witch hazels were convinced a little after the fourth day without frost, but even then it was just a few tentative blooms which opened. The rest are still cautious. Caution is a good thing for witch hazels in this garden because it’s a dangerous land, full of witch hazel-eating bunnies who just wait for a fence to shift in the snow enough so they can get in and “severely prune” all the exciting new witch hazel grafts which I purchased last winter. They weren’t cheap by the way. To be on the safe side though, I ordered a few more. It’s an investment I told myself.

I would never be brave enough to give these young grafts such a hard-prune, but the bunnies had no problem. Perhaps this is just what they needed to branch out perfectly with strong new growth this summer… said with a mix of optimism and sarcasm…

Speaking of investments, I spent Saturday digging any snowdrops which looked remotely close to blooming, and potted them up for this Saturday’s Galanthus Gala in Downingtown Pa. I thought last year was a stressful, locked in cold for the Gala year, but this year tops it! There are a few trays filled. They’re up by the garage where it’s a little warmer, drug in when it’s cold and back out when it’s warmer and I hope they look well enough for the sale. I’m still hoping to add a few winter aconite if anything opens, but the clock is ticking down faster than the thermometer clicks up and I don’t think it’s is enough to inspire them to bloom.

Flats of snowdrops ready to head out to their new homes. Many average things, many I love, and a few treasures which I’m forcing myself to offer for sale in order to support my habit.

Saturday looks to be beautiful. Warm temperatures, bright sun and I shall be amongst fellow plant lovers and table after table of early spring goodies for sale. I’m excited. There will be engaging speakers, a fun and oftentimes dramatic auction, and from what I hear there might be a ticket or two which have become available to the in-person Saturday afternoon talks, but that opportunity may have already passed, so check this >link< before you get your hopes up. Even without a ticket to the talks, virtual tickets are a thing, and with that you can watch at your leisure and still take in all the plant sales and the auction, and if you skip tickets altogether the sales area and auction are still worth the trip, all for just the price of showing up.

I hope to see you there, and promise to take plentiful pictures and give a full report for those who can’t make it. -Sorry, just kidding. I get caught up in the day and never remember to snap a photo until it’s cleanup time, so I’ll apologize ahead of time. Hope you are having a wonderful week and hang in there. Spring will come, and for us it might be as early as next week which would be nice.

Winter. Continued.

Feb8

What a failure. After all that effort during Plantness some fat groundhog comes out of a hole and declares six more weeks of winter, and here we are staring at snow and a thermometer which doesn’t budge. What a jerk. Might as well blame my knee joints as well as that smelly rodent, since in years past I would love this weather for skiing, and just go do that instead, but recently I’ve begun to think about consequences rather than dealing with consequences, and when you start doing that the idea of throwing yourself off the edge of some snowy mountainside doesn’t hold up as well. Plus it’s become ridiculously expensive. I feel stupid spending that much money and still being able to see my house.

The garden covered in snow. It’s evaporating in the sun rather than melting, but at least it’s not a couple inches of ice which is what our more southern neighbors received.

So rather than get outside and embrace the season, I’ve been drifting aimlessly through hours in front of the tv and far too many family size candy bags which are hidden and consumed as a family of one. Even reading has been too much of an effort, but maybe if I just sit down and write a blog entry that can help me turn a corner. It is bright and sunny out so that’s a win at least, if it were gray and snowing again I’m 98% sure this would be a day of endless scrolling and sofa-sitting.

When I did finally drag myself through the garden it was only to see the rabbit damage. Here along the house the bottom three feet of the hollies have been nibbled and turned into rabbit poop. I actually feel bad that they have had to resort to spiny holly leaves to fill their tummies in this snow covered world.

Sorry for such a grumpy post. I’m bored and don’t even have the motivation to consider online shopping but perhaps that’s a good thing? There’s a late-winter shopping event on the horizon and to be honest I might be saving up for it. Have you ever heard of David Culp’s Galanthus Gala? I’m there and selling again and although the weather means I have next to nothing ready to actually sell, the fact it’s almost Gala time means I can finally do redress for one of my worst mistakes of 2025.

