Brrrrrrrrrr

Feb15

Damn groundhog. After all the work we put into the Days of Plantness the stupid groundhog has to go see his shadow and bring six more weeks of winter onto us all. Everything here is trying to sprout, but it’s just one cold night after another and I can only imagine the mess that would be if we didn’t do Plantness in January. It could be colder. We haven’t had much snow. I bet that extra orchid I bought stopped a blizzard or something so you’re welcome.

Of course this is the year that I was hoping for a mild winter and early spring so that I could do a few really important things in February, mainly get a bunch of snowdrops ready to bring to a certain Galathus Gala for a sales table. Yeah, a sales table. Long story short, last November I was convinced by someone that I’m capable of selling snowdrops at this year’s Galanthus Gala in Downingtown Pa, so we will see… and perhaps you will see it as well if you make it down there in two weeks! I think the in-person talks and early entry are all sold out (click >here< for ticket info) but from ten through the afternoon anyone can stop by just to look and browse, and even if you’re outside the area, virtual tickets for all the talks are also available. I’m anxiously excited yet a little nervous. Anonymity is so much easier when you’re not lined up against a wall at a table, and I am a big fan of being anonymous at these things 😉

I potted up a bunch of snowdrops in December “just in case” and so far so good. Here they are open to the elements for a breather. I’m not crazy about a frosting of ice, but they seem to like it.

So. The cold. Maybe that’s got me a little nervous as well. Hopefully all the goodies which are, and are yet-to-be, potted up will not be locked up in ice the day I need to load the car, but of course that couldn’t happen and I’m positive everything will be fine. Surely this cold can’t last forever… unless it does… and this week it feels like it could.

An icy frosting to the garden

In spite of the cold and frequent snow and ice, the snowdrops at least are anxious to grow! It’s absolutely amazing when a frozen earth with air temperatures barely above freezing can produce sprouts from one day to the next! The plants have spoken, and are rising up in spite of that fat little groundhog’s prediction to bring a little springtime vibe to an icy garden. I may be biased, but snowdrops are pretty amazing for what they do.

Under the shelter of an evergreen, ‘Castle Plum’ is ready to go. Our one warm day tomorrow will open these blooms right up.

So in defiance of the cold I was supposed to visit my friend Paula today for a few more sales table snowdrops, but more predicted snow and an observation of frozen earth, and her “if you really insist on coming maybe you can pickaxe up a chunk of frozen muddy sprouts to take home” suggestion, pushed me over to the side of better sense and the visit is rescheduled for Monday. Tomorrow the snow is to change over to rain alongside a rise in temperatures, and perhaps slimy mud is better than hacking out chunks of ice.

Winter interest is starting to get old around here. I can’t wait to trim the hellebores and clear things out for the coming show!

In the meantime I’m trying to avoid spending too much time staring out windows and imagining the perfect year to come. I haven’t been distracted by skiing this year in spite of the excellent conditions (and I blame kids with their own drivers licenses and friends who are “aging out” for this), and to be honest I was almost bored a few days ago when weather kept me inside and I just didn’t care enough to finish fixing a burst water line or carry water to the basement plants. I think I’m suffering garden withdrawl.

A primrose purchased “for a friend” but then I just couldn’t be home any of the times she offered to stop by to pick it up. Hmmm. I feel terrible about that.

We will carry on. I’m somewhat excited but can feel myself on the edge of that manic snowdrop fever and it’s scary. There’s not even a thought of going back to the days when I’d pretend they were no big deal, and of course it will be fun seeing it all return. Just one more cold week and then snowdrops, witch hazel, winter aconite, willows… and all will start bursting out with every new sunny day to fill the garden again.

Hang in there and have a great weekend!

The Tenth Day of Plantness!

Jan22

We did it! We made it to the tenth day of Plantness and I must say I am so proud of all the sacrifice and commitment I’ve seen from everyone. From the smallest cutting exchanged to the biggest seed order, and all the little pots of plants and plain pots purchased, you’ve made a difference. I can practically feel spring lurking somewhere… close… I think… because to be honest it still feels wintery and I just spent a few minutes looking at my brother’s snow pictures from Pensacola Florida and shared in his excitement that Atlanta is sending 6 snow plows… since Pensacola just doesn’t have any! Winter is really trying and although I did add ten new plant things for each of the days I might go out for another two or three more, just because we might need something to push us out of this frosty rut!

Ahhhhhhh… much better than sharing snow pictures, here are four new Plantness offerings. Two excellent tender cyclamen, one maidenhair fern, and the new watering can I’ve been searching for!

The cold may be lingering but we really did put our best foot forward last Saturday with the headliner trip of our Ten Days of Plantness. Grocery store floral sections are nice, but a trip to the greenhouses of Ott’s Exotic Plants is indoor plant nirvana. Multiple greenhouses filled with exotic plant treasures and it’s just a great place to visit when you want to fill your lungs with the warm and humid air only a greenhouse full of plants can produce.

Otts has a lot of mature plants, and citrus is in season so the ‘Ponderosa’ lemons stole the show. Some day I wouldn’t mind seeing the Plumeria trees (fragipani) behind them in bloom as well, but that’s a great reason to visit again.

