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!

Just a Minute

Feb22

I’m trapped inside again. It was a beautifully sunny three day weekend yet last week’s snow has refused to melt. The temperatures haven’t been particularly cold but each night is cold enough. Nothing is happening and I’m beside myself with boredom. So of course I’m again getting myself into trouble in the winter garden 🙂

An arrangement of goodies under the fluorescent lights in the garage.

Even just a few years back I used to treasure each shoot and sprout, and anything worth rooting or potting up was saved, but things have escalated and a firmer hand is needed. I spent my restless days aggressively trimming things back and tossing the extra cuttings into the compost bucket. You’ll have to take my word that even as I still pot up just a few cuttings here and there I still have way more than I need and nearly as many (but not quite as many) as a somewhat normal person would want.

I’m ridiculously obsessed with these everlasting florist cyclamen this winter. They’ve doubled and tripled in size and really enjoy the sometimes chilly, always sunny spots they have under the growlights.

So as winter tries to toughen up again this year I’ll just hide. On the ride to work I can see enough of the nightly argument between open water and the freezing weather, but so far it’s a stalemate which the open water is bound to win by next week. That’s when I’m declaring a winner and a full on start to snowdrop season but in the meantime I see two more cold nights to get through.

A bargain red cyclamen was snapped up after Valentine’s Day and a fuchsia cutting from last summer is looking quite nice under this light.

Friday and Saturday will be cold, but after that it’s nothing but spring. Early spring, some would say, some would even say late winter, but I’m ready to get started, even if ‘getting started’ means a lot of poking around and looking rather than any kind of energetic to-do list.

Calendula “test” seedlings which were raised under the new LED shoplights are doing nicely although I did kill one through a little too much water after a little too much drought…

Maybe dividing and replanting snowdrops will be a nice start. I’ve been making up new labels this week and am nearly up to 2016 plantings so as you can guess that’s moving along nicely, even though with 8+ years in the same spot I’ve kind of learned who’s who but you never know when the memory’s going to start fading… plus they’re lovely new labels so I’m sure all the visitors will appreciate it.

Coleus cutting season will start this week. By May I should have a couple flats ready to plant out and who doesn’t need a few flats of coleus to plant out?

I did possibly get into a little extra trouble though. Once I had an opening into the new basement space I thought what the heck let me hang a few lights and throw some spare furniture back there even though it’s years from being finished… and that’s where I am now. Even unheated it’s a remarkably popular area and I’m worried it will be difficult to evict visitors once I begin a serious effort towards creating my basement greenhouse/ solarium/ orangerie. You would think there isn’t another spare room in the house or another whole other side to the basement. Trust me it wasn’t my idea to use up so much other space for a “gym” or “craft area” or “kids room”, I’ve always just wanted more room for plants 😉

A few bigger things overwintering and a few smaller things on a bench.

What harm is there in a few houseplants or more accurately basementplants? I think my track record of frugality, self-restraint, and modesty in all things plants speaks for itself and I’m sure a few more lights in a new space hardly mean anything. I’ll barely remember they’re down there when spring arrives next week. Snowdrop season and spring fever are practically synonymous with good judgement and responsible decisions so not to worry!

Have a great two more days of winter 😉

The Winter Garden 23/24

Jan14

Yesterday I took a soggy stroll around the garden and noticed that a bucket I left out the week before Christmas, to measure how much rain that week would bring, is still sitting out there collecting water. We’ve had plenty of rain since. It was over a foot of water when I kicked it over, and that would have been nice last April when everything was brown but I’m sure it serves some purpose now as well. Maybe. Now that everything is dormant…

Coleus cuttings were potted up last month after about two months in water. They look much happier now and I suspect by the time spring rolls around I’ll have plenty!

Besides kicking over a bucket of water the daily garden tour was mostly uneventful. I did it mostly as a goodbye tour to wish the snowdrop sprouts good luck as colder weather moves in for a few days. For ten days starting this morning temperatures are supposed to sit below freezing and give the impression that winter is going to make a go of it after all and not be lazy about the cold like all of the last two months. For the sake of the snowdrops I’m relieved. The latest warm deluge had them thinking April showers, and even the more hesitant bulbs were sending up shoots, so this cold should at least freeze a few inches down and cool their engines.

This bromeliad (neoregelia ‘variegated Fireball’ I think) has faded a bit under the growlights, but still seems happier inside rather than out.