Last year was my first year of trying to sell at the Gala, and amongst professional growers and experienced plantsmen, even my decades of “market research” left me feeling nervous and unprepared. In the end it went well enough, but amidst the stress and pressure of making money and hopefully not losing it I held back on purchases, and let me tell you that was an epic mistake. I will not repeat this. New snowdrops, hellebores, cyclamen, and whatever else will fill my car on the return journey even if it means buying more than I can responsibly fit into my garden. I remember a bit of panic last year as fantastically colored hellebores went back to the nursery without new owners and I thought, would it be weird if I yelled ‘no!, wait a minute’? This year I’m yelling. Even those plants which you might look at and wonder ‘who would pay that much?’ are fair game this year and I will worry about the bills next month. Gosh it feels good saying that and I should warn my daughter since she’s helping again and I want to prepare her. Maybe we should work out a bribe which includes forgetting prices. Hmmmmm.

Enjoy your week. If you’re in the midst of winter I hope warmer weather is on the way and if you’re drowning in rain I wish you sunshine. If you are having that perfect spring day good for you but keep it to yourself.

Plenty of Plantness

Jan19

Ideally Plantness should be a national holiday so that everyone, well I guess everyone except purveyors of plants, is able to head out each morning and find their daily plant goodies without pressures of starting times or quitting times. Work really gets in the way. The weather as well. Saturday we made our big Plantness road trip in spite of the Pennsylvania weather, only to arrive and find that our first stop was closed because of the snow! I guess we should have lingered over breakfast for a little longer because now, to kill time, we had to resort to chips and soda on overly-firm wooden chairs pulled up to a table at a gas station “dining” area. Every now and then we’d poke our heads out to see if the plows had cleared the lot yet, and every now and then we would eye the candy display or contemplate the quality of gas station nachos.

A Plantness bouquet with some average and some surprising elements. I think the tiny orange blooms are safflower (Carthamus) and the blue of the campanula was also unexpected.

After about an hour and a half the snow stopped and the plows rolled through and we headed over but were informed that the boss with the keys was still about 20 minutes away and struggling with the terrible roads. No problem. Kimberley had her magic purse along and was able to pull out the fixings for a charcuterie to nibble on while we waited further in the car. Sharp cheddar and some summer sausage on baguette rounds, with various other snacks and chocolates can make any wait far less painful. We even seemed super-patient while we waited for the walks to get shoveled and salted rather than surging through the doors the second they unlocked. Amateurs we are not.

An overview of the Plantness loot on day 8.

We bought plants. We were the only customers. It sounds like Allentown Pennsylvania does not celebrate Plantness the way we do so I won’t feel bad when winter lingers a little more down their way.

So on Day 8 of the Ten Days of Plantness here’s were we are. Day 1: snowdrops ordered, 2: I accepted a gifted variegated dracaena, days 3&4: a variegated pothos ‘Jade and Pearls’ from my local go-to Hidden Gardens, along with a tropical pitcher plant (Nepenthes) days 5,6: two more plant gifts, a tiny earth star (Cryptanthus) offset which I had been hinting at, and a cutting of scindapsus… which I had also been hinting at 🙂 Then for day 7 at our snowed out greenhouse I picked up a chlorophytum orchidastrum (Mandarin plant)… which I’d never heard of until that day, but it’s in the spider plant family and was labeled as ‘easy’, so…. and I think it looks cool, even if it does remind me a bit of a houseplant hosta. Okay, two more things which we picked up at the next spot after heading out into the snow again. For days 8 and also 9 I have two new bromeliads. They’re somewhat noticeable in the photo. I’m quite happy.

Labeled as “bromeliad” this one lacks the ‘teeth’ most of my other ones have, and one can run their hands along a leaf without looking for a set of tweezers to remove the barbs. I think it’s a remarkable leaf pattern.