A good greenhouse visit in winter does wonders for a gardener, but outside of that what did I get? I was one of the most restrained members of the Posse, and limited myself to two new plants and a watering can. A maidenhair fern was the first since it was just too elegant to resist, and a begonia came second. Begonia bipinnatifida to be exact, and although there’s the usual question as to how a “trickier, requires humidity” plant will survive my neglect, that’s something to worry about later. This plant was 100% impulse buy 😉

I think you can see what the attraction was. In my book, Begonia bipinnatifida indexes under “cool”.

So Ott’s was excellent, but when I suggested either two more stops or a stop for lunch you can imagine my surprise when Kimberley said “oh lets just have a snack here and do the stops’ and proceeded to pull the makings of a charcuterie board out of her purse! My level of preparations was an already opened water bottle I found in the door of the car, but here’s Kimberley pulling various cheeses and coldcuts with a mix of nuts and fruits out of her bag! There was even a delightful chocolate selection to clear the palate afterwards.

I think we did have fun. A couple more stops along the way and then a Trader Joe’s which I think everyone enjoyed. My two cyclamen are from there and I should have taken an orchid or two as well!

Now if you’re keeping count the cyclamen took me to nine on this trip, and of course ten is what you want for Plantness. I almost ran out the next day in a snowstorm to get the last one but wiser heads prevailed and I waited until the last day to get the last plant. I had to take a mother-in-law to a Dr appointment regarding an on-the-mend broken arm the next day, and as long as I’m driving we’re going to look at plants.

Oops. A “real” houseplant, Philodendron billietiae ‘Orange Smooth’. I’m concerned this could get big and not politely die like many of my other plantness purchases, but for the holiday I took a chance. Even better when it rang up 50% off 🙂

Now ten is the magic number, and according to the lore of Plantness if we add a new plant-goodie for each of the days that will break the back of winter and usher us into an early spring… except when it doesn’t… Someone might look at the long range weather forecast and say things look bad, but I did take a walk around the garden (before more snow came) and sensed that the witch hazel appreciated our efforts, and was trying just as hard as we were.

The first bits of color on the witch hazel (Hammamelis ‘Pallida’) and all is not lost!

A thermometer says that it’s 1F (-17C) outside right now and probably still dropping a few more. If the winter hazel can stand up to this kind of onslaught then so can we, and maybe we just need to try harder. Technically I did and bought an 11th plant, a cool Primula obconica, but since this one is for a friend it sadly does not count towards Plantness… or at least not on my tally.

As a temporary guest this Primula obconica has joined the winter garden. I love these primulas and should have gotten one for myself but as it was I don’t think anyone really believed me when I said it was for a friend, so two would have been even worse.

We’ve gained about twenty minutes of daylight since the start of the month, and we’re now at our lowest temperatures of the year and the temperatures begin to go up again from here. In theory, but it doesn’t feel like it tonight and maybe I should find a few seeds to plant or something more just to encourage the warmth!

Happy Plantness and thanks for coming along for the ride! These ten doses of hope did me good and my wish is that it’s done the same for you, so enjoy and stay warm and fingers crossed for an excellent 2025 season 🙂

The Ten Days Continue

Jan19

Oh my gosh, it’s already the ~~seventh~~ eighth day (I did try to gt this post up yesterday) of Plantness and I’ve only officially celebrated the first four! We had an excellent start to the holiday with last Saturday’s gathering and indoor plant crawl, but even with all the greenhouse visits this gardener only purchased four new goodies. Others have done much better! In our local group Kimberley is probably the star, with enough new plants and plant goodies that I suspect she could already round out the holiday, but overseas, Cathy of Words and Herbs is running at the Olympic level! She’s been able to find new additions for each day of Plantness and I’m absolutely loving her enthusiasm during these chilly days and frigid nights. Her embracing of the holiday is exactly the kind of attitude which will inspire us today for our second indoor plant crawl. “Do it for Cathy” shall be our mantra anytime we’re on the fence about something which might get too big, or might not like our care, or might be something uncomfortably new to us and outside the comfort zone. Heh heh, I shall of course update on how it goes 😉

Our table setting for our Plantness Eve celebrations last week. Two new plants which came home with us last year, two flowering goodies from under the plant lights, and four new treats purchased that day!

So in spite of zero success at every grocery store, box store, and DIY stop which I made during the week, here are the four new things which followed me home the weekend prior. I’d offer up photos but its been dark, or nearly so, every time I pull into the drive after work, and my camera skills don’t do flash very well, so I’ll offer a written summary and hope for a little more natural light this weekend.