So now we have ten days of winter. Six of the ten have temperatures which actually drop below our average, which is reassuring since the next two weeks should be our coldest of the year, but they’re still just barely enough to make me close the coldframe and finally move the potted rosemary into the garage. -and move myself into the winter garden 🙂

$echeveria diffractens$

This echeveria (E. diffractens?) always treats me to a nice New Years bloom. It’s cheery color for when the days are so short.

I’ve been enjoying my winter garden for a few years now. It started innocently enough when a few plants overwintering in the back of the garage earned a spot under a shoplight, and has now escalated to eight lights, all with plants, and the workshop has become a plant room. The coldest days of the year are far less painful with all these goodies growing under lights, and with free heat from the adjacent furnace room the electrical costs for 10 hours of lights is probably still much less than the heating costs for a greenhouse.

Last winter the pale blue of streptocarpella ruled the winter garden. This year it’s one cutting in one pot which almost didn’t make it. Fortunately it’s chosen life, so maybe by May there will be enough of it to start a few more cuttings.

So my winter garden is a cost saver? Yeah…. sure…. just ignore the world of houseplants which has opened up for me now. Houseplants were frowned upon in this house for their dirt and bugs and the lack of decent windowsills, but now there’s room. Friends give me cuttings. I buy a plant here and there. Maybe the winter garden isn’t the brilliant money-saver that I imagine.

This winter I bought a sansevieria (s. ‘Fernwood’) and normally I would judge anyone who buys a sanseveria rather than rooting their own or having one given to them, but it was a nice greenhouse and I was bored and they looked really cool… except for the trick where these were rooted leaf cuttings rather than one plant but whatever…

Money saver or not I enjoy it. It’s a good spot for puttering away an hour or two during the latest winter downpour.

The coldest corner of the workshop is reserved for hardy cyclamen and other forced bulbs which don’t mind a frigid draft or dip close to freezing.

The only problem with the winter garden is that I keep neglecting the snowdrop, cyclamen, and somewhat hardy daffodil selections. I love having them here with me inside but always neglect them come May… and then forget them come September when they need a little attention.

Narcissus romieuxii ‘Craigton Clumper’ would most likely not enjoy a position in my outdoor garden, but is as easy as anything here in a cool spot under lights.

Tragically this winter I have no snowdrops potted up. I’ll have to hope other things distract me enough to ease that pain, and so far the blooms of Cyclamen coum have done the trick, but this garden could really use a few more cyclamen to distract. This year I will be diligent in pollinating blooms and beating the mice to the seedpods… which has been a problem the last two years.

My few pots of Cyclamen coum look much more impressive close up. They will bloom for the next few weeks and should wrap up just as the ones outside begin to flower.

So cold is here, the lights are on, and the winter garden delights. Not bad. Not bad is also the ‘Ten Days of Plantness’ my friend Kimberley and I have decided to celebrate this year. For the ten days before post-solstice (another personal holiday we made up) we celebrate by buying a new plant each day. That would be Jan 12th to the 21st if you’re wondering, and even though I haven’t bought anything for the first two days all that means is I can buy three plants today if I so chose, all completely guilt-free since it’s for the holiday and not just because a new plant is wanted. Plantness plants don’t even need a spot or a plan, you could even buy an orchid even if you’ve killed the last three so enjoy!

On the third day of Plantness my self gave to me… an orchid!? We will see. I might have to stop by Aldis.

More Cold

Jan27

It looks like winter will last at least another week. I kind of blame myself since in early January I was a little chilled and pulled out the winter coat for a walk around the garden. Mother Nature must have seen and said “Oh really? Hold on and I’ll show you some real cold” and now here we are. This morning on the ride through the mountains I saw a -6F (-21C) and then on the way home it was already down to 0F. I guess I was glad to have the coat.

The Temple Nursery catalog arrived as well as my NARGS seed exchange goodies. I would say snowdrop ordering and seed sorting was the perfect way to spend a Friday night 🙂

Even in the cold, the ridiculous dog still insisted on running about in the dark, sniffing out rabbits and investigating every suspicious shadow. Again I was happy to have the coat. It wasn’t until I made it to the winter garden that things started to look more promising. Flowers in bloom and growing plants are a nice diversion away from cold and work, and although the dog was annoyed that I would slip out to the garage rather than stand by the door letting him in and out every ten minutes, I though my winter garden time was a nice recharge.