I was on a self-imposed bromeliad ban but it doesn’t look like that’s lasted since I just picked up two new ones, and that’s fine since it’s Plantness and plant bans don’t apply. Plus I could have easily selected a third and I didn’t, but I won’t rule out adding another sometime this week or this season because as long as the ban has already been broken…

Pothos are boring. My mom had one half a century ago on the mantle and they’re still kinda the same thing just with new variegations. I still love them but never thought I would pay for it rather than share a cutting but here we are with ‘Jade and Pearls’.

Day ten is possibly also satisfied since I have the Plantness bouquet which was my first photo. In an awkward moment I walked into the house with the bouquet and someone here asked if they were for her and I had to say no. If I gifted them they wouldn’t count for Plantness, and even though my well-trained brain was screaming ‘yes! of course they’re for you’ my arms were also carrying two boxes of pizza and thank goodness that was enough to save me from going down in flames. There was also ice cream, that’s probably what really saved me.

So I hope your Plantness is going just as well… minus the snowstorms. If I were a rule-follower I’d stop at ten, but Cathy at Words and Herbs was sharing her Plantness goodies and I saw the perfect glossy, spring-edition garden magazine and I knew that’s one more thing I need. The ten day forecast does not show gardening weather, and a few magazines with pictures of hellebores and crocus, and a snowdrop or ten would be perfect for a little snug under a blanket reading. Enjoy! and all the best for a wonderful week.

Plantness 2026!

Jan13

Once again it’s that most wonderful time of the gardening year… it’s the first day of Plantness! Obviously you knew that but when I saw it hadn’t appeared automatically on my phone calendar, I thought good-golly I better make an official announcement! So here it is. January 12th is the first day of the ten days of Plantness, a celebration of hope and renewal and a way to get through the ten coldest days of the year (in my zone at least) with an eye on the warming weather which is our future. The winter solstice has passed, but even with a few minutes added each day the strength of the sun still isn’t quite enough to slow the cooling until about a month later. For us that’s January 21st when the average temps start to increase again, and by celebrating Plantness we make our way through those last coldest nights to turn the tide and begin to see things warming up again.

This bromeliad was a 2024 Plantness plant. Two years later and it’s in three pots around the winter garden and care amounts to nothing more than toping off the water in the leaves every week or two. I’ve never even fertilized.

So on each of the ten days I shall add a new plant in celebration. That’s basically the point of the holiday, force yourself to add something new each day, and for as easy (and possibly reckless) as that might sound, it’s really not! It’s the depths of winter and places are closed or pickings are sparse. The (other)holiday season wore a couple people out. We’ve been doing it for a two years now and sometimes it takes a kick in the butt kind of attitude to put on a coat and go out into the dark for a little plant shopping after work, but we know what’s at stake. Giving Plantness it’s proper dues will guarantee an early spring and if taking on a few new plants is what it takes, I’m there.

‘Brasil’ heartleaf philodendron was a grocery find and I still love it. After a poky start it’s really taking off and probably due for a hanging pot finally rather than any more draping across furniture.

“But wait, I can’t possibly fit in ten more plants, but I also don’t want it to be my fault that winter stretches on forever!” -yes, that’s a responsible thought but please try harder. There’s a range of options which count and I think everyone can do their part. New plants count, but so do plant accessories, plant pots, plant soil, outdoor plant orders, seed orders… plant society memberships, plant books, garden tools, garden accessories… cut flowers… basically if you think about plants when you’re buying it, it works… unless it’s a fake plant of course, that never counts.

A Plantness favorite, this variegated Boston fern, aka tiger fern, was a little four inch pot of coolness from a specialty greenhouse visited two years ago.

