Bring it on

Jun25

So if you see this post and think it’s been a while you’re right. Two months of silence is an unprecedented void on this blog, and I’m a little annoyed with myself that this winter the blog review will go straight from early spring bulbs right into summer… but that’s something to worry about in January. Today we’re just past the summer solstice and it’s midday with the thermometer at 95F (35C) and apparently that’s just what it took to get me inside and in front of the computer again.

One of the opium poppies (Papaver somniferum), probably a ‘Laurens Grape’ seedling, is looking exceptional in spite of the heat. The opium poppies are safe, but the Shirley poppies (Papaver rhoeas) became rabbit food once the bunnies developed a taste. They were looking so promising…

So where was I? Here of course. Partially busy, partially lazy, going to work, and then off to Iowa for a week at the end of May (also for work). Things were transplanted, things were weeded, regular rains helped everything immeasurably, and then a load of mulch helped me immeasurably in keeping the weeds from returning… once it was spread of course. I think the garden looks nice, and if you can remember one of the reasons I wanted it to look visitor-nice was for a high school graduation party that would take place here. It did take place. Last weekend when the weather was cooler and excellent we had food and fun and about 70 people over to celebrate. Last minute projects went until the last minute of course, but overall the scars and construction of the last few years have been erased and the garden is finally back.

All the rain was a blessing for the lawn, with newly seeded areas sprouting well, and zero-topsoil areas growing as if their roots actually had something healthy to live on. This is the side of the house where two years of concrete trucks and work vehicles had been accessing the addition. I now call it the daylily walk.

To be honest the garden has been here throughout, but there was a lot more ‘interesting’ than anyone but myself would appreciate. Buggy borders filled with weeds and waste spaces overflowing with seediness are the first things I’d check each morning, but others would likely hold a different opinion. The fact that there were little to no complaints about the mess and in particular the lack of steps down from the deck for several years is quite amazing now that I think on it. I should really do some before and after posts.

Currently the beds on the side of the house are overfilled with the common oxeye daisy. It’s a weed but it’s a weed which I’d take over empty mulch beds any day, and until better things get planted… or the heat wipes them out… I’ll take it.

A before and after would be great for one of the big surprises this summer. Little seeds sprout and grow and suddenly one afternoon you’re amazed by a huge flower on your baby Southern Magnolia (M. grandiflora). Yes, trees have been growing from seeds for eons, but when it’s by your own hand that’s something else. I would have to check, but I suspect the tree is somewhere around ten years old.

The first of five flowers which this Magnolia grandiflora has set. This and one other seedling have flower buds, the third still has some growing to do.

Perhaps the mild winter helped the Magnolias along, since they’re borderline hardy in this zone, but I’ll take it regardless. Another thing I’ll take is the nearly 100% overwintering of all the purple Verbena bonariensis which has come up just in time for the party. There are seedlings (still too small to flower) as well, but for the party a few big patches of purple really make things look much better than they are!

The path sloping down to the backyard and potager.

In between small talk and second helpings a few people noticed the garden. “Wow, that’s a lot of plants”, “it looks nice”, and “that must be a lot of work” were some of the comments and they were all quite nice to hear but I kept shooting myself in the foot by pointing out how many of the plants were actual weeds. For the oxeye daisies I kept telling people to look alongside the highway later and notice the same exact flowers, and for the verbena I pointed out that they’re all self-sown seedlings, and for the milkweeds I just highlighted the ‘weed’ part of the name. I do like the milkweeds though. They are a weed, but an interesting one and not as unattractive as many of my other “interesting” plants.

Alongside the driveway the showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) is flowering for the first time. It struggled to get started but apparently all the growth was underground since it’s sprouting everywhere this year!

Right now it’s the showy and the common milkweed which are putting on the best show. They’re somewhat similar but the common is much taller, especially this year with all the rain. Once they finish blooming I’ll wack em back since a six foot tall clump of m’weed by the front door is not the curb appeal our mailperson needs to see every day.

Common milkweed (Asclepias syrica) pops up throughout the garden because its roots go everywhere. In okay spots it will be cut down to about three feet after bloom, in not-okay spots I pull them out, and usually they break off neatly at the root and I can ignore what must be a massive root system.