I find myself finally getting sucked back into the houseplant world, and by that I mean the tropical foliage trend, so the first plant is a Syngonium podophyllum ‘Albo variegata’ (variegated arrowleaf vine). The leaf was just too cool to resist, but we will see how I handle something which wants to crawl and climb… Secondly is a miniscule foxtail fern (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Meyerii’) which although nearly an un-killable plant, I killed mine off, so maybe this one I shall remember to water (and also take inside for the winter). Third is a plant which is much bigger than I normally buy, a nearly gallon sized sanseviera ‘sayuri’… very cool imo… and the fourth and final is a pink variegated strawberry begonia (Saxifraga stolonifera ‘Tricolor’). I saw one about a year ago and ever since then…

Oh my gosh I’m so excited about the new goodies but maybe that’s partially due to the fact I’ve gone and returned from this season’s biggest Plantness trip which involved a 1.5 hour drive down towards Philly. I was relatively good but others maybe not so much, especially since “do it for Cathy’ came up much more frequently than I ought to admit, but based on the amount of fun we had I should have been driving a busload of people down instead of just the four of us!

So I hope everyone is enjoying the tail end of Plantness, and two things before I go look at my new plants again and then consider a pre-snowstorm trip to the last two local places… even though I do already have a plant item for each day 🙂 First: If you dabble in houseplants you have probably heard of the Philodendron ‘Thai Constellation’, and you’ve probably heard of snake plants (Sanseviera). The name Barry Yinger is a name you should know as well since he is probably the horticulturalist who first brought the poster child of houselants ‘Thai Constellation’ to the Americas and who is now leading Sanseviera conservation efforts in East Africa. Check out >this link< if you’re curious. Secondly: I don’t remember what my second thing was going to be but this weekend I decided that houseplants are dangerous since anything in the world of plants is an option, and now tissue culture and two day delivery can bring them all close to your doorstep.

Two more weeks and it’s already February! Hmmmm, I won’t even mention the little white flowers that could possibly bring 😉

Plantness ’25 and the Winter Garden

Jan12

Today is the 12th day of January and as such marks the first day of the Ten Days of Plantness. Some observant readers may have noticed that in a recent post it may have said the holiday begins on the 10th day, but they were mistaken since upon re-reading the post it clearly says that the Ten Days of Plantness begin on the 12th and runs until the 21st, and I’m 100% sure I didn’t just go back and edit my mistake out.

So what are the Ten Days of Plantness you might ask? Well let me explain. It’s a very official holiday which celebrates ten of the gloomiest and coldest days of the Northern Hemisphere’s winter with plants! Just like happiness is the act of embracing happy, plantness is the act of embracing plants, and for the next ten days the world is invited to celebrate each sunrise (regardless of clouds or gloom or snow) with a new plant. Indoor plants count, outdoor plants count, seeds count, gifts count, cuttings count, pots and tools count, cut flowers, dried flowers… I think you get it, just keep in mind fake flowers and leaves don’t count. And to what end is this holiday geared towards? Encouraging and welcoming back a new gardening season. Fully celebrating means signs of spring and blooming witch hazels by the 22nd, not celebrating means eight more weeks of winter, so be careful.

The garage growlights still have plenty of room for a few more plants, so an excuse to add more is both timely and welcome.

It was only just last year that my friends and I found out about the >10 Days of Plantness<, but this year we were prepared. My Plant Posse was activated a week in advance. Kathy of Cold Climate Gardening plotted a trip down through the snows of upstate NY, Lisa worked some meal making magic, ‘Cosmos and Cleome’ Kimberley was in charge of the Plantness cake… yellow cake with a chocolate frosting and raspberry filling in case you’re curious 🙂 … Kevin arrived at the crack of dawn for last minute prep and logistics, and our Louise opted out. Sadly oral surgery, pain meds, and soft foods are in no way lessened by celebrating the ten days.

Hmmm… another bromeliad, actually it’s an offset from one of last year’s plantness purchases and proof that not all houseplants come here to die.

Once mobilized we headed out on a nursery by nursery tour through the local indoor plant scene and did the holiday proud. Creekside Gardens is always a treat and we make that trip on a regular basis, but two other stops were first time visits for me. Keller’s Garden Center surprised us with a nice range of offerings (and a funny run in with another desperate January shopper who we all agreed we just wanted to take with us for the day), and then there was Hidden Garden in Plymouth Pa. The name is appropriate. My Plant Posse is relatively trusting but when I pulled into the parking lot of some run-down beer distributor a few questions were raised. “Why are you getting out here” was one of them, but “trust the process” is what I said. I admit to being a little proud of the Posse as they grabbed purses and whatnot to accompany me in to buy a case of Michelob light, but instead passed through the double doors towards the back of the building, and entered the zen zone of Hidden Gardens.

My geraniums have forgiven me for ripping them out of their planters in October and stuffing them into undersized pots to sit out the winter under lights. It’s just the kind of color one needs in mid January.

If you’ve ever visited Plymouth Pa it’s probably not a second visit. Of course there are nice areas, but this former coal town/flood zone city, hasn’t seen much change in the last 40 years, other than changes for the worse. I remember my first drive through and it left me with the impression that just the local strip club and local diner, the Tilbury Inn and Flamingo Diner (both now closed after flood and fire and subsequent demolition) were handling a steady flow of customers, so it’s nice to see a business which has headed off into a new direction. I’ll be back I’m sure since the store is full of vision and optimism and I think we were all impressed.