Alright, I’ll admit it’s a little tricky getting out every day so here are a few of the cheat codes for properly celebrating Plantness. Multiple items picked up on the same day count forward, ie: three things today will cover Mon, Tues, and Wed. Gifted plants always count towards the receiver, but might count for the giver if purchased in the appropriate timeframe. Things ordered but not received can count on the order day… or whenever, and pre-Plantness purchases might also count, particularly if purchased on credit and you have yet to pay the bill. Even gifted plantness items count if they’re given prior to Plantness -because maybe someone couldn’t wait any longer for that first greenhouse run of the new year and had to make space- you can count these early gifted items as well, just don’t ‘officially’ accept them until after the 12th. Perhaps it sounds complicated. It can be. Message me if you need help, and if in doubt, err on the side of caution and just buy it!

A closeup of the tiger fern. I’m wondering if I separate a few all-chartreuse divisions out, if they would remain stable and if that’s a good thing.

One of the important nuances of Plantness is that longevity doesn’t matter, in fact I encourage people to buy plants which they know will die because as you might guess, dead plants don’t take up windowsill space, so toss the poinsettia and bring home a few florist cyclamen and spring primula…. and then feel free to put them out on the back steps the minute you get bored.

I was way too excited to get this variegated snake plant (Sansevieria ‘Sayuri’) and hope I didn’t scare anyone when I immediately snatched it off the shelf. Sadly, it’s barely grown since last year and I think it’s me.

I hope you enjoy this year’s ten days of Plantness. I’ll try and post a few updates as the season goes on but I can’t make any promises. Please join me though. My first Plantness purchase, and the reason I didn’t finish this post last night, was a snowdrop order from The Temple Nursery. The catalog arrived Friday and to even wait one day on sending in an order risks missing out on your choices (so I can’t believe I sat on it through Saturday) but it’s en route now and we will cross our fingers.

A reliable Thanksgiving bloomer, ‘Potter’s Prelude’ is late this year with all the cold. Our January thaw had me out taking photos of this drop since it’s finally in bloom, but by the time I got around to this end of the garden a snow squall had changed the tone.

Tomorrow I’m working late, so maybe a grocery store stop? Wednesday I might try and hit Hidden Gardens which is my local wintertime greenhouse treat, and by the weekend my friends and I are planning a daytrip South to bigger greenhouses and more fun. Fingers crossed a cake will be involved.

Hope you have as much fun with this as we do, and let me know how it goes! Have a great week 🙂

The Winter Garden ’26

Jan4

It’s a beautiful Sunday morning, with an emphasis on sun because that’s what’s important this time of year. It makes the snow and frost twinkle and the white reflect and it’s fantastically bright unless it’s not. Recently there’s been plenty of ‘not’ and short grey days do not bring the fantastic as well as the sun does. Here are two obligatory snow-themed photos. They were taken on a less-grey moment yesterday since my camera skills can’t handle the brightness of a sun filled snow day.

‘Nuisance snow’ has kept the garden mostly white all December but there have been no larger storms. That’s a good thing for garden insulation and protection… and a great thing for the snow shoveling back!

During one of the beautifully sunny plus warm days last week I actually picked up a pruner and did some work. The rambling ‘Wartberg’ rose on the arbor has been getting twiggy and messy and it seemed like a good thing to tackle since I had the ladder out anyway for a gutter inspection. Just so you know, I don’t think it’s the right time to prune rambling/climbing roses. Raw cuts in the middle of winter is one thing but there’s also the fact these bloom on old wood, so it’s possible I’m cutting off potential flowers… but I had the ladder, I had the pruners, and I had the itch to do something in the frozen garden, so there you go.

All the trimmings were left where they fell and another dusting of snow showed just how pleased the rabbits were to get at all those tasty rose bits. Half are gone already and it’s nice to see the bunnies making themselves useful for once!