I was able to get my hands on a tiny bulb of Narcissus romieuxii ‘Atlas Gold’ and it’s now in flower under lights. I thought it would be a bolder gold, but instead it’s a fantastic lemony yellow.

Even in the winter garden it’s a little chilly tonight so I didn’t stay long. The Rock Garden Society seeds are sown and ready to get thrown out into the cold, and now I’m entertaining the idea of more seeds. That’s a terrible idea of course, but you know what a couple days of cold can do to a gardener and I’m trying to fight that urge as well as bulb orders and tropical plant pre-sales. And new perennials. And a couple caladiums… just in case…

There’s still February to get through you know? Stay warm 🙂

The Winter Garden 2022

Jan14

Monday morning was one of the coldest days of the year and this weekend is also set to drop as low as 1F (-17C), and although we are only 14 days into the year that’s about as cold as Sorta Suburbia has been in a while. The temperatures only last about a night or two and the ground is still barely frozen, but only time will tell how these surprisingly normal lows will work with my new, optimistically mild, global warming planting plan full of autumn blooming snowdrops and zone 7 Crinum lilies.

Happier plantings are sheltered in the garage under fluorescent shoplights. They’re experiencing a few ‘chilly’ nights, but nothing even close to the freezing cold outside.

A better gardener would put this cold-induced break to good use, planning seed orders and organizing planting plans, safe in the knowledge that borderline plantings are well protected, but all this gardener wants to do is eat. Not just hearty stews and roasted potatoes, but more so late night bags of chips and “one more” handful of m&ms followed by a big glass of milk. Then some ice cream. Then maybe another look in the fridge, just in case. Outside just a few witch hazels are fenced, and not a single snowdrop is bucketed, but inside there’s been a lot of attention to sitting around and… eating….

Also safe inside are the plants too precious and too tender to abandon outside. They don’t do much all winter, but they’re something nice to look at while nibbling pretzels.

I can think of no better place to sit (while snacking) than the winter garden. When it’s dark out I can almost convince myself that this array of shoplights in the just-above-freezing back of the garage is actually a greenhouse or uber fancy conservatory. When the weather is cold it’s a room filled with green to hang out in, watering, puttering, pruning, plucking… doing all the stuff that the cold makes uncomfortable outdoors.

My official coffee drinking, seed cleaning, label writing, phone browsing, beer sampling, winter patio seat in the winter garden. I heard a crack last weekend and that’s got me slightly concerned about all the m&m’s, but that’s something to worry about in May.

There have been a few watershed moments in this year’s slightly excessive winter garden adventure. Ooops. I admitted that the winter garden is a little “extravagant”, but I blame it on last winter when I killed off a shameful amount of potted cyclamen. Cyclamen have been the stars of my winter garden for a few years, but then suddenly a winter of lazy, careless watering did in a bunch of them. This fall I needed backup plants. A visit to an open garden and a cutting swap started me off. The Amish country and various nurseries added a few more. Friends helped. Cuttings for overwintering added to it all. It’s all reaching a quite pleasant crescendo in my opinion.

Blue streptocarpella and flower buds on a red salvia. The salvia is being overwintered, and the buds should probably be clipped off… but I do like flowers 😉

Recently on Facebook a friend shared an article about the “dark side” of plant collecting. The home time and isolation of the pandemic had set unprepared gardeners off on a vicious binge of buying and collecting, and people were amassing hoards that amounted to hundreds of plants. “amateurs” my friend commented, and we laughed. I read the article myself and to be honest it made me smile to read about these plant collections and see the smiling faces of such happy gardeners. I think I might have missed the dark in it all.

A cool aloe which I couldn’t resist. ‘Snow Fox’ will join my other potted succulents next summer but for now just sits dry and mostly dormant on the dimmer end of the bench.

Just out of curiosity I counted pots in the winter garden. Normally anything under 6 inches doesn’t count, but this time I just went ahead and easily reached 150 pots back there. Hmmm. Then I took a few more cuttings and made it 152, just to slip a little further into the dark side.

This succulent comes in off the deck and spends the next three months flowering. I love it. Every little bit of leaf off the flower stems will try to root, so of course I made another pot of cuttings with those.