So as usual I started this post with high hopes, but now it’s six days later and still not done. Let me try and get moving. A short summary (which is what I should have started this all with) is party was good, garden was decent, massive projects were finished enough, and summer is off to an excellent (although slightly exhausting) start.

No one complimented the Japanese iris but I thought they were nice. Please note the brick piles which still remain. I can’t do everything!

So in the week since the party I’m less focused on plumbing and deck reconstruction and more focused on finishing up on the garden to-do list. I’ll hopefully get another post up one of these days because the daylilies have started, the tulips have been dug, the annuals planted, and things look even better, especially since the heat broke yesterday and we had a nice downpour to water things.

The weedy end of the potager. More milkweed and still a few beds of bulbs to dig, but a mown lawn goes a long way in making any corner of the yard tolerable.

The cooler weather has been a nice break from the smothering heat and humidity, and yesterday I was able to work outside without the waterfall of sweat and overall homeless in Florida look which has been the rule for the last two weeks.

Part of last year’s ‘waste area’ became a firepit. It looks so much more purposeful than a patch of weeds but with the hot nights there have been no demands to give it a try.

When I said the garden looked good enough I wasn’t kidding. We were focused on other things, and other things always end up taking longer than expected and you don’t always get around to yanking out the dried up tulip stems. Weeds can wait when it’s a couple hours before the party and you’re setting pavers at the base of the new deck stairs while someone else is asking if she could powerwash the stairs so that she could set up tables and chairs since she thought that would be an important thing to do as well. She was right. It all came together and no one openly questioned the plethora of exceptionally healthy no-doubts-they’re-real-weeds and the embarrassingly undug tulip beds.

Someone with more sense might have focused on this bed in the very center of the yard, but…

Let me reassure you that in the days after the party the tulips have been (mostly) all dug and some of the biggest weeds are gone. There’s hope, and in another week or so I won’t need the distractions of food, beer and lawn games to keep people from looking too closely since hopefully there will be far fewer ‘ouch’ parts of the garden!

This driveway loudly announces ‘projects not done’, and no one said a word about it. I guess we have some decent friends, or at least friends who know better than to get me started on some long sand moving explanation.

So summer 2024 is off to an excellent yet tiring start. There shall be droughts and bugs and deer attacks but with any amount of luck there will also be garden harvests, bird-filled mornings, flowers, fragrance, and fun… and daylilies. I’m still kind of into the daylily thing, and with them opening up new blooms every day I have to make a decision on the daylily farm plans. It started as a joke, people were enthusiastic, and now I fear they were just joking along with me! We will see.

Thanks for reading and it’s good to be back!

A Weekend in Spring

Apr15

So I guess it’s officially spring in my neck of the woods. People were cutting grass, washing cars, and of course I was even busier than ever wandering around checking on the same plants again and again. Sunday was warm and between the first tour in the am and the last tour in the pm things had moved ahead more than you would think. Fortunately I was there to keep an eye on things 😉

Narcissus ‘Pistachio’ is one of my favorites with its glowingly pale yellow blooms on short, wind-steady stalks.

I did not wash the car in case you’re wondering, but in between garden wandering, I did have to endure track meets, ferry the child to some parties and then endure a Sunday morning college visit. Fortunately the visit was local and just a twenty minute drive, but between hearing tuition payment options and filing the taxes the night before it was a good thing the weather turned nice so I could escape to the garden…. until we had an April thunderstorm roll through… more rain was not what we needed.

‘Vulcan’ is a bright daffodil, even brighter with the cool temperatures of the previous week.

So I guess this post is bound to be as aimless as my weekend wanderings but with the weather turning warm the garden will move ahead rapidly, and these pictures from Friday evening will be stale old news if I dawdle any longer so here’s a post. I’m hoping I’m not the only one who falls behind this time of year?

The new colchicum bed is already nearly overwhelmed with colchicums and other things. I was a good boy for dividing and replanting, but now do I possibly have too many?

If you remember, last year things in this garden were focused on earth moving, and this year it’s the second step of the process, mainly making it look nice. The garden doesn’t always look nice, and often veers into the messy lane, and for this year that won’t fly. There is a girl turning sixteen and a boy graduating High School and both parties are planned to happen this summer and in this garden.

The last raw scars of earthmoving are beginning to fade with a new planting bed and new lawn coming up. I have until mid June to clean up the edges and pretty up the plantings.

