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| Yep, although January is still cold and drear, the days are lengthening....and the plants know it. Pretty much every day, there will be something new and exciting to discover in the awakening garden. Right now, the first hemerocallis shoots are pushing through the earth, a pale yellow hellebore is ripe with potential, the siberian elm seeds have germinated, as has the first linden seedlings. The numerous primulas are just moving into their adolescent stage after a winter of tiny leaflets, barely bigger than their cotyledons while there are also some fat buds on the chaenomeles, just trembling with effervescent life. So, every day brings a new wonder - maybe a little journal reminder that spring is on its way......... |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by jacqueline3 9CA (My Page) on Mon, Jan 13, 14 at 10:12
| Yes, despite the fact that we have not had normal rain since Dec of 2012, our camellias have just started blooming, the hellebores are blooming, and yesterday I noticed that the Japanese quince bush is about halfway out. Amazing - now all we need is some rain! Jackie |
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- Posted by nikthegreek 9b/10a E of Athens (My Page) on Mon, Jan 13, 14 at 10:18
| Camps how right you are! Jackie, it seems our climates are in synch since my Chaenomeles (japanese quince) has partly flowered also and so have the couple of camelia japonicas I have. Difference is we have had a very wet winter up to know. Nik |
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- Posted by mariannese 5b (My Page) on Mon, Jan 13, 14 at 10:53
| Very different weather and expectations over here. Winter is finally over us with the first snow yesterday and a cold and sunny day today with -8 centigrade (16F). A shock after our very long autumn with no cold at all until Tuesday. The white hellebores in full bloom are buried but probably not the one we found blooming under a mahonia, unseen until a few days ago. Must remember to move it. Deer and hares gather under the bird feeder and will be our guests as long as the snow lasts. |
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| My garden is at its least glamorous with some roses pruned and quite a few so small they make no statement. It's in the 70's and there's a drying wind that's predicted to last for the next three days. However, some irises are blooming in blues and yellow, and the rosemary bushes are also in bloom, along with a row of 5-foot+ tall jade plants whose tiny white flowers the bees are busily visiting. One of the Wild Edric roses has been planted and is putting on more and more leaves in a less than optimal position. The second one will follow in a day or two, to be put in a more prominent position in the front garden. I'm still awaiting Belinda's Dream, Reine de Violettes and Mutabilis with great anticipation. The SdlM in the back, which has more or less languished in morning shade and afternoon sun, now has 23 buds on it after copious mulching, application of rabbit droppings and generous watering. These are the more quiet, scaled-back enjoyments of winter, and who knows what another dry spring will bring, but sufficient unto the day, and we live in and enjoy what we can in the moment. Ingrid |
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| There's not a whole lot to discover around here unless you happen to sink into a less than obvious muddy spot and have your shoe sucked off. Mostly, the plants are brown, dried up and lying semi-flat (I don't cut back a lot). We have a permanent herd of deer in residence out back, and they raid the bird feeder randomly, so it's hard to know when they're coming and take evasive measures.I often resort to yelling and pointing at them, threatening dire consequences if they take the bird's food. They just stare at me, and always, there is one who turns in disdain, showing her white rump, and nonchalantly begins browsing on the weedy dead stuff. Sigh. Such is January in this part of Idaho. Diane |
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| Lakes and streams are frozen here. Most of our snow melted off with the rain and the ground is squishy, with more snow coming later this week. I expect nothing to be blooming or doing much of anything in the dead of winter here, but was astonished to notice that my winter heaths are blooming now. |
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- Posted by mendocino_rose z8 N CA. (My Page) on Mon, Jan 13, 14 at 19:49
| I hate to say that it is all bittersweet for me. I see the brave changes coming along and i can only think of the destruction to come when there is no sustenance for my beloved plants. Sorry to be this way. Perhaps i'll be proven wrong. |
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- Posted by Kippy-the-Hippy 10 Sunset 24 (My Page) on Mon, Jan 13, 14 at 22:57
| Off topic, but sure to bring a smile to camps....The local nursery has all their paperwhites sitting at the entry to the plants. Boy do they smell horrible. I have to wonder if all the ladies oohing and ahhing are thinking the horrid scent is the bathroom in the auto repair shop next door, just wait til the bring a bowl home for the house..... I am enjoying the main garden, filled with fruit trees that will give shade and fruit in the coming years. I caught mom sitting out there today thinking of what is left that she wants for the garden that we don't have. Only a couple of spaces left and the plants for those are planned, now to find the right ones. Of course this leaves me with a problem, there is one new one this year that I just discovered and really really want. Now to find out if I can grow it where I hope to put it. (Atomic Red White Nectarine on Nemaguard) I want a tad taller so I can sit and see under it but that will eat in to my open space and will shade a rose I don't think likes shade. On the roses, Janet is loving the "winter" here, so is Darcey Bussell. I know everyone wants a Munstead Wood, guessing Darcey's button eye is not so popular. But Darcey has a dozen blooms today and it has probably been a dozen weeks since Munstead bothered to bloom. And Munstead has the prime location. Kind of 50/50 on the rest of the Austins right now, half in bloom and half not. |
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| Today I pruned 'Red Intuition'. It was 12' tall (3.6 meters). I didn't realize it had done that, because it was growing up through 'Fourth Of July'. It was 80F (26 C) and the relative humidity was 8%. When the humidity gets that low the insides of your eyelids stick to your eyeballs. |