At least taking cuttings keeps my hands busy and out of the chip bag. I joke about not having the garden prepared, but at least my hoarding skills have me ‘winter gardening’ prepared. You can never have too many saved pots, and emergency bags of potting soil on hand. It’s awkward sneaking out into the frigid outdoor lot of the box store to try and wrestle a frozen bag of potting soil into your cart, so have it on hand in August so that you don’t have to make up some lame lie about ‘I don’t know, my wife told me she needed potting soil tonight’ when the cashier asks you what in the heck you’re doing. At least I can plan ahead in one area.

I’m quite pleased with how the cane begonia cuttings are doing. They’ll need bigger pots soon enough, but of course I’m prepared for that when the time comes.

Sometimes a rare ray of good fortune may shine upon you. A friend shocked me last year when she informed me they were officially downsizing and leaving their mature garden behind. “I think there will be a few things you’ll want” she said, and of course I agreed, but it was really all the accumulated trash like leftover pots and soil, bits of twine, scraps of fencing, pottery shards, opened bags of soil conditioners that I really wanted. Of course she knew that already. Only another gardener would want this stuff, and when I picked up a carload a few weeks ago I had to agree that I did want it.

More begonias and a cool Oxalis triangularis (maybe ‘Fanny’) which I was given a couple rhizomes of. I’m halfway tempted to pull out and plant a few of the purple leaved ones stored dormant under the shelf as companions to this one.

She gave me a box of terracotta pots which she may have never used. They’re small and there are a bunch of them and they’re much more trouble to move than lightweight plastic but I’m far more scared of them than I am of hundreds of hoarded houseplants because I really love them. What the *heck* is wrong with me that I’m staring at a box of clay pots thinking they’re so nice. I could understand if they were antique cloches for protecting delicate snowdrops during an ice storm, intricate wire topiary forms, but they’re stupid clay pots. I’m worried about what might happen if I start cruising garage and estate sales. I think I might buy every one I come across.

Clay pots and grandma’s geraniums. Cool people don’t seem to like pelargoniums but such a nice edging of variegation on the leaf, and the flowers are so delicate.

At least clay pots don’t have any calories… that I know of…. and so that must make a few too many of them a harmless distraction. As of today I only use them for succulents and a few potted bulbs, so even these are too many, but I really need more. A birthday is coming up. I wonder if putting ‘old, dirty terracotta pots’ on the birthday list could replace the usual underwear and socks?

Another aloe (‘Blue Elf’) with a few flower buds forming. I hope a lack of water and cool temps can keep them from developing too fast. Although I love winter blooms, I’d rather see them come up strong outside rather than spindly and weak in here.

So as usual I don’t really know how this post ended up where it has with underwear and socks. Let me try and re-focus with African violets. My mother used to grow them and so did my aunt. My grandmother grew them. They used to be Saintpaulia, but now I see they’re Streptocarpus sect. Saintpaulia and I’m not sure how that changed anything but I also know that about a year or so ago I needed to grow them again. I know these urges, I resisted. I almost made it but then cracked last fall and bought one and then I asked a friend for cuttings. I found online sources but only looked. I found one marked down. I guilted a spouse into buying me one at the grocery store after a few ‘admit it, you’re never going to wear that, I can’t buy you anything’ Christmas returns. I now have three violets plus two cuttings and I think I’m ok but then realized this afternoon I volunteered to stop at the store just because I thought they might have more. Hmmmm.

An African violet. This weekend will be cold and maybe I’ll take a cutting. I don’t need more but whatever.

African violets don’t have calories either. As far as I know adding another would be a victimless crime even if I’m lying to myself about picking up milk for the kids when I stumble across it. So what if I end up in a grocery store that’s 35 minutes away, it’s always good to shop around.

Have an excellent weekend, stay warm, and fuel that furnace responsibly… even if some of the fuel is chocolate, beer, and cheese 😉

Slow Learner

Jan19

I’m not very good at saying no to volunteer plants. Volunteer plants of course are the ones which just step forward to fill spots that you didn’t even know were spots until they volunteered to fill them. I guess they’re generous little things which just want to give… plus they’re free… and require no labor or attention… and that’s probably also a big plus in my book. Some people might say the word ‘weeds’ right now, and I say bite your tongue. If you can call sunflowers and foxgloves weeds, well then you’re probably a little higher class than this blog usually attracts and I suggest clicking on your way before you hold me liable for the time I’m about to waste.