I knew this was coming, so now with the date picked I have to focus on having something nice in the yard for the party days. Right now I’m envisioning yellowing and dying tulip and daffodil foliage, alongside weedy oxeye daisies and an overgrown meadow garden, and although that might be interesting I’m quite sure I shouldn’t mention it to the bosses. Somehow I have to dig all the tulips and get something nice into the beds all within a couple weeks, and no one seemed the tiniest bit flexible when I said that August would be a nicer time for a graduation party or maybe a sweet sixteen plus two months party.

The tulips are coming on fast, but this bed is showing a lot of the fungal infection called ‘tulip fire’ (spotty leaves and twisted growth). They are the same bulbs which are planted elsewhere but in this bed they’re suffering and I think I need to give the soil a break from tulips.

If worse comes to worse I’ll just chop the tulips and plant coleus everywhere. There’s always a backup plan but I’d be lost in August without a bunch of trays filled with curing tulip bulbs so hopefully the weather and work schedule can make it happen. Tulips are worth it. If you thought snowdrops were bad, prepare for tulips, but fortunately during tulip season there are a billion other things to do so this blogger can’t really go on like he does in March.

Mixed Darwin tulips in yet another ‘new’ bed. They were opening up by the end of Sunday and I’m anticipating a dazzling display by the end of the week.

Things may turn stressful. I’ve got a party to plant for and here I am questioning if I have too many colchicums or tulips or snowdrops and where would I grow more tulips if I clear them out of the potager to give the soil a rest, and why don’t I have too many or even enough daffodils and I wonder if I could grow those in the potager beds and dig them for summer and….

I think it’s just that time of year. There are so many plans and for a little while they haven’t been screwed up yet, and for at least another two or three more weeks I can imagine that it’s going to be a perfect season. Even if it isn’t though it’s still better than January, right?

Corydalis Solida

Apr2

There was a time when spring blooming bulb lists and catalogs wouldn’t show up until late summer. The obsessed would have orders in the mail before heading out to the beach again, but the more sensible would dillydally with other distractions until that first chilly afternoon got them thinking about planting up for the next season. It was a logical model. Most spring blooming bulbs are dug in the summer and who has the time to count bulbs, set prices, and send out a catalog when you have acres of tulips to dig? But times change, and these days the bulb merchants are perhaps willing to take a bit of a gamble on prices and harvests, and know gardeners are at their weakest now when the cold of winter is still fresh in our minds and a hillside of daffodils sounds like a good idea. It is a good idea! With things sprouting everywhere the gardener doesn’t even think twice about last November and all the mumbling about planting bulbs before the ground freezes and another daffodil hillside would be brilliant 😉

Not daffodils, but a range of Corydalis solida seedlings coming up in the front street border.

Maybe there’s no daffodil hill in your future, but don’t give up because of that. Take a browse through the ‘minor bulb’ section, or the ‘miscellaneous bulbs’ tab and realize that tiny bulbs are barely any work to plant and can sometimes make just as big a display. Corydalis solida comes to mind and this year they’re quite an excellent show as the cool (somewhat gloomy) weather is keeping them in flower and keeping their colors nearly as bright as the day they opened.

Corydalis solida squeezing in where they can amongst the snowdrop and winter aconite foliage. This bed is a free for all until the next thing sprouts up and takes over.

Back in the day this blogger made a better effort at providing somewhat useful information, but that day is not today so let me suggest this post from 2016 when I was still just dabbling in the corydalis world. The best moment for me in my 2016 flashback was my wonder at seeing the first seedlings and how they differed from the mother plants. Good times. I believe nearly everything in the garden now is a seedling, and the originals are all gone, so if you adhere to a strict color palette and mauve in your melon offends your vision I’d say skip corydalis.

A visit to 2016 also reminded me that there were just two pink and one white hyacinths in this patch, and just a single bunch of pink corydalis solida. Old me was much neater.

Since we wandered into the recent past I guess some more lessons learned are that other minor bulbs also spread freely. I’m thinking the blue Scilla siberica in the last photo, and I’m wondering if I should evict it from other parts of the garden before it really mounts an invasion. Grape hyacinths (Muscari) can also spread more than you might like but are easier to deadhead… until you miss a batch…

Corydalis solida in one of the snowdrops beds. Obviously I just walk past this section when I’m wandering the garden with a homeless new plant in my hand, there’s not a single spot left for new things.