So it’s been cold and one rose was pruned, so what happened to all the other hours of the day you may ask? Here’s the long story. I bought a fish tank. 55 gallons and it’s too heavy for one person to lift even empty, so buying the tank was the easy part and now I needed something strong to put it on. Enter weeks of thrift store visits looking for solid old cabinets that were big but not too big, ugly but not too ugly, old but not too old. I finally had a $10 winner and found the help to drag it home and into the basement since the plant room was now going to become a plant/fish room… which seemed obvious once I thought about it. Days of cleaning, sanding, painting, sealing, polishing and the cabinet looks decent and the drawer pulls look like pulls you would touch again with bare hands. I set it up. It was still heavy. The room still needs work… as in finished walls, so I decided to fill a smaller old fish tank with water rather than the new one since it would be way to heavy to move again if work ever gets started on the walls. Better to start the fish thing up again on a smaller scale anyway, rather than 55 gallons all at once, so what to do with a big tank fitted with a light and a nice substrate of gravel?

A 55 gallon terrarium. Fortunately I had a few spare plants on hand to fill things in a little and get it started.

So in my head I imagine that people who come across this blog faithfully keep track of every adventure and meticulously recall things which run through my mind, even if they’re never mentioned. I’m sure that’s an easily diagnosed condition or something but to address it let me recap this basement talk with a quick summary. We built an addition to the house. Two years ago I broke through into the new basement from the old and am slowly turning this unheated, unfinished space into my winter garden with a bunch of cheap LED shoplights. The winter garden adventure started years ago in the back of the garage and has escalated each year but never as badly as when it moved into this basement space. I highly recommend it 🙂

The yellow form of baby’s tears (Soleirolia soleirolii) in the tank is a new thing for me. I’ve seen it in real conservatories as a groundcover or something to cover bare soil in pots and it’s probably a weed in real life so maybe it has just the right hardiness and vigor for me to grow.

So it seems a lot of work was put into a new fishtank only to leave it fish-free, and it might be odd that I’d clean and set up the 30 year old tank which was there the whole time instead but here we are. It gives the winter garden a nice bubbling water effect.

The fish tank, the one with actual fish, is the new centerpiece of the winter garden. Goldfish are the fish of choice.

This is a lot of fish talk for a gardening blog, so let’s move on to the plants of the winter garden. Again, for the casual visitor, this new basement winter garden is home to all the houseplants and overwintering tropicals which needed shelter from the ice and cold outside. It’s not heated but warm enough for most, and it’s a different group of plants when compared to my second winter garden which exists out in the less-heated-but-also-not-freezing-garage winter garden. The garage is for real work, seed-starting, and overwintering annuals plus a home for cool-weather blooming things like cyclamen and primula. I’m sure most people divide their winter gardens in a similar way.

Ferns and ficus, begonias and bromeliads, and pretty much anything else which needed a winter home after spending the summer on a porch or the shaded side yard.

Just like many things here, this new basement winter garden started out innocently enough and then escalated. Last summer a $6 kiddie pool inspired a fountain and goldfish pond on the back porch, so why not store it in here for the winter? The fountain fish are wintering in a (third?) fishtank at school, but the fish-free fountain makes a nice addition to the basement.

Scraps of astroturf, leftover tiles and bricks, all found a home in the winter garden. Even an old dresser mirror came out of the storage room for this.

Other than still not having actual walls, the new winter garden did make some progress this year and it’s finally become the winter conservatory which I’m too cheap and poor to actually have. I can sit down there sipping tea, basking in the growlights, and even inhaling the fragrance of citrus blooms because my lemon tree is currently in bloom. The actual plant looks questionable but it does have the strength to put out a bounty of blooms and I appreciate that.

Lemons which might have grown as much as they ever will, followed by blooms for next season’s fruit.

To me the blooms are a hopeful sign for a bounty of growth next summer, assuming the plant makes it through to next summer. Also hopeful is the condition of my $7 clearance palms which are not yet dying in the far corner of the conservatory. I’m pretty sure they’re Manilla palms (Adonidia) which are supposed to be trickier indoors, but all I’m hoping for is status quo for the next four months until they go outdoors again. Hopefully they can drag death out for five months at least.

Some of the palms are thinking about new leaves, but I think three or four have lost their growing points, something which happened prior to me purchasing them, and likely a fatal loss.