The blue of Streptocarpella is always welcomed and seems to do well in my relatively cold indoor garden.

As usual I’ve gone off track. Let me get away from talk of strip clubs and get back to Plantness and the indoor garden.

I’m trying another orchid mostly because $4 on a clearance bench with buds showing was just irresistible. Two months later and it’s blooming and all I know is it gets watered and I think it’s a dendrobium and it must be pretty easy to grow since it still looks healthy.

The Winter Garden here sounds like more than it is. It started as fluorescent shop lights but recently I’ve begun upgrading to cheap LED shop lights as I find them on sale here and there. One light, three lights, ten… over the years it’s expanded from a table in the back of the barely heated garage, to a converted workshop in the garage, and last year oops, it grew to include the unheated basement of our new addition.

The garage is cooler, and has dipped below freezing in spots near a window or door, but generally stays frost free. It’s a great place to grow on a few hardy cyclamen coum while the outdoor ones are locked under an icy blanket.

I’ve gone on about the garage grow lights, and if winter keeps making an effort towards cold weather I’ll probably go on more and more about it, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned much about the new basement grow space. It’s expanded. It hasn’t replaced the garage growing area as I think some people in this house were hoping for, but I’m pleased. I had hoped to do more this winter as far as making it a lush, plant filled space, but I think it’s doing good enough.

The new basement growing area. Mostly stuff overwintering and a little on the unkempt, sparse, and messy side, but I like the potential!

The basement plants are doing better than expected, and if anything is holding them back it’s probably me. As you may know I struggle to motivate myself to water, and the garage garden has a hose which I use that makes it into a 15 minute job, but the basement garden involves filling buckets, carrying them from the basement, dipping a tub in to ladle out water to each plant… some people find serenity in watering, but I do not. I hate it. Once dying plants motivate me enough I’m drilling through to access the house water supply and I’m running pipes to a spigot inside the new area. Me + a hose inside the house will be messy of course, but I at least have plastic down already to keep spilled water and soil from staining the new concrete floor.

More bromeliads. The aggressive spines along the leaf edges are something you should consider, but in general I’m amazed at how easy they are to grow.

Once I get running water back there of course I’ll need a little goldfish pond as well, obviously with a fountain. I just mention that in case you think not being able to get things done would be putting a damper on what I’d like to get done 🙂

The succulents seem happy overwintering in the basement. Most of what I have gets no water or maybe a splash once a month, and they just sit there in the low light without rotting or stretching their stems too much.

Hopefully having all this space to put more and more plants doesn’t come off as gloating. In reality it’s kinda cramped with a low ceiling in the garage, mice and spiders, chilly… and in the basement the statement ‘why are we wasting so much space on plants’ has come up even while the walls are unfinished and the space lacks real outlets or heat… but whatever. Gloating is when I show a picture of the bougainvillea which didn’t do much all summer but is now putting out flower after flower as if it really doesn’t mind the ‘in progress’ surroundings and the hit or miss watering.

I guess you can grow bougainvillea under cheap LED shoplights in case somebody was wondering. The colors are less intense, but again this is a Pennsylvania basement not the French Riviera.

So that’s Plantness and the Winter garden, and although I definitely need to get out and add bunches of new plants because of how much empty space I have, you might not have that luxury. Here’s my advice from last year which I shall repeat: Get plants which you know you’ll probably kill or give away. The mini moth orchids I bought last Plantness are happily putting out new flower stalks on my mother’s windowsills this year rather than decaying on my compost pile like the florist cyclamen I also added last year. Both were worth it and I’ve moved on… just like the African violet I also bought 😉 Keep in mind that you’re forcing yourself to think of plants for ten days rather than focus on winter, so pick up a bouquet at the grocery and just do it. I know some people are a little timid about killing growing things, and it can be fun to hold on to a poinsettia for years, but you’re not picking up a kitten or adopting a baby here, you’re getting excited about lengthening days and the fact winter won’t last forever, so enjoy!

And in case you’re wondering, I did enjoy the start of Plantness. I’m all set for the first five days and will hopefully fill you in on them before the week is out 🙂

Winter? In January?

Jan5

It was a ridiculously warm start to 2025 here in NE Pennsylvania, and at one point I was outside working in just short sleeves… and pants of course, plus shoes… the snow is gone again, the lakes are thawed but that’s all about to change over the next few weeks. We have been threatened with ‘dangerous and hazardous weather’ and some ‘unusually low temperatures not seen since last January’ and I for one feel as if people’s attention span has become so short they’ve forgotten that this happens every year, during the same few months, and we used to just call it winter. Whatever. I for one am excited and relieved. Excited because I love a snowy day, and relieved because if this cold holds as predicted, the earliest of spring bloomers will sit quietly and wait, and then be right on time to explode into growth when the lengthening days bring real spring to this garden. Trust me though, if three weeks of this weather rolls in for mid March I will be far less pleased.

‘Potter’s Prelude’ was well protected under a blanket of snow when the last round of winter gave us a 0F (-18C) low. He should handle the next few weeks just as well, although I might cover the clump if lows veer towards the single digits again.