A clump of snowdrops (Bill Bishop if you really have to know) in a photo from last January. Note the tiny rounded leaves in the center of the sprouts. Soooooo innocent looking….

One year later. A big fat rosette of foxglove foliage right where a snowdrop clump wishes to emerge. Please let’s overlook the many autumn leaves scattered about, and the as-yet untrimmed muscari foliage.

Ok, good. Now that we’ve ‘weeded out’ a certain type of reader, I just want to reassure anyone who’s left that you’re entirely high class, but of the type who just is and not the type who only thinks they are. I suspect you all have soft spots for foxgloves and that brings me to today’s dilemma. It’s not just any foxglove, it’s the especially special strawberry foxglove (Digitalis x mertonensis) and of course it’s right on top of ‘Bill Bishop’ and we all know that’s not going to work out.

There he is. Bill is happily sprouting up right exactly where he should be.

Normally a few stray foxgloves don’t even come close to causing a problem. Any other year they’re just a crumbly mess of winter killed foliage by the time the snowdrops arrive, and with just a little brushing aside all is well. This year things are different, and I might have to try a midwinter transplant because obviously I can’t just rip out this trooper, no matter how free she is.

It goes without saying that had I been attentive and moved the seedling last summer none of this would have been a problem. Sort of like had I been more attentive and less lazy for the last seven years maybe my WordPress disk space wouldn’t have reached 99% full with only just the few photos which I’ve uploaded over the years. Hmmm. I should have read the memo a few years ago when I first reached my limit and had to purchase a blogger plan rather than enjoy free access, but noooo, let me put it off a little more. Apparently re-sizing photos is a kind of important thing, which I’m sure everyone else knows but it just seemed like so much extra work at the time… and obviously I’m not one to embrace extra work.

So with a nice snow squall covering up the ground and ending any thoughts of transplanting, I’ve headed indoors and have committed to shrinking my digital footprint. So far I’ve spent hours editing posts, reloading re-sized photos and then deleting the old. Of course it’s my own fault. Ignorance is bliss, but what kind of stupid thinks a 4.2MB (4200KB) cabbage photo would be necessary when a 143KB will do? I’m up to September 2013 in case anyone is wondering.

While on the subject of time-wasting, I reorganized my Cyclamen coum seedlings to see how close seedlings from the mother plant resemble each other. These were all from a purple with mostly green leaves in case you’re wondering.

Every now and then even the most committed data processor needs a break, so with short days, early nights, and plenty of here and there snow, the winter garden has again become my man cave and I’m obsessing about Cyclamen again.

Cyclamen rhodium ssp. peloponnesiacum is a treasure I picked up at last year’s Galanthus Gala. It might be hardy, but that would mean not seeing these awesome leaves all winter, and why risk that!?

I thought I was good, and all last summer I was fully impressed with myself for having more cyclamen than ever before, but then the cold weather hit and maybe I do need more. I would have had more, but some stinkin’ mouse family robbed me of nearly all last year’s ripening seed pods, in a way that I didn’t even know the pods were hollowed out until I turned one and saw the bottoms all nibbled out. “Stinkin’ mouse” isn’t really the term I used, but since only the classiest readers remain I’ll try to keep it civil.

Fortunately I know a guy. A little back and forth with Dr. Lonsdale over at Edgewood Gardens and two new and extremely exciting cyclamen have found their way here. Plus a hellebore!

Two Cyclamen hederifolium with a faint flush of pink towards the center. Also hard to see is the variegation in the Hellebore niger seedling to the right, but it has it and I can’t wait for it to settle in to the garden this spring.

Another area I need to make more effort in is my indoor fertilizing regime. The new additions from Edgewood are so well rooted they put all my plants to shame. Dr Lonsdale has told me before to switch to something more specialized like a tomato fertilizer or anything with a lower first number (Nitrogen) but this blockhead will need a little more hammering, so one step at a time.

In the meantime, again let me say I’m pretty excited about the new additions. The cyclamen are cool, but the hellebore will probably rank as one of the rarest things in my garden. Take a look at a picture or two of >mature plants< and I think you’ll agree this little year old seedling is going to grow into something special.

Not as special as re-sizing thousands of photos and editing hundreds of posts, but close I’m sure. Have a great week!

6 Years and a Snow Day

Jan29

At least it’s so cold there’s no mud.