This post is becoming much longer than I was planning, which isn’t a surprise considering my record so let me end on two things. First I want to brag endlessly about the first winter garden harvest, a crop of calamondin oranges off what was probably last summer’s most extravagant purchase. I think I spent around $34 on it in June, but as it flowered throughout the summer and began to form tiny fruits I decided the expense was worth it. Even now I can recall the sweet fragrance as I sipped coffee on a humidity soaked morning on the back deck last August. In spite of the sweet fragrance our sampling of one of the tiny oranges this week determined the flavor to be anything but sweet. They’re beautiful but sour. I see they make decent preserves though and perhaps I can con a friend into transforming them into something toast worthy.

A little calamonin on the winter garden bench. Studies show people are far more impressed by these than anything else I’ve ever grown.

Okay, second thing and I’m done. We have a new puppy consuming all the time which isn’t spent on fishtanks and flowers and holiday festivities. ‘Lemon’ has a bunch of energy and a full contact play style which six year old Biscuit does not share, so someone has to either take his place or act as referee while she learns how things roll here at Sorta Suburbia. Eventually something is bound to give and it’s likely that something will be us, as we bend to her will.

Introducing ‘Lemon’ who arrived here two weeks ago. For the record no one in this house with a ‘Y’ chromosome was involved in selecting the name.

Puppies, new fish and plants. I’m well positioned for the new year and I hope you are as well, and although my enthusiasm on the very last day of vacation might not completely reflect my enthusiasm for a return to pre-dawn commutes, the days get longer from here on and that’s a good thing. Plus! Plantness approaches 🙂

January 12th is the first day of Plantness, and I’m sure you know that but just in case I’ll give a reminder and a summary in the next post. In the meantime I wish you an excellent week!

Happy Holidays!

Dec27

I hope the holiday season finds you well! So far so good here, with plenty to do and get done but also plenty of couch sitting. We’ve had cold and we’ve had snow and to be honest I’m bored with the frozen, sleeping garden. Things haven’t changed much in the past month and I haven’t either, and by that I mean things haven’t shifted to indoor mode at all. The dormant gardener should be cleaning tools, sorting seeds, reading, planning and relaxing and this one just isn’t there yet. Solstice came and went and the days are barely longer again, Christmas rushed by with gifts, food and family (sadly less than usual when the weather interfered with our holiday visit to Long Island) and now more snow, and more looking out the window wondering what everyone else does when the cold settles in.

Beautiful sunshine and warm air greeted us on Christmas Eve and the fall blooming snowdrops were again in full bloom. These are ‘Barnes’ in front and a Montrose elwesii in back.

Until recently skiing would take over when the garden closed down but prices have nearly doubled over the last couple years and my enthusiasm has not. I’m considering passing the torch to the youngsters and exploring other winter options such as online shopping and tv watching. So far results have been mixed. The only shopping I know I need to look into is buying a new batch of hens and chicks. The new rock garden seems to produce the most delicious and tender plant growth and our local rabbits do not hold back. Hens and chicks (sempervivum) are listed all over as easy to grow and only eaten as a last resort but here they take the top menu spot in spite of the lush weed-filled lawn surrounding the rockery. Nearly everything has been gnawed down to the roots. Dianthus and daphne as well but oddly enough the pink dandelions have been untouched. It’s almost as if they’re doing it out of spite. During the latest snow event the smelly and spicy artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ was chewed up and I can’t imagine any artemisia being something a rabbit would eat but there you go. I imagine I have a bunch of black-licorice loving rabbits roaming the garden. They would probably eat Haggis and liver if I left it out for them.

The decimated rock garden. Just a few egg shells remain from the hens and chicks, the only ones which might survive are a few tucked in elsewhere between the rocks.

Spray was helping but I’m just not motivated enough to keep up a spray routine when I’m spraying snow drifts. Fencing would work but I just can’t convince myself to look at some fence and cage setup all year, so I guess we are at a standoff. Maybe I’ll get some more sensible rabbits again, one which read the books and raid the vegetable garden rather than the medicine cabinet… we will see.