In the meantime with frozen soil outside, this gardener turns to the relative warmth of the winter garden inside. Cuttings have been repotted, more cuttings have been taken, bulbs have been planted, and a few seeds sown. It always starts out like this, so innocently, until it’s not and I’m looking around in a panic wondering what happened and where the hundreds of pots have come from. For now though we are still happily in the ‘better safe than sorry’ stage of indoor plant care, and ignorance is truly bliss 😉

Seeds have been cleaned and sent off to seed exchanges, but now it’s time to get a couple dozen labels and pots together for some winter sowing of all the new seeds which mysteriously show up.

It’s chilly today with some beautiful sunshine streaming in through the windows but that may not always be the case. The next few weeks are typically the coldest of the year and as a way of navigating through this I’m going to suggest you join in for the Ten Days of Plantness which begins January 12th! Long story short it’s a fake holiday which runs for ten days and involves new plant things and cake and an excuse to ignore the cold outside. It’s like an anti-Lent without the parades and Fat Tuesday and I’m already planning plant-hunting trips with my crew so that will be fun.

Have a great week, stay warm, and for those in the path of real winter storms all the best.

Winter Solstice ’24

Dec21

Somehow it’s already the Winter Solstice and when you’re focused on making it through the busy weeks before Christmas these things can sneak up on you. Not that the timing changes much from year to year, but with all eyes focused on food and gifts and vacation plans, this celestial switch from shortening days to lengthening ones can slip by. Winter has a timer running now, and although here we are plunging into a few days of cold again, on this longest night of the year we start climbing back out of this winter darkness.

Just a few days ago ‘Faringdon Double’ was just beginning to nose up. A couple days of warm weather later and he’s been tricked into bloom. We will see how he holds up to the cold.

On the plus side the warm weather thawed the soil and allowed me to plant the last couple hundred tulips which have been sitting in the garage. The garlic should have also gone in as well, but maybe eating it isn’t the worst solution along with a year off from garlic growing and buying a few new cloves for planting next fall. Who says that just because you can, you must?

The arriving cold brought more snow than expected which should act as a decent cover for all the autumn/winter snowdrops already in growth. This is ‘Potter’s Prelude’ in case your ID skills are iffy 😉

Actually I use the ‘because I can’ logic all the time, so maybe during our likely January thaw they will still get planted… or not… since there’s always plenty of other things which need doing around here, like things which flood the basement with water and need unplugging and cleaning up, which fortunately didn’t happen on Christmas Eve but there’s still time.

Also, since this blog rarely offers useful or timely information I guess now might be a good chance to point out that there’s still time to blow on an ember or throw gasoline on the flames of obsession, if those flames are for snowdrops. One of the first, and one of the longest running purveyors of named snowdrops in the US, Mr Hitch Lyman, should be sending out his list during the first days of the new year. You can’t request it online and you can’t dilly dally since once the list goes out it sells out, so dust off that stationary and get a note off to him asap if you want your own copy.

Mr Hitch Lyman, Box 591, Trumansburg NY 14886. Years ago I believe $2 or $3 was added to cover the cost, but I’d play it safe with $5 these days, and in my opinion the art and the read are worth it even if you don’t fall for the drops. I may be biased of course.

The front porch is ready for the longest night. A few more inches of snow have fallen since and it looks absolutely seasonal now.

I apologize for again drifting into snowdrops but another timely note is that the date for this year’s Galanthus Gala has been set. Snowdroppers from near and far will be descending upon Downingtown Pa Saturday, March 1st for a day of lectures, sales, and camaraderie. There will still be ups and downs this winter, but the date will be here before we know it, and what better promise on this longest night than the promise of a new season and a Gala. Of course I’ll mention it again once tickets go on sale. I’m sure you would expect no less from someone who does tend to go on far too long about those little white flowers.

Enjoy. If it’s cold where you are, I hope for warmth, and if you’re ramping up for celebrations I wish you a blessed holiday season.

**Hopefully no one is too upset that the longest night was actually the Friday night before the solstice, but I started the post yesterday and just didn’t feel like changing everything today 😉

Go Winter!

Dec17

Winter is giving it a try this December and I’m proud of her! There have been chilly nights, brisk winds, snow and ice, and more forced time indoors than I’m used to. Could it be that we are headed for a real winter this year?

The fall blooming snowdrops have been slowed by autumn’s drought and this cold jump into winter. This is Galanthus elwesii hiemalis ssp monostictus ex Montrose and that’s not what the label says since I planted something else in this perfect spot which bloomed a few weeks earlier 🙂

Everyone seems to think it’s brilliantly cold out and will only get colder, snowblowers are revving and snowmobiles are going in for tuneups while the ice fishermen are talking bait and planning their best spots. This weekend we nearly dipped into the single digits (-12C) and it feels like it’s been a while since we saw that in December.

More fall blooming snowdrops, these in a cold pocket which wilts them down but usually they recover… unless it’s ‘Mrs Macnamara’ who does not recover yet still grows quite well in spite of the beating.