Construction on the border wall has halted for the winter. The whole thing has been shaped and smeared with a nice layer of topsoil, and all that’s left to add is a row of spruce along the top. Dark, gloomy, rooty, overbearing spruce that shall eventually loom over my sunny garden. As you can see I’m still trying to be optimistic about it all.

The Wall

We’re home today waiting for the snow to fall and that seems like the perfect time to get in a few pictures and celebrate an anniversary. For me January is an agonizingly slow gardening month, and apparently that was also the case six years ago when in a moment of boredom I found out just how easy it was to start a free online blog through WordPress. Six years and six thousand snowdrop pictures later I’m still here and although the heyday for blogs seems to have peaked and waned I’m more than happy to keep going on more than I need to about my somewhat suburban, somewhat middle of nowhere Pennsylvania garden.

The only bit of winter interest I could find in the bleak and cold garden. The red twigged ‘Midwinter Fire’ dogwood will be fine in this week’s arctic blast, but all bets are off on the Southern magnolia seedlings.

Over the years this gardener has been slowly learning a thing or two but it’s always an uphill battle. This winter’s “learning opportunity” was not having enough snowdrops and cyclamen to fill my winter garden. It was a trifecta of bad decisions and luck which began with me planting out all the potted snowdrops, me not buying any bulk snowdrops for forcing, and me leaving the dormant cyclamen tubers in a spot which took on the brunt of last summer’s endless rainfall. Then I brilliantly chose to reduce the number of geraniums under lights. In hindsight it’s all my fault, but fortunately I have some experience coping with that as well 🙂

There’s like three cyclamen in bloom when there should be a tray-full. But at least it’s clean since the seed saving mess is all packed up and off my little man-cave table.

Since the winter garden is kind of a flop this year, my natural response is to go all out and make it even bigger! The area which hosts my grow area was originally built as a workshop, and I’d been using it for tools and storage and some of the messier projects, but enough of that.

The cyclamen pots sometimes freeze on a cold and windy day, but this set of lights is further from the drafty windows and can hopefully stay above freezing even on the coldest day. Four geraniums (Pelargoniums) are all I saved from last year…

After these pictures were taken I hauled everything home-improvement and woodshop related out and started moving lights and tables into hopefully “better” spots. Most is still a complete mess but at the far end of the back room, near the furnace where it always stays warm, I’ve already set up two lights for the coleus and other goodies which need a reliably warm spot.

Kind of prison cell-block looking, but the plants don’t seem to mind. Hopefully in a few weeks things will grow and I can move a few under the second light table (not really visible in the back) and make this area a decent growing spot.

There are still a number of little things I have to deal with in the main (colder) area such as a leaky foundation, burst water pipes, and electrical issues but I’m sure that will just clear up practically on its own and I’ll be planting again in no time. For now though it’s keeping me off the internet and slowing down my new-plant-buying compulsions that all gardeners face at this time of year.

I did not buy this, and in my book that almost counts as saved money… and if you keep with that logic approx $1,500 US would make for an excellent plant budget!

Maybe in a few weeks there will be something slightly less depressing to look at in the winter garden. Most years this is a pleasant hideaway to escape the cold and brown that lurks outside but so far the winter of 2019 is still a work in progress. We’ll see though. It’s remarkably easy to fill up these light tables and come to think of it there are still a few potted primula outside that I could probably chip out of the ice and drag inside before the snow and cold become too unreasonable. Hmmmmm.

Stay warm!

Indoors, For Now…

Feb17

After a late start, it looked like winter was actually going to make an effort this year. We had some cold spells, some snow, lots of ice, and the usual January thaw, but now it’s just losing steam. A February thaw is in the works, and the freeze out there this morning is the one exception in a ten day forecast that doesn’t even dip much below freezing. To be honest I’d be thrilled to see this in March or April… not so much February.

I was expecting to spend most of February in the garage, hiding from the cold, and admiring the winter garden which has now officially replaced the workshop.

This weather will quickly bring on the snowdrops and winter aconite, and once that happens I’ll waste every minute of daylight wandering and poking around the garden imagining just how nice everything is going to be this year. In the meantime though, I’ve come to a decision on a real winter greenhouse, one which involves glass and benches and expensive heating. Before you get excited for me (doesn’t everyone get excited for people who get new greenhouses?) I want to make it clear it’s not going to happen. Our local climate is relatively extreme and although that in itself is an excellent reason to get a greenhouse, I just can’t commit myself to worrying about extreme low temperatures, brutal hailstorms and blizzards, heating system failures… and most importantly the extra heating bill.