But I digress. I hope you’re rounding out 2025 and looking forward to the new year while still enjoying the old, and I hope winter is treating you well. A little downtime isn’t the worst thing!

A Week of Flowers

Dec8

Thanks to Cathy over at Words and Herbs for giving me the kick in the pants I needed to get a post up on this blog! Actually there was no kick involved, not even a frowny face or mildly judgmental word from Cathy, just the thought of missing this year’s week of flowers was enough to motivate me off the sofa. Cathy’s week of flowers is such a cheery reminder of the warmth and color of the growing season it was just what I needed to reset from the gray and cold which has become the norm. Decorating for the holidays was fine and accomplished on schedule, but when I found myself moping around, cleaning a closet and eyeing the garage, I knew things were getting tricky.

So forget Monday through Saturday and let me start and end this week of flowers on the last day of the week with the first flowers of the year. I’m sure many of you would guess we would start with snowdrops 😉

March still seems a world away but every single thaw between now and then will have me thinking of snowdrops. Here they are basking in the first warm sunshine of the new garden year.

Once the first flowers arrive they’re followed by wave after wave of color. A wave which I always look forward to is the flush of tulips and daffodils which fill April and run over into May. This photo is from 2024 and I almost regret not digging and replanting all these beds again last year… well I do regret it but I don’t miss the work, and I also don’t miss the disease worries about tulip fire ruining the flowers here… the new plantings out front and in more open locations have been fire-free so far.

Tulips filling the potager beds. Many are still there, but not the masses of years past.

The waves of spring flowers end with an avalanche of early summer blooms. Iris, clematis, peonies, roses, all the most amazing flowers of the year arrive in June and it would be nice to show them but perhaps I’ll show a weed instead. Milkweed. Not quite the same as a pergola smothered in roses, but I like them just as well and it’s something a little different.

An early summer border filled with milkweed and other colorful weeds, backed with the purple smoke of cotinus ‘Royal Purple’.

If you’re counting, this fourth photo in a week of flowers should coincide with Thursday already, and we are into July. I’ve selected daylilies of course and these take me through some of the hottest days of summer, each day offering a fresh new bloom even as the gardener begins to fade in the heat. Some people are not daylily-people and for years I tried to resist but once again I’ve fallen off the wagon and am collecting and growing far more than I should.

The daylily farm. Color galore just days before the backhoe arrived.

Perhaps you recall what happened to the daylily farm this past summer. If not it involved a backhoe and sewer lines and a whole new garden to replant after the old garden was destroyed. If the garden year were still just a week I’d say Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all spent repairing but that would just not be true. Any small project can turn into an excuse to replant everything so I’ll say Friday is summer annuals. They started strong with a relentlessly wet spring but then the clouds cleared and the sun and heat did their work.

Coleus are always reliable annual color, but this year the bougainvillea also put on quite a bold show. Don’t ask me what the secret is, all I know is it was appreciated!

Annuals are work but Hydrangea paniculata is not. Saturday is a celebration of the late summer show these shrubs put on faithfully every single year. I like the ones which go pink as the flowers develop. I took a bunch of cuttings. We will see. I don’t need any more but of course will take a few more.

Hydrangea ‘Vanilla Strawberry’ shows excellent color if the nights are cooler and the rains don’t completely abandon us all of August. To counter this I give the bushes a light trim in May to delay some of the bloom, and usually this puts them beyond the most brutal weeks of the summer.

I have one day left. It’s Sunday and I feel bad neglecting the asters, colchicum and chrysanthemums of Autumn but let me go around back to where we started. The snowdrops are here again and should take this gardener through the shortest and darkest days of the year back into the next growing season.

One of the earlier fall-blooming snowdrops, ‘Barnes’ has been very reliable for me here in NE Pa, even when the winter weather takes a turn towards brutal. They’re buried in snow right now but should thaw out just fine if we get a break in the cold.