This winter seems off to an Arctic start but I’m still not biting my nails worried about the new crape myrtles and camellias which have somehow snuck into the garden. Granted, it was a shock going from the warmest November on record to a little snow and ice, but overall for our little corner of Pennsylvania we’re only averaging about 3 degrees below(!) average… for once… and I’m pretty sure 2024 is still headed towards going down as the hottest year on record globally, which might embarrass 2023 since last year we all thought that heat record was un-toppable.

‘Faringdon Double’ is carefree and reliable in this garden and here it is nosing up and aiming for a January show. What a hopeful sign to see during a a frigid spell of December weather.

Against everyone else I’m hoping that things stay somewhat cold, even if it means being inside more than I’d like, and being bored on nearly every trip outside when the soil is frozen and there’s little to do on the to-do list. The gardener’s plus to a cold winter is that everything goes dormant and stays there. The hellebores won’t be trying to bloom in January only to freeze into mush in February, which is what happens when a fake-spring rolls into Pa in the middle of our winter and forces new growth on things. I’ll take some bleakness for a couple weeks if it means buds are saved for a beautiful March.

Bleakness and a threat? The brutally sharp thorns of the hardy orange (Citrus trifoliata ‘Flying Dragon’) in all their winter starkness. It’s a plant no one will ever snuggle up to.

So it’s cold, and as a result the winter garden is getting more attention that it’s used to and is overflowing with color from coleus, geraniums, and the odd orchid. Poor things don’t know what’s in store for them the minute a thaw rolls in and the gardener is lost again outside, poking around for more snowdrop shoots and other signs of spring. Hopefully before that happens I can share a few of the indoor highlights.

Hope you have a great week!

A Little Push

Nov24

It looks like our tediously warm and dry autumn has finally made a turn towards wet, cold, and winter. Warm and dry isn’t the worst thing, but when the days stretch into weeks and the autumn foliage is more a giving up on life it gets old. The garden I enjoy is full of life and surprises and when it’s day after day of plants giving up I lose interest, and when interest is lost motivation follows. I looked at the racks of tulips waiting to be planted. I looked at the dry, baked-hard, beds where they were to be planted. I turned around and went back inside.

But now things have made a complete turnaround, with a day of steady rain followed by a night of snow which continued into the next day. In all it might be two inches of rain and as the snow melts into the ground I think the garden has finally received the soaking it needed and the gardener might have to get back on board. While the snow is melting the bored gardener has gone into the archives to see if he can find some tulip planting motivation, and even if he’s not exactly bubbling over with enthusiasm to go out and dig, at least he’s been shamed into taking a little better care of the unplanted bulbs.

Tulips in the front border this previous spring. Fortunately these seem happy enough coming back on their own each year with little effort on my part, although it’s well past time a few bunches were dug and divided.

I’ve been digging and dividing the tulips in the back garden for a few years now, trying to get ahead of the tulip fire (a type of fungal botrytis blight) which has infected the soil back there. The digging, replanting, and mulching had helped but then this spring, right as the tulips were coming into growth and blooming, a string of cool, rainy weather hit and the problem went from ok to all over the place with each rain shower. April showers may bring May flowers, but when May is also full of cool and damp weather it just brings botrytis to the tulips and that’s not fun.

The purple of Lunaria annua (honesty or money plant) mixes and contrasts well with the yellows and pinks of the tulips. Unlike AI suggests, this plant is a biennial so don’t be fooled by the scientific name.

Although the botrytis is not fun, the worser part is the smaller bulbs I dug as a result of their infected foliage. Digging big healthy bulbs is one of the June joys of the garden and when you’re just finding medium or stunted bulbs… again, not fun. It also didn’t help that June went from cool and damp to hot and dry all of a sudden, triggering the bulbs into an early dormancy, so add that to the list of reasons the gardener has not been feeling the tulip-love this summer.

Tulips in the potager beds, the worst areas for botrytis and the area where all the tulips are dug each summer.

The tulip love is back though, and after seeing the reminder of what it looked like last spring it makes me wonder how I ever even considered thinking poorly about one of my favorite plants. Surely it’s the lazy side of me searching for excuses to pass on the planting and find alternate homes for the bulbs. It’s like a flashback to the year I found rot in the bulb trays and with great disgust tossed everything onto the compost pile, only to have tulips coming up beautifully all over it the next spring, and have compost laced with bulbs the next summer.

I shall plant… soon I hope. It depends on when the snow melts, and how cold it gets for Thanksgiving. And when I dig the cannas and dahlias and plant the garlic, since that’s also on the to-do list since little in the way of planting or digging has been done while the ground has been so dry. Even the fall-blooming snowdrops have looked depressed and droopy, although not a single bloom was lost to slugs this year…

Galanthus ‘Barnes’. One of the earliest for me with only this one late group still in flower. The rest were less photogenic as they wilted and dried out far too quickly in the sun.

There has been one ultra-positive thing which has turned up this autumn, and that’s the bags of leaves which friends have given me and the row of filled bags which greeted me one evening as I pulled in after work. My nephew came through with a collection from one of his lawn jobs and I’m proud to say they’re already all spread about and settling down to feed the garden underneath the snow.

