Spring has been postponed

 It wasn't this cold all winter.  Jeez.

That's too many days (nights) in a row that will be well below freezing.  I'm assuming the ground will even freeze.

In years past, I've often had plants ready to go out into the garden well before the garden was ready to receive them.  The last couple of years, I've adjusted that, and this year was going to probably be my best effort to time it right.  With that in mind, I started loads and loads of poppies.  They were big enough to go outdoors into my "cold frame," leaving me needed room in my seedling chamber for newly germinated plants.  Now I've had to bring everything indoors under less than ideal conditions.  They won't get enough light, but at least they won't freeze.

I also had my rose cuttings outdoors, and they might have been okay in the cold frame, but after seven years trying and finally having some success last year, I'm loath to take the chance.  One of them even has a bud.  I had the pot marked "South Africa", and that could be correct, but it looks like it could be "Razzle Dazzle".  Perhaps it will be more evident when the bud opens.  

In the garden, crocus were already blooming.

'Ruby Giant'

'Jeanne D'Arc'

I don't know why 'Ruby Giant' is named giant.  It certainly doesn't look like a giant.  Especially next to 'Jeanne D'Arc'.

I've done what I can to protect the plants already up and thriving, which includes the oriental poppies, daffodils, alliums, and some tulips.  Fingers crossed.

I (re)spread bald cypress needles over much of the tulip beds because I didn't have enough garden fleece.  We'll see what difference it makes.

And I've had the rhubarb under row cover for several days already.  It's been freezing a few nights in the last week or so, and rhubarb's large leaves don't do well in those conditions.

A few of the rose bushes have started to push out new leaves, and the climbing rose is further along than all the others.  I haven't removed the cypress needles from around the bushes yet anyway, but the climbing rose has leafed out all the way along the climbing branches.  I figured I could just cut it back when the leaf babies died but finally decided I'd try to save those tender shoots from the freeze.  Hopefully this works.  If the sun shines too brightly during the day, it might just cook those shoots, in which case I'll still have to cut it back.  Like I said, I'm out of fleece.  I've never had to cover this much area before.

Perhaps one year everything will work out perfectly.  You may call me a dreamer.

See you on the other side of winter.  (Lord, I hope this is the last of it.)

Ye Gods, It's Hot!

What a depressing 10-day forecast:

I heard the weatherman say Thursday's 96 will feel like 105.  Nice.  Next Tuesday's 100 should be great.

And not a drop of rain in that forecast.  I'm going to be gone all next week, so I guess I'll soak the garden as best I can before I leave and cross my fingers.

One rhubarb plant has one beautiful red leaf.  That's the color I expected the stalks to be, but they manage to stay green.  The two new plants I had hopes for were both killed in last year's flood conditions.

I've picked and eaten all the 'Premium' peas.  They were perfect.  'Miss Lillian's Case Load' is prolific, but has smaller peas, and I don't think they're as sweet.  I have some 'Lincoln' peas that are just now flowering because the rabbits have been keeping them pruned.  I planted that variety last year, and as I recall, they were sweet and had lots of peas per pod.

'Miss Lillian's Case Load'

My cabbages have gotten large enough that I put them in the ground.  I hope they make it through next week.  After planting I mulched them with straw to help keep the soil from drying out.  Fingers crossed.

'Primo Vantage' cabbages and 'Calima' green beans

I planted the same two varieties as last year.  Purple 'Omero' and green 'Primo Vantage'.  I wasn't that impressed with either, but I forgot to order different varieties for this year.

The grapes are getting large.  I'm going to try to cover them with a light crop cloth before I leave so they might - and I mean MIGHT - not get eaten by the raccoons before I get back.  The coyote urine I got doesn't seem to deter the little devils.  

It just occurred to me a couple of days ago that I should try transplanting some mint and oregano around the trellises the grapes climb on, because the raccoons don't try to go through those.  Too late this year.

'Golden muscat'

Blackberries and raspberries are blooming and setting fruit.  Sadly, half of my raspberries didn't survive winter this year.

The tomatoes have all started looking very good.  But this heat won't be good for setting flowers or fruit.

'Supersweet 100' cherry tomato

'German Johnson' tomato

I put in eight 'German Johnson' and two 'Missouri Pink Love Apple' tomato plants, both of which I've grown before, but not at the same time, to see how the taste compares.  Alas, I think the 'Missouri Pink' plants are going to get too much shade to do as well, and that will no doubt affect the flavor.  

Over in the flower world, there's a lovely pale apricot-colored hollyhock.

The misplaced plant I thought looked like some sort of melon, since it was in last year's melon plot, that I figured (!) was somehow a miracle that overwintered, is a pretty pink.

Late winter: hollyhock mistaken for a melon

Actual melon ('Savor' - a French charentais)

Most of the other hollyhocks are wine and red.

The bright blue delphinium is stunning.

There are lots of coneflowers (Echinacea and Ratibida) in the wildflower garden, but I planted pale purple (Echinacea pallida) and Ozark (Echinacea paradoxa) at the edge because I love the downturned petals.

pale purple coneflower and Ozark coneflower

Oriental poppies have bloomed and gone, but the annuals and Shirley (corn poppies) and breadseeds are blooming.  My Spanish poppies haven't shown up yet.  They should be blooming.

'Amazing Grey' corn poppy

 

'Pandora' corn poppy

An unexpected corn poppy appeared.   Either it came from a seed that got in the wrong packet or it's a mutant.  Whatever it is, it's lovely.

So far, this has been a good year for the roses. (Don't click on that link if you can't stand tear-jerker country songs.)

I managed to remember to get a systemic insecticide put down, and one early Sevin spray that seems to have taken care of the horrible aphid problem I had last year.  Hopefully it will also work to control Japanese beetles.  I hate to use it, because of the bees, but I haven't been able to control either of those pests in the past.

The rose garden in moonlight.

Forty days and forty nights

Lordy, we could use some sunshine!  I've been happy to have an actual spring this year - something I haven't seen since I was a child - but enough rain is enough rain.  (Yes, I'll be complaining in a few weeks about how hot and dry it is.)

The plants don't like it any more than I do.  They can't get green without sun. And if they can't get green, they won't grow.

Poor little cucumbers.

And the basil!  Oh my.

Peppers are no better off.

All the warm season crops look very sad indeed.  I sprayed them with a fish emulsion solution to give them a nitrogen boost, and side-dressed them with epsom salts for better nitrogen uptake.  They look a little better.

Basil

Pepper

Celery

However, the lettuce and arugula, both cool season crops, don't mind at all.

I haven't even set the tomatoes out yet.  They look pathetic.  I didn't have a greenhouse set up this year.  Everything had to go outdoors and under a row cover tunnel.  There just wasn't enough heat or sun for the tomatoes.  They look like they have herbicide damage, but it's just the cold.

The first year of my garden, I put the tomatoes out too soon, and the cold did this same damage.  I thought it was herbicide damage from the nearby field so threw them away and started over.  This year, since they weren't anywhere near the field, I realized this is what happens when it's too cool for them.  I'm expecting them to shape up when we finally get summer.  I hope I'm not disappointed, because I'm not starting any new ones.

Even the shirley poppies are unhappy.

But let's quit looking at all the sad stuff and turn to the flowers that ARE happy.

Foreground: Oriental poppies (red), 'Jade Eyes' allium, Spanish poppies (orange)

Background: 'Caradonna' salvia (dark purple) and orange thyme (light purple ground cover)

Mountain lily (Chionodoxa)

Japanese iris

Copper iris (Iris fulva)

The whole shebang (click the picture to enlarge)

Go on out there and do a sun dance, if you don't mind.

'Til next time.