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- Posted by melissa_thefarm NItaly (My Page) on Tue, Jan 14, 14 at 1:15
| It's sodden here, with abundant rain and gray in the two weeks' forecast, as if we hadn't had enough already. No frost in weeks, a kind of non-winter, and a lot of early bloom: hellebores, Japanese quince (Chaenomeles), and I think the Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata' has a couple of flowers open. The sarcococca is in bloom, but it's on schedule opening in January. The roses have never totally shut down, though many are pallid ghosts of their spring selves. 'Old Blush' is still a nice decided pink. What we are having so far is weeks and weeks of March, with no frost in sight, and a few degrees would be welcome. I would love some sun, also to help my mood. I've been looking for a vendor of Daphne laureola. It grows locally, I've seen it a few times on walks, but no one sells or grows it. Probably it's too fussy and not showy enough, but I want to try its clean evergreen foliage down in the shade garden. I hear daphnes are fussy about being dug up and transplanted, and they're probably a protected species. But I thought I'd go look if a small colony I know of had seeds. They didn't, and were setting buds for an early bloom, so perhaps it would be a good idea to return around October, at a guess. I was a bit sobered up to find they were all growing in pine forest. This suggests that my deciduous oak and maple woods, even with a deep litter, might not be their preference. But I think I'll return for another look this fall. Also I'd like to get Daphne mezereum, another native not readily found in commerce, though it grows locally at higher elevations. Melissa |
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| Feh, the horrid paperwhites.....and I find indoor hyacinths can be a bit pongy too (although there are several sitting on my kitchen table right now). Ho, melissa - going down that rocky and tortuous daphne road then? Good luck with that. Still, I am also considering reviving my (failed) attempts at growing (expensive) daphne because they are extraordinarily good woodland plants.....and D.laureola is one of the nicer ones, a bit like ruscus or sarcococca in it's understated evergreen leafage (and as it loves calcareous woods and a clay foundation, I would say it is worth making the effort to find....and ought to do well for you). My various daphnes have usually been coaxed into life from cuttings. After several attempts where they sat around, despite having roots, failing to get one millimetre larger than the original cutting material), I gathered soil from the source of my original cuttings (my local botanics, of course) which probably had the necessary bacterial and fungal mix to add to my potting mix.Even so, they did badly, on my thin and dry soil.....but in the woods, these are exactly the sort of things worth growing and I may well join you in another daphne foray (but beware the ridiculously expensive and picky D.bholua....a terribly overrated diva......but the mezereum, otoh is a winner). Confined to barracks today, as acting nurse (poor Mr.Campanula is having a painful back episode) - but I confess to being a graceless and grumpy care provider (still, it will encourage him back onto his feet). |
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- Posted by mad_gallica Z5 Eastern NY (My Page) on Tue, Jan 14, 14 at 8:03
| Raining here, again. The snow is gone except for the icy dregs of the driveway piles. It was good while it lasted. When we have snow on the ground, it often goes with clear, sunny days where everything sparkles. Now we have simply gone back to Philadelphia. Somewhere in my closet is still the winter coat I bought many years ago for those winters. It isn't particularly warm, but it is particularly waterproof. Thirty degrees and raining requires a peculiar kind of coat and fortitude. The deer fencing I put up around the yews for the first time this year seems to be working well. If the yews actually grow back, it will be a lot less visible next year. It may never be something one really wants at the front door, but it is an understood fact of life around here. I am still trying to convince the deer that the feline residents of this house are BIG and SCARY and DANGEROUS, but it isn't sinking in. At least the mice seem to have finally got the message. If I'm starting annuals this year, I should probably figure out which ones. The last few years the front window boxes have been populated by coleus cuttings. This year I have the coleus and some wax begonias. Aside from the window boxes, there aren't a lot of places for annuals. There aren't a lot of places for much of anything anymore. |
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- Posted by kittymoonbeam 10 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 14, 14 at 11:18
| My sister loves that paperwhite smell. We have an agreement that they don't come in the house but we have them going wild around the peach tree outside her window. I think some of the myrrh scented roses smell like that. I wish I had a magic wand to make them all smell like stock. I love annual stock but every time I try it, it just sits and never grows. Especially the doubles that I like best like appleblossom. Maybe I need to plant it from seed. The summer night blooming kind has a nice scent. I took all my prunings to the greenwaste in a big trailer and stacked them on a foundation of fruit tree prunings. We just grabbed the thick ends of the tree branches and the whole thing slid out of the trailer in a perfect block. I'm doing that again next year. I just have the fine clipping left to do and cutting off the old leaves. Each rose got 2 shovel fulls of horse manure and the rest went on the area where I am layering leaves and soil and scraps to make a lasagne bed while I decide what to do with it. I had grass there and don't know what to do with it now so I'm making improved soil for filling planting holes with. The wind came and made a big leafy mess but that's fine because its all going to be topped with mulch soon so no raking required except for the walkways. I'm excited to see the blooms on Florentina and Ascot. They are pretty in their new leaves while everyone else is bare canes. I keep going by Armstrong to see if they have Dee Lish yet. Weeks is sending them out as potted plants but no one knows when.