A driveway filled with bags of nicely mulched leaves. A gardener’s delight!

Forgive me for not sharing any snow pictures. The total for our town was in the 7 inch range and it looked beautiful from the inside looking out, but one day later and the higher elevations are still digging out, repairing powerlines, and removing downed trees, as it was a very heavy snow and their totals were almost twice what we received. For hours the interstate was closed. I’ve sat for hours on a closed interstate on a snowy mountain pass in the middle of nowhere and I can vouch it’s no fun.

Fingers crossed that my next post has a ‘tulips planted’ comment, and it’s not something which involved chipping through ice during the Christmas holidays. We will see, in any case I hope it’s a fun time.

Fully Autumnal

Oct28

Fall is in full force here in Northeastern Pa. In the mountains it’s already past prime but as the cooler nights have spread into the valleys there’s no escaping the season for too long. The cool weather is a relief. This weekend was fantastic fall gardening weather, with plenty of sun to bask in when the mood hit, and plenty of cool breezes to keep the gardener from breaking a sweat when the motivation to work hit. I did some cleanup and finished a few non-gardening projects and may have even gotten a touch of sunburn due to the nice weather and perhaps a bit too much pastiness from sitting inside more than I’d like.

A spot on top of the berm has become a favorite resting spot… even when the rest isn’t earned… and if you look away to the side away from the industrial park the autumn view is wonderful.

There’s fall color everywhere, somewhat dull for the drought and heat, but also somewhat bright due to the recent stretch of cooler nights, so I guess that evens out to average? The maples are brilliant as usual and there’s also a few other interesting things around to make this slow decent into death and dormancy a little more bearable.

For a couple days the bigleaf magnolia (M. macrophylla) goes all buttery yellow before full brown, and even then the curious gray underside makes for an interesting (and still huge) leaf.

The fall and winter interest here seems to make a decent amount of progress each year and the focus lately has been on evergreens, berries, and the latest (or earliest?) bloomers possible.

Maybe not an autumn berry, but the blueberry bushes are always an October show.

After years of talk, a winterberry (Ilex verticillata) has finally been purchased, and I hope it won’t mind a real late planting since throughout those years the gardener didn’t bother to settle on a location for it. They’re fairly common around here in the boggier parts of the woods, so I expect it will do just fine, and I’m already imagining a mound of bright red color next year on this native deciduous holly.

Not the native version, but the asian beautyberry (Callicarpa ‘Pearl Glam’) has similar purple berries which are interesting but maybe not as showy or long lasting as I’d like. Perhaps it’s the location, it’s terrible soil, and probably much drier than the beautybush would prefer.

The new winterberry will have to rely on the local population of male hollies for pollination, and I hope there are some within range during its bloom since I’d rather not devote more space to a non-berrying version if I don’t have to. As with almost any gardener, my ambition is always larger than the space I have.

I am feeling chrysanthemum deprived this autumn. The mildest winters ever were somehow the cause of death for a few of my favorites and I miss them, so maybe I can get a few seeds from this one growing for next year.

Besides berries it’s just chrysanthemums and asters rounding out the bloom category. I’d like to add some more chrysanthemums but it’s so hard to convince yourself in May that $10 for what’s likely a rooted cutting is a good deal for something which sells in perfect bloom for $5.99 all over the place in October. Most people know the answer to that and just pick up the $5.99, but some silly gardeners think that the $10 mum cutting might be so so so much cooler. Bluestone perennials has some extremely tempting options. Maybe it’s time I bite the bullet and bring a few favorites back to this garden, because honestly the little round dollops of mum do little for me while the lanky, too big blooms, too tall stems version with crazy flower forms are a much better way to enjoy October.

Lingering roses can be awesome. This one was developed with scent in mind and I love the fragrance of roses wafting in the October breeze, pulling you in for a closer sniff. Brindabella ‘Purple Prince’ has also been a good grower with healthy foliage, and who could complain about that?

Did someone ask about the pumpkin patch? Not that I heard, but here’s the summary anyway. The early July plantings ripened just in time although there was still a touch of green on a few of the larger ones. More September rains would have helped I’m sure, but considering how little effort I put into their care, and how entertaining they were to watch grow, I suspect there will be a pumpkin patch again next year as well as a hopefully more diverse gourd planting 🙂

The pumpkin patch harvest accidentally spilled and people raved about the display. The pumpkins were moved to decorate the porch and the review was lukewarm… -sorry, but I needed the wheelbarrow for other things!

So that’s an autumn update. Fall color and it’s dry, and the best thing about that is no slugs to decimate the first of this winter’s snowdrops! Yes, the fall-blooming snowdrops are waking up and of course I’m excited.

The first to appear this fall is ‘Tilebarn Jamie’, a Galanthus reginae-olgae hybrid which still looks a little awkward and unsure but at least not slug-nibbled. Please ignore the greasy look of the soil and the blackened birch and nearby blackened foliage. The lanternflies are still out peeing on everything and fertilizing the black mold, even if it lands on such a treasure as the first snowdrop.