The hardy cyclamen (C. coum) are at their peak under the winter garden grow lights. For the second year in a row I’m wondering why I don’t have more in here.

But wait! Don’t get the wrong impression here. I’m not having some budget-wise revelation that includes spending less and denying myself things in order to save for our retirement or the children’s education. I just came to the conclusion that with only a few more grow lights I can change the whole workshop over into a very satisfying pseudo-conservatory. So I did a little searching and found three more light fixtures on clearance. $39 a piece, about $120 total… so much better than their $52 normal price.

A first time for me. Fern spores. You’ll have to trust me on this but there’s a tiny bit of black dust on that silver foil, and hopefully with it and an old baby food tub I can recreate what ferns have been doing for millions of years.

$120 is an amazing bargain compared to buying an actual greenhouse, so in reflecting on how much money I just saved I don’t think I’d be way off in subtracting it from the budget rather than adding, but on second thought a visit to the accountant taught me a new word which might come in handy here. Depreciation. From what I gathered (and often what I gather is more what I want to hear rather than real facts) I can take this long-range purchase and pretend it’s really money which has been spent over a couple years. So for the 2018 budget I’m going to pretend I only spent $30 and we’ll see if I remember the remaining $30s in 2019, 2020, and 2021.

Seed starting is well under way. These will go outside today and spend the rest of the winter on the side of the house under a layer of garden fleece (aka Reemay, or spun row cover) until warmer weather encourages them to sprout.

The lights are more of a next winter plan, but you never know. In a fit of boredom a week or so ago (apparently you can’t spend forever sipping beer and staring at cyclamen) someone got it in their head to pot up the coleus cuttings and start a few succulent cuttings. They’re in the very back of the workshop, in a room with the furnace, and hopefully will stay warm enough there to get shoots growing and roots forming. We will see.

Rootless succulent cuttings newly potted up and coleus cuttings slowly recovering from the last few months on a windowsill in water.

I don’t need more succulents in February, let alone May. It’s another one of those #becauseIcan moments, but I’m just itching with a compulsion to start more. Another 25 or 50 more isn’t out of the question and I’m sure something can be done with them in the spring.

In the meantime have a great weekend!

$30 for new growlights

$318 total so far for the 2018 gardening year

The Winter Garden 2017

Feb2

Once again the new normal in winters is proving itself to be completely abnormal. Instead of celebrating the depths of winter last week with a warm blanket and a seed catalog I found myself outside in the sun clearing dried stems from around snowdrop sprouts and spreading mulch and compost on top of the earliest spring flower beds. I loved it for a few days, but to see snow and freezing temperatures in the week ahead was much more reassuring, if only to keep the flowers asleep until safer weather returns. It is winter gardening season after all, and the 2017 winter garden has been up and running since the holidays.

Life under the lights.

The cool (but rarely freezing) workshop which adjoins the back of the garage is home to my often celebrated winter garden. A collection of overwintering bulbs and potted plants survive the cold in this dimly lit room, and each winter they are joined by a table top full of forced bulbs, early seedlings, and whatever else I can’t leave to freeze outside. I’ve upped the number of fluorescent light fixtures to three this year and am feeling rich with all the extra growing space!

A closeup of the different foliage types filling the table. Snowdrops and cyclamen dominate, the cyclamen are only just starting to put out their midwinter flower show.

Interest in the winter garden rises and falls opposite the outdoor temperatures. Colder weather means more tinkering indoors, warmer weather results in general neglect. This week I bucked the trend though, and brought in a tray of primula seedlings before the approaching snow and ice locked them up in their protective mulch pile.

With just a little cleanup I’m optimistic these primroses will look great. Hopefully blooms will show up in just a couple weeks under the lights.

Three plants have become standards for my winter garden. Snowdrops are the first. They’re an addiction so I can’t really reason out why I must grow them here when they’re just as successful (and nearly at the same stage) as under lights… but I do. Cyclamen and primrose are a different story. Their bright colors and their overall happiness in this cold back room really cheer up a gloomy winter evening and make this my new favorite place for sorting seeds and planning the new season’s garden.