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Here is a link that might be useful: Florentina
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| I enjoy paperwhites, but only as a wafting scent outdoors -- a bit much in enclosed spaces. The sweet purple violets are starting to bloom and float their scent around, one of my favorites. Daphne mezereum is wonderful but sneers at me and goes toes up every time, no matter what I try, nearly as bad as gardenias (same fate). Maybe it IS the mycorrhizae... |
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- Posted by sherryocala 9A Florida (My Page) on Tue, Jan 14, 14 at 13:27
| Here it's a dreary day, having poured down during the night. I've gotten bad about paying attention to the weather forecasts. All I know is that somehow by Friday we're squeezing in THREE cold fronts. I wonder how that will work out. My paths need blowing SO badly. I continually think to myself I'm going to get the blower, but ha! Saying the words doesn't get it done even though it's such an easy job. My red camelia japonica that grows in a pot due to my at best neutral soil has one flower on it. It bloomed in November. I didn't know it would bloom again. Yesterday I really admired my Duquesa bush. It is so lovely and shapely about six feet across and four feet tall, hugging the 90-degree turn in the front sidewalk perfectly with lots of pretty, fragrant light peachy flowers. She is such a winner! Alas, poor Le Vesuve is a ratty version of itself with one large (1" diameter) cane dead and not much happening elsewhere. Methinks he is saying goodbye. Dare I think of a possible replacement, a big one since it's in the round center front bed? I feel I'm on the razor's edge of being a gardener or not being a gardener, continuing the garden or not continuing the garden, not knowing how to proceed. On the walk to the mailbox Hermosa's bright pink flowers always catch my eye right before her rangy, nearly naked canes do. Poor Darcy Bussell and SDLM are surrounded by weeds, and the driveway bed which has not been tended at all since May is a foot high with Bermuda grass thanks to my semi-abandoned neighbor's yard. I was startled a couple of days ago when I saw that the grass was blooming big whitish single flowers. Ahha! It wasn't the grass but rather Souv de St Anne's, unseen except for her blooms. So pretty. I don't even go out for the mail every day, so I barely know what's going on out there. I do think if I could just get the litter blown off the paths in the back I'd be happier and more confident about the future of it all. Poof! All done. Sherry |
Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...