Well this post appears to be wandering off track as usual. I hope everyone enjoyed a nice Easter weekend and didn’t spend too much time looking at bulb catalogs whenever there was a lull in the family time, and I almost made it through this post without mentioning the weather or snowdrops.

One of the latest to bloom, Galanthus ‘Peardrop’ would be a keeper even if she flowered in the thick of the season, before all the others had faded and she’s the only drop left standing.

Oh weather. We’re about two or three weeks ahead of a normal season and there’s two or three inches of rain forecast for the next few days. Ugh. It better straighten out before all the daffs and tulips open is all I’ll add.

Have a great week 🙂

Spring on Pause

Mar24

You may have heard that a bit of chilly weather has rolled across North America. Our lowest low of the last few days has been just five degrees below average, but after months of non-winter it feels downright arctic. I even put the winter coat on for yesterday’s garden stroll!

The front border is beginning to come to life. ‘Tweety Bird’ is my earliest (and dare I say favorite?) daffodil and has never flinched due to cold or ice or snow.

Yesterday was a complete wash out with about two inches of rain filling my rain gauges (aka work buckets which litter the garden) and now it’s all locked in cold. For the last four nights I’ve even returned the pots of rosemary and dracaena back to the safety of the garage, and put off evicting the hardy cyclamen from the winter garden, but the pansies I planted out are on their own. Right now they’re face down in the frozen dirt, but by late afternoon I expect to see their cheery faces again. If not, I’m sure they’ll send up new blooms and that should ease any guilt I might have over not bothering to cover up and protect these little greenhouse divas at all.

Upward facing blooms on a hellebore are nice, but the cold rains of spring are a good reason to hang low and protect your pollen. These are also kissing the dirt right now, limp until the freezing weather passes.

Although we didn’t need another foot or two of rain it has been good for the transplants. Maybe even a little too good since I noticed a few leaning spruce and tilted hazels, but a quick stomp of the foot should rectify that and the water also helps since I didn’t water anything when they were moved since they’re all nice and dormant and the ground is wet enough. I had planned to spend the entire month moving snowdrops, but these woody plants were calling, and if I can make these moves quickly hopefully they can work out the transplant shock somewhat in the last few weeks before leafing out and pushing new growth. Maybe next week the snowdrops will have a chance… unless concrete calls and I finally work on the deck steps…

Snowdrops are fading and the next wave of spring bloomers are on their way.

Whatever happens, this is also the time of year when between jobs I question the number of other bulbs in need of moving and dividing. Actually I sometimes just question the number of bulbs here. Dividing and moving requires a spot to move things to and at the moment I’m at a loss. There’s already a new colchicum bed for divided colchicums, there’s a new tulip bed for moved tulips, and nearly every other somewhat-appropriate ground location has a few snowdrops growing there. Hmmmm.

The “vegetables only” policy for the potager did not age well. Four years later and there are a few garlic sprouts in the closest bed, but everything else is more flower than edible…

I of course am innocent in all this. One new allium and two new snowdrops came home with me from the Gala this spring. Last autumn only a “few” new snowdrops went in the ground, and seriously how big is one snowdrop? I didn’t buy a single daffodil or tulip. I am a victim.

I bet you also know that people who claim persecution and innocence most loudly are not and I think I’ll stop right there. If it gets warmer soon enough maybe I’ll spread a six inch clump of snowdrops into a four foot patch, or maybe take another dozen coleus cuttings in the winter garden, regardless of where things end up here I hope your Sunday goes well and you have 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 😉

Winter Flowers

Feb15

Last weekend was beautiful. Technically we’re in the depths of winter, but with a January thaw which has blended into a February thaw winter just doesn’t even seem to be trying this year. Part of me doesn’t mind, but the other part misses the weeks of nothing to do but curl up in a blanket indoors and that bounty of weather-imposed reading and puzzle time. A lack of snow and an abundance of mild days doesn’t offer the same break, and in fact can be exhausting with all the poking and shuffling around -hunched over of course- which needs to be done on a daily basis. Also there’s the idea that this is just the start of ever increasingly warm winters and the anxiety over where it will end… yeah that’s also slightly concerning…

Honeybees busy visiting the winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis). Plant nerds may notice the bee sits on the straight yellow species while the blooms behind are seedlings of the more apricot ‘Schwefelglantz’, but I don’t think the bees care.