Have a great week. The cool weather has me thinking about tulips and daffodils, and as of now I’m unmotivated to replant, so perhaps I’ll talk tulips next to get in the mood… and give the snowdrops a little time to sprout 😉

Leave the Leaves?

Oct20

Autumn has its moments but without a few rainy days and minus the cooler temperatures I’m at a loss. We could use some rain. The lingering annuals and a bunch of perennials, and even some shrubs, are wilting now and between you and me I’m almost hoping for a strong frost to come along and put things out of their misery rather than spend the next few weeks hoping for some last-minute miracle to come along and renew the decaying garden. I was also warm yesterday when I was out doing something in the sun, and flirted with breaking a sweat… which is totally inappropriate for this season of briskness and cozy jackets.

A form of the native aromatic aster, I think this one is ‘Raydon’s Favorite’, should be in every garden. It outblooms most chrysanthemums and is a late season pollinator magnet. Here a final bloom of the rose ‘Rosarium Uetersen’ adds a nice dash of coral pink.

Fair warning that this gardener rarely has a kind word to share about the autumn season, so don’t worry that my disgust and lack of interest in the yard means I’m struggling with some kind of seasonal trauma that I’m barely surviving, because that’s not the case. I’ve been busy and motivated, just not in the garden. Garage cleanouts, painting, puttering, and life in general are moving along nicely and I don’t really mind that the daily garden tour has turned into a ten minute walk of ‘meh’.

October colors in the front border. Okay, but kinda boring to be honest.

It’s been somewhat warm and the forecast promises warmer for the next few days, but I did notice a few things have been touched by frost. Coleus mostly. Cuttings were saved a few weeks ago and are doing fine, as well as all the other tender goodies which were dragged inside before the cold, and for some reason this year it didn’t seem like nearly as much work as other years. Many things are in the new basement area and apparently having enough space for your plants goes a long, long way in making the indoor migration less painful. As a way of celebrating I stopped by a greenhouse clearance sale last week and bought four new plants and that of course is not a problem at all since I stayed under fifteen dollars and I’m sure many people have purchased just one single orchid and then stopped.

I love euphorbia ‘Ascot Rainbow’ and hope it can survive the winter in this pot. Normally they are borderline hardy here, but maybe if I drag the pot under the protection of the front porch it will stand a chance.

So upon review it sounds like I’m just waiting for winter to come and wipe the outside garden’s slate clean and that might be a fairly accurate assessment. Year round gardening works for some people but I like a nice winter break, a season and a time to reflect, and maybe a pause in the battle to regroup. Some things look messy now and I like that I can tidy them up once at this time of year and have it stay that way rather than face a new field of weeds the week after I pull them all.

The potager two days before frost singed the awesomeness of the banana. Bringing other things in was a breeze, but digging and lugging this beast in?… remains to be seen.

A clean slate in autumn and ‘leave the leaves’ doesn’t necessarily play well together since my impression of the ‘leave the leaves’ movement is that one should leave all the decay of autumn in place until June or whenever of next year just in case a bee or lightning bug chooses to overwinter in that twig or under that leaf. It’s not a bad reminder that a tornado of leafblowers and a lawn crew which trundles off every last bit of fallen foliage is only leaving a barren wasteland of exposed soil, but it shouldn’t shame you into staring at a drift of leaves against your back door and a depressing flowerbed full of scarecrow twigs all winter. Do what you want. It’s your garden and as a gardener you’ve probably already thought about how your garden fits in with the natural world and how happy you’ve been to find it swarming with birds and insects and wildlife in general. Shame should be reserved for the desolate weed-free lawns of a golf course or the monotonous mono-plantings of some dull homeowner association. If you needed it I give you permission to trim back the dead things which offend you and remove the leaves which have become too much. Your garden will still be a refuge.

The last blooms of clematis ‘venosa violacea’ are as pretty as the first and are probably more numerous since I gave the vine a little trim after its first flush of flowers. A friend said trim it back completely in July, but I wasn’t that brave.

So that’s a lot of tough talk from someone who is likely to never have an immaculate garden to begin with. Other homeowners are complaining about a few leaves blowing into their yard and sullying their pristine turf while I’m usually wishing for a windy day to dump everything here. Most will stay where they fall but at some point a mower bag full of their chopped brothers will be spread on top. It’s a rare day when a twig or stem ends up in the trash and these days there’s not even much going to the compost pile since I tend to tuck pulled weeds and such into the depths of the borders. It may not be ideal from the perspective of the every leaf is sacred crowd, but even after a run through the mower for the sake of neatness and then a toss back onto the beds these processed leftovers still serve plenty of good.

Frost asters galore in the weedier parts of the garden. These have a decent winter structure so will stay even after death…

Mid October. Meh. If the weather were different and I cared more there would be a cleanup in progress but this year I’m not there yet and the mess is fine. You look at your own mess though and feel free to clean up whatever you want and know that I’ll have your back, and in the meantime have a great week!

sorta like suburbia

more than you ever wanted to know about my garden