Each year the winter garden room gains a little more street credit. Maybe someday I can be surrounded by aged terra cotta and antique garden décor, with a few rustic signs which say ‘garden’ or something similar…. Maybe. Either that or a beer tap.

As I hide out in my man cave it gives me the necessary time to fully enjoy the snowdrops and other goodies which are coming along under lights. The bulk Galanthus elwesii which I bought as dried bulbs and potted up for forcing have given me a few nice surprises, but I will spare you from most of those photos. Here’s one though which I will put in, it’s a particularly tall one growing alongside a peculiar climbing asparagus which I grew from seed last winter. Asparagus asparagoides is a noxious weed in several tropical areas outside its native African range, but here under growlights in Pennsylvania I think we’re safe. To be honest there’s nothing really special about it, except that it’s super special… if you know what I mean.

Snowdrops and the climbing Asparagus asparagoides. I don’t think the asparagus would be hardy outdoors, which is probably a good thing.

Ok one more snowdrop.

A particularly nice snowdrop with average markings but a second scape (extra flowering stem) coming up, and a third flower coming up off of a side shoot. A snowdrop which puts out three flowers is a good thing in my opinion.

Until the cyclamen get into full bloom and the primroses burst into flower I’ll just give an update on the hyacinths I potted up just before Christmas. They’re starting to sprout and I’ve moved them onto the coldest windowsill of the workshop for some light. Once the flower stems start to come a little more I’ll move them under the grow lights as well. The fragrance of hyacinths will be a nice addition to the winter garden.

The poorly insulated, dirty glass of the shop windows is as close to a coldframe as I’ll get this year. The bulbs don’t seem to mind though and the cool temperatures keep the flowers from opening up too fast (before they’ve sprouted up out of the bulb).

So that’s where the winter garden is this year. I planted onion seeds yesterday and in my mind the primroses already look as if they’ve grown a bit since coming inside. It’s exciting but also dangerous to start so early on that tricky road to spring fever, but maybe the next four days of below freezing weather will help. I’ll just need to ignore the fifth day when the high is predicted at 50F (10C)… a temperature too high for February and one which is sure to bring on the first outdoor snowdrops.

A primrose path

Feb27

I don’t mean to brag but my expertise in the genus primula is really growing by leaps and bounds. Vulgaris and veris were strangers a few months ago but now they’re names I can put a face to and to be completely honest I’m feeling a bit smug… I do grow them from seed you know.

So I thought maybe it was time to officially rename a few misnamed seedlings and hit the computer for a little looking around online. My bliss was shattered when I discovered there are more than a few primula species out there. In the interest of keeping my self confidence up and my ignorance intact I’m not planning on finding an exact number, but my less than indepth research has discovered at least a primula for every letter of the alphabet from P. advena to P. zambalensis, and at least 30 species in just the ‘a’ section alone. India has over 100 species… who knew?

Well apparently plenty of people knew, so I’m going to just return to my humble garage and enjoy a few of the flowers showing up under my growlight this winter. Did I mention I grew a primrose from seed? They’re probably a self-sowing weed in your garden but I’ll be the first to admit that even after a number of years it’s still the simplest of things that make me happy.

The ‘Tartan Reds’ are indeed from seed, but the double pink ‘belarina pink ice’ was given to me by a friend last spring. It’s much darker than it should be but I love the color.

I think I mentioned my primrose exploits in an earlier post and warned about more photos of the mealy eyed yellow auricula which was blooming…. and here it is again 🙂

I think the white flour-like farina which coats the center of the flowers make these blooms really cool. Notice how much smaller the other P. auricula seedlings are in the pot to the left, I really got lucky with how well this one plant grew!

The other seedlings from last year’s American Primrose Society seed exchange are also pulling their weight. I’m still surprised that the neglected little things are doing anything at all but they are and I’m grateful for it. Here’s my next big thing and also the reason I went searching through primrose species lists. The large pale yellow sounds ok as a P. aucalis, but I am now calling the smaller blooms around it P. veris ‘sunset shades’ and not another aucalis. I’m surprised by how much I like them, small droopy flowers and all!

primrose from seed

Many new primula seed were sown last week and I’m sure I’ll go on and on about them some day too, but for now primrose are a nice diversion from my snowdrop mania. Snowdrops are a problem and I promise to go on far too long about them as well since there’s the promise of warm weather again this weekend 🙂

sorta like suburbia

more than you ever wanted to know about my garden

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