But this week my only consideration is that I’m enjoying winter aconite, snowdrops, witch hazel, and other winter flowers in the middle of February.

Snowdrops close to the house are in full bloom.

The pattern and schedule of these flowers is oddly different than the order I’ve become accustomed to. Some late snowdrops are in full bloom, some early ones are barely up, flowers in the later, more shaded beds are beating out flowers in protected spots, and it seem all kinds of disorganized but I’m sure there’s a logic which escapes me.

More of the straight Eranthis hyemalis, it’s been seeding about and patches are finally forming.

Strangely enough many of the other bulbs are still a little wary of the mild temperatures. I don’t blame them since it’s hard to trust a spring which shows up in the middle of winter, and there’s bound to be an argument somewhere along the line before May and I’d rather not face the frozen wreckage of a spring garden which trusted a little too blindly.

This is Galanthus ‘Egret’ and I like it more and more each spring as it clumps up and settles in. Like the wings of a bird the flowers take flight when fully open.

Ok, one more complaint about a fabulously early and moderate spring. Without a foot of frozen soil and an inch or two of crusty old ice and snow holding everything back the pace of spring seems less exciting. Even with a string of mild days there’s no explosion of new blooms or a string of new flowers opening hour by hour, and it’s more measured and contemplative. I love the excitement of a spring explosion, but I’m also foolish to complain when it doesn’t happen. Four out of five days I’m stuck at work for the explosion and it’s sad cramming it in to the 48 minutes between getting out of the car and the sun going down so just forget I ever mentioned that last complaint.

Another snowdrop which took a few years to grow on me, galanthus ‘Blewbury Tart’.

With spring smoldering outside the fever inside is burning, and I’m moving into dangerous territory with a risky date on the horizon. In case you don’t know March 2nd is Galanthus Gala time, and for me that means a trip to Downingtown PA to meet up with fellow snowdrop fans to browse the snowdrop vendors, consider other rare plant purchases, listen to snowdrop-themed talks, and enjoy the enthusiastic bidding of the Gala auction. Since 2017 David Culp has been hosting this event and if you’re interested in specifics the ticket site can be found >here< …although I have to warn you that tickets for everything other than the streaming online access are already sold out. But don’t fret. Free admission runs from 10-4 and perhaps missing the opening frenzy and enjoying the sales tables while the masses have moved on to the lectures isn’t the worst approach. Here’s another link, this one to the Gala Facebook page which has more info on the vendors and the event, and even though nobody asked I’m going to give away my method for approaching this sale.

Walk in and start talking to someone. Ignore the selling frenzy. Talk to more people. Examine what others are buying and randomly stalk the people who are carrying the coolest plants. Make it (hopefully) less awkward by asking them about their favorites. Eventually start looking at plants. Try to make a full circuit without buying anything because there’s no way you can afford buying everything you want. Go back to the start and see what’s left and only then can you start buying. Trust me you’ll save a ton of money this way and still end up with too much… plus on the first round let’s be honest, everyone has a cheat list with a special snowdrop or witch hazel or two on it, so maybe I could be entirely understanding if you falter and pick up a few things on the first round 😉

If I didn’t already have one I’d consider ‘Moya’s Green’ to be worth adding to the cheat list. It’s been a good grower here, large blooms, the green fades in warmer weather but don’t we all?

Sorry, I didn’t expect to go on like that. It’s a weeknight and bedtime approaches so here’s where the warm weekend went.

I was relieved to see ‘Rosemary Burnham’ returning after I ripped up the boxwoods here and seeded grass. It will be interesting to see how she holds up to the new environment, and it will be interesting to see if the stray sprouts are more Rosemary or some equally interesting seedlings.

One of my favorite snowdrops out of the bulk elwesii bulbs. Large flowers and nice foliage, they just don’t like a cold snap after sprouting.

A warm weekend in February will almost always bring on a cold snap and here we are. Snow and some colder weather but nothing for most plants to worry about. I’m actually loving the sunshine and brisk weather.

I rarely get home in time to see this one open in the sun, but today I did. Adonis amurensis ‘fukujukai’.