So that’s my week of flowers which all happened in one day 😉 Thanks again to Cathy for breaking me out of my blogging slump and hopefully giving me the restart I needed! The garden is covered in snow and the forecast looks cold, but maybe there’s something in the winter garden worth sharing so I’ll try and get to that. In any case have a excellent week and I wish you many weeks of flowers 🙂

Okay. Summer is Over

Oct31

Yes, I’m often really slow to pick up on things, especially when I’m really determined to hold on to my optimism or ignorance, but eventually the wrecking balls roll in and the troops hit the streets and you realize there’s a change in the weather and the freedom of summer is dying. I’ll miss it. Most people saw it coming and warned me to be prepared, but a few sunny days can fool you into thinking no big deal, there’s time, it can’t turn on you so fast… until suddenly it does and it’s your turn to face a killing frost.

An autumn crop of lettuce likely won’t amount to anything significant, but it does make things look better than they really are. Someone will get a nice salad. Probably not me, but…

Monday morning we woke up to a frosty morning. It’s just a touch of ice and many of the natives are just fine, but tender stuff like dahlias and cannas from Mexico and points south got burnt, and will now need lifting and winter protection in order to make it through the approaching cold.

Aromatic aster, either ‘Raydon’s Favorite’ or ‘Bluebird’, I forget… is still in full bloom and will go on into November. It’s great doer.

Fortunately we’ve had plenty of rain to cover up all the stresses the garden faced this summer, and the asters and mums are as nice as ever and the fall color here in the lower elevations at least had enough time to color up rather than just give up. As far as autumns go it wasn’t too bad I guess, but summer is still my preferred season and these last few weeks were more of a long hanging-on than any real admission that fall is here.

A chrysanthemum seedling which a friend gave me a few years back. Hardy and reliable and an excellent flower which more than makes up for her floppy form.

So I guess I’m admitting that fall is here. The leaves have changed, the tender plants are under protective custody indoors and it’s moved on to all the little tasks which need doing before the cold and ice lock us all down for a winter.

Sunday foliage and flowers. By Monday the orange thunbergia was a wilted memory.

For a few weeks more it’s still nice though. The colors and light are superb, the lawn has recovered some of its spring lushness, and a shovel sinks into the soil rather than being rejected. Time for replanting, mulching, protecting, maybe some pruning… all those last minute things which are fine as long as the weather holds, but just not fun when a cold front rolls through.

This ‘Arnold’s Promise’ witch hazel always runs through rings of color as the leaves turn. Witch hazels are awesome.

Hmmm. Maybe I better end on a more cheerful note because the rain and Mellissa’s march through the Caribbean seem to have me in a gloomy mood. Here are some promises for a wonderful winter starting with the hardy cyclamen which are popping up here and there throughout the beds. Cyclamen hederifolium is probably the most varied and easiest and I’ll show just one picture with a few last flowers since there will be time all winter to show off the foliage on the rest of them.

A few last flowers wrapping up a month and a half of bloom on cyclamen hederifolium. I’m always tempted to pot a few dozen up so I can admire them one by one… but under my care that’s a likely death sentence so in the garden they stay.

Oh and do you know what else is on the way? Yeah, snowdrops. The earliest fall bloomers are opening and they look great this year.

The first fall bloomer in my garden is ‘Tilebarn Jamie’ and even at a later date this would be a beautiful and reliable snowdrop worth giving a try.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve mentioned snowdrops… maybe at least two weeks… but they’re on my mind again after what might have been overload this past spring. Perhaps preparing a sales table for the Gala made it work, and maybe that work made it less fun, but I think this year I can organize a little better and get back to the fun I usually have. Maybe I’m also itching to add a few new ones rather than faking “responsibility” and trying to say ‘no’ more than I’d like to. Maybe this spring I’ll be saying ‘why not?’ Maybe I’ll start this fall. More fall bloomers would be good and I know a guy and why not?

Have a great weekend 🙂

sorta like suburbia

more than you ever wanted to know about my garden