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| Oh dear - it's true, talking about it does not get things done -and neither does thinking, planning -including making long lists- and certainly not wishing. I know this, Sherry, my dear, because I am equally at sea here, looking at 3 possible gardens which are all complete rubbish. Weedy, overgrown, neglected and looking utterly beyond the pale. There are still last years tomato remnants hanging brownly and limply, on last years canes (because it seems like last year was the final time I had a smidgeon of enthusiasm, optimism or spare effort for the horrible accusing patches of nastiness. Shamefully, I have only had invalid tending for the last week or so but I am bored, fed up and alienated. So much so, after waking up several times to the sound of Mr.Campanula groaning in my ear, I nearly flounced off to sleep on the sofa. You, on the other hand, have been through a terrible time for months! So, leaving out the obvious drinking, drugging and wingeing (pronounced winjing, meaning whining on, repetively and ceaslessly until others want to punch you....hard)......what to do to take this ennui in hand? Well, for my part, a good start might be to rise from my pillow with a bit more aplomb (and certainly earlier than 10am) in order to make use of our short damp daylight hours. At the very least, we could always pop a few seeds in a pot. Mostly though, if ever there was a time to practice selective vision, this is now. Ignore the bigger picture and select a tiny little portion of the chaos to reclaim ( a square foot or so) and then set about it with something satisfyingly physical like a stiff broom. Tiny steps, even at snail's pace, will still carry us forward while sitting and griping will actually push us further back. So tomorrow, whatever the weather, I will lay out some working clothes (leather trousers are always good), plug in my heated insoles, set the alarm clock (to 8!!!) and drag my reluctant self outside, secateurs in hand.....and start by cleaning up those bloody tomatoes. And you? Baby steps, Sherry. |
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| I will wax a newly refinished table beginning well after 10 AM and still feel virtuous (shameless, I know). And possibly even separate the rosemary cuttings into separate pots. I had taken them last Fall because the last few years the rosemary didn't make it through the winter (after decades of surviving winters) yet this year it has survived. You just never know. No buds, no flowers but it has been warmer here lately and all the snow has melted. Unsurprisingly for January we are due for a cooling trend. Still every single day brings us closer to Spring and warmer sunshine no matter when Spring comes to where you garden. Cath |
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- Posted by melissa_thefarm NItaly (My Page) on Wed, Jan 15, 14 at 0:31
| mad_gallica, I think you need a pet cougar. Sherry and Suzy, I think a lot of this is just January, short days, and lack of light. I've been miserable this year more than usual and I think it's because it has been so dark, with all the wet weather we've had. Sherry, stress also has a depressing effect on my mood, don't know if it affects you this way as well. You'll feel better in time. Concerning daphnes, I'm familiar with their reputation for being finicky, but think that I might have here the conditions they like; after all, we do have three native daphnes in the province. My plant of D. odora 'Aureomarginata' has been splendid in the garden for about eight years now. I imagine it must be about the easiest daphne there is, given that it's the only one I find in commerce, but anyway it's been a success here. I rooted plants of it some years ago and need to take more cuttings this spring. I was thinking too about taking cuttings of D. laureola as well as looking for seeds, if I can't track it down in commerce; I'll remember to gather some of the litter the plants are growing in when I do so. Melissa |
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- Posted by kittymoonbeam 10 (My Page) on Wed, Jan 15, 14 at 0:32
| It happens fast when we get busy or when we get sick that our gardens start to become wilderness again. With no one to help out with weeding and trimming and cleaning up, a garden full of plants looks unruly fast. But roses are tough and at least if there is rain, they will survive until you can get to them again. Sherry I feel for you, It reminds of when I was working 2 jobs and feeling tired all the time. I just didn't have the energy or desire to garden. Still, I loved my plants and hated watching them tough it out alone. I didn't have any help so it was what it was for a few years. Sometimes I was so busy that all I had time for was to move the hose from rose to rose as I ate a sandwich or a few pieces of pizza for 30 minutes and then back to work again until late into the night. You just let the weeds go until you can get out there again. Weed sprays were so helpful then. I taped a 2 liter bottle on the end of the wand to block overspray and went around zapping weeds every week. I lost some good things too but at least the weeds didn't completely overtake the roses. The pre emergent granules helped to combat the weeds from seeds. Throw mulch if you have it over the bare spots and zap any weeds or grass that comes back. Pot up anything special that you are worried about losing and place it close to the door where you can watch it. You can always plant it again later. Your garden will survive this and don't feel despair when you look at it. Even if you can get out for 30 minutes to do a small space as Campanula says, maybe just a table and a chair and a few pots on some mulched ground, it will keep you going through tough times. |
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| Little shoots poking through the earth - tiny deep red angelica seedlings,phlox and the lathyrus rotundifolius (tricksy, this one and new to me). Sowed a whole lot of annual peas - sativus, sylvestris, tingitanus and chloranthus - all the odoratus sweet peas are growing insanely fast - might have to put them outside. Anyone else doing sweet peas? Got the first dahlia catalogues today.....but am bravely resisting as I am not allowing myself to spend money at the allotment, apart from vegetable seeds....but this is hard because they are inexpensive, cheerful and make a great display every year amongst the veggies......although the existing dahlias are getting enormous since I leave the tubers in the ground over winter, where they grow into massive clusters. |
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| I can best you, hoovb, we have 7% humidity, it's 84 degrees and a hot wind has been blowing for the past three days. I desperately long for cool and rainy winter days to save not only the garden but the plants and animals around me. Pam, I know this is a desperate measure, but could you bring yourself to cull out the roses that you like the least, need the most water or are less than desirable in some way? Every rose you can eliminate without heartache will leave more water for the rest. Ingrid |
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