Fortunately it’s not too brisk, and the snow is melting faster than it can pack down and turn to ice and the plants should be fine. Even better it will slow the season down and keep the more tender things from thinking it’s time to grow.

Galanthus ‘S. Arnott’ in the afternoon light.

Actually with things not growing yet I can imagine my beds are riddled with empty spots and perhaps I should go all out on the first round. Hmmm.

Have a great week, whether or not your days are warm or brisk, and trust me this isn’t the last you’ll hear of Galas or snowdrops 😉

It Worked!

Jan31

Well look at that. Northeastern Pennsylvania, end of January, and the winter aconite is blooming and the witch hazel is open. I’m sure it’s entirely due to our faithful observance of the Ten Days of Plantness, and I’m thrilled to have color returning to the garden now that the ten darkest weeks of our Northern Hemisphere winter have passed.

The pale yellow form of winter aconite (Eranthis hiemalis) is always first in flower by a few weeks over the regular bright yellow.

Surely it’s all downhill from here, right? Might as well mothball the winter coat for another year and pull out the shorts and sandals because it will be cold drinks on the porch season before we know it!

Galanthus ‘Colossus’ is always eager to rise during any break in winter, except usually the return of winter brutalizes any flowers which dare open. This year a blanket of snow came at just the right time, and for once he looks great.

Ok, maybe there’s still a bit of winter to get through but at least we have progress and I hope you’re seeing something similar in your own garden. These winter flowers can really lift the spirits in January especially during a winter which tends more towards rainy and gray rather than cold and white, and it’s somewhat of a compensation for another lackluster ski season.

A lonely flower on the witch hazel (Hamamelis ‘Pallida’). With the exception of ‘Arnold’s Promise’ all the witch hazels are sparse this year and I’m not entirely sure of the reason, but am guessing they didn’t get the rain they wanted when they wanted it.

For a while I though just about everyone was experiencing another mild winter, but then heard multiple stories about record-breaking cold earlier in the month and am wondering what the real story is. You often hear of ‘records broken’ but is it just for that date, or that town on that day, or that month?… I’m never sure beyond my own little corner of this state, but from what I saw here, although the weather got colder we’re still running a zone 7 winter in what used to be zone 5 territory, and for what it’s worth I’m sourcing crape myrtles and selecting camellias for planting this spring 😉

Flooded snowdrops. With all the rain there are puddles sitting in just about every low lying spot in the garden. These G. nivalis (or some x valentinei mix) have been here for a few years though, and have never complained.

As usual we will see where this leads and for now I suspect it will lead to more flowers and I’m ready for that. So far the usual early bloomers are starting to move but with a random sprinkling of off-schedule bedmates for which I have less of an explanation for than I do for the weather. Regardless I think I need to begin the annual warnings for snowdrop overload as the normal level-headedness, modesty, and self-restrain leave my system and galanthaholism wields its ugly head. I no longer pretend that the state of my snowdrop thing is normal.

‘Ophelia’ is a warm day or two away from opening. She’s several years beyond dividing but that’s a lot more ‘Ophelia’ than I know what to do with!

So consider yourself warned. Other than a here-and-there winter garden update it’s all snowdrops, things which look well with snowdrops, weather which effects snowdrops, snowdrop visits and snowdrop events from here on out. Time to brush off the scroll button and fine tune the ‘Oh nice, Frank. That seems fun” comments for those of you who feel obligated.

‘Dick’s Early Yellow’ in the coldframe. I pulled the glass back so perhaps he will yellow up to a brighter color. Under glass yellows tend to lean more towards green.

Fun is what it should be. I’m hoping for another excellent season, and if you can join me in ignoring the multiple cases of bulb neglect (the coldframe for example should have been cleared out entirely in June), I think it should be an amusing time… even if the bulk of the fun is just seeing how far I’ve fallen 🙂

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.

Countdown to Solstice

Dec21

The winter solstice approaches, the longest night of the year and the tipping point for earth as the Northern hemisphere begins to wobble its way back to a more full on exposure to the sun. Days will be getting longer and before you know it….

Well actually we still have an entire winter to face, the shift towards the sun takes a while and temperatures will still drop for another month or so until the increase in light exposure does its magic. In theory. Yesterday was winter and tonight as well, and looking at the forecast tonight might even drop as low as our average low for the day, which will be a first for the month, but beyond that it’s just warm and more warm.

A new snowdrop! Galanthus elwesii ‘Xmas’ has made a seasonable appearance and will be the closest thing to a white Christmas we see this year.

Right now I’m thrilled about the warmth and have been taking advantage of the open ground and diggable soil. Also I’ve been way too wound up about the snowdrops peaking out here and there as they poke up to consider the weather. I do a garden walkabout whenever it’s light enough, and with things in dormant mode there’s not much going on beyond a little poking and prodding to see who sprouted a tiny bit more, but imagine my surprise when I came across a new snowdrop in full bloom. A friend gave me a monster snowdrop bulb (Galanthus elwesii ‘Xmas’) and I should have known enough to be on the lookout around Christmas but it was still a shock to find it in full bloom this week. It’s a beauty. Quite similar to every other white snowdrop but so much more special, and it’s always amazing when something manages to pop up in this garden and escape my attention and prodding for so long.

‘Three Ships’ looking sad this year.

A snowdrop which hasn’t escaped my notice is another Christmas bloomer, ‘Three Ships’. It was doing so well for a few years until all of a sudden it wasn’t, and for at least three winters I keep hoping it will grow out of its slump but so far no luck. A neighboring drop is also in a slump and is possibly the source of the problem but as per my typical laziness I’m pulling a ‘thoughts and prayers’ and hoping something will change without me having to make a change. Maybe next summer I’ll finally make an adult decision and take action.

A freshly weeded and mulched snowdrop bed. It wasn’t intended as a snowdrop bed, but when a few more drops go in each year…

I may be waiting for the summer to save ‘Three Ships’ but the warm weather and emerging snowdrop noses have moved me to do a few bed cleanouts and some tidying up. I don’t have the luxury of heaps of nicely mulched autumn leaves for all of the beds, but I do have some well-done compost which works nearly as well, and having a few snowdrop beds cleaned and topped off seems like a nice way to go into the season. I guess being able to do this in December is great even though it takes twenty times longer since my body is into sitting around mode even more so than usual, and it also it doesn’t help when you actually break a sweat gardening in late December. It just seems wrong.

Christmas cookies will solve it though. I wished they solved everything but for this they work, and I hope you enjoy plenty of cookies, a wonderful solstice, and plenty of holiday celebrations as we round out the year.

Ins and Outs

Dec10

Today was a day of steady rain. It’s been in the forecast for several days so that’s no surprise and we’re getting maybe an inch or more before it changes over to snow in the wee hours of the night. Of course the kids are excited, somehow the word got out even though temperatures today and yesterday were downright balmy in the 50s so we will see what the morning brings. Today was all rain though, and definitely an indoors day, so I was a little smug in the fact I have a winter garden that I can retreat to.

This florist cyclamen followed me home back in mid-October and is still going strong two months later. They’re not as addicting as the more graceful hardy types, but I wouldn’t turn my back on another one or two 😉

The winter garden is unusually under control this year, and all I really needed to do was shuffle a few more-dormant things away from the light, and move a few more-active things closer. The succulents have dried out enough to qualify as dormant, but cuttings like geranium and fuchsia are rooting and starting to grow. It looks nice. If it’s a cold January I’m sure more will show up here.

In the outside garden the warm weather has brought on the last of the fall blooming snowdrops. This one, (Galanthus elwesii ssp monostictus ex Montrose…) is doing well although the intended backdrop of variegated sedge has been nibbled back by the bunnies.

The winter garden is nice today, but yesterday outside was great. I cleaned up a few more things, wandered, poked, and generally enjoyed a day in the sun rather than a day of cloudy, chilly gloom. The warmth opened up the fall snowdrops and encouraged winter blooming sorts such as ‘Mrs Macnamara’, ‘Faringdon Double’, and ‘Three Ships’ to start poking out and show their flower buds. I’m still amazed these plants can make a go of blooming in December here in Pa, even just a few years ago they’d be locked up in frozen soil until spring.

So we will see. Even if there is some snow on the ground in the morning there’s still not much in the way of cold for the next few days, so I shall enjoy it while it lasts. I hope December is going great for you as well.

sorta like suburbia

more than you ever wanted to know about my garden

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