After the big freeze

We're now into a string of rainy days, and the ground is too wet to plant.  But, I'm happy I didn't lose anything during last week's string of well-below freezing temperatures.  I managed to get most everything covered with either garden fleece sheeting or last fall's bald cypress needles (not much difference in performance).  I failed to get the Darwin hybrid tulips covered, and when I saw them drooping and water-soaked, I assumed they'd frozen.  When you see leaves that look water-soaked (or greasy) and dark, it generally means the cells have frozen and burst, and while the plant may survive, those leaves don't recover from that state.

So imagine my surprise and joy when I saw them today:

They look almost as good as they did before the freezing began.  Even the iris beside them showed some freeze damage, which is a good indication of just how cold it was.  The iris aren't usually affected by harsh winter weather.

The crocus that were in full flower had a bit of a rough time, but they survived, with new buds opening to somewhat hide the blooms that were freeze damaged.  I had a light covering of bald cypress needles over them to offer some protection.  They might have fared better with fleece covering, but I'd already enjoyed several days of their beauty before the freeze, and I didn't have enough fleece for everything.

'Ruby Giant'

The plants fully under fleece came out beautifully.  

Oriental poppy

Tucked in under an oriental poppy, toadflax looks so sweet.  The flower stalks will get tall enough to reach over the poppies if they get enough sun, and don't get shaded out by the faster growing poppies.  Their placement was not intentional.  When I planted the poppies, I thought the toadflax had died.  Surprise!

The rhubarb looked a bit pale because they'd been under fleece for several days even before the freeze.  The large leaves don't do well at all when the temperatures dip, so I'm always curious as to why they come up so early.  They'll look nice and lush as soon as they can get enough sunlight.

Scilla (Chionodoxa forbesii) - aka Glory of the Snow - are popping out and are a little ahead of the hyacinths for blooming.

Chionodoxa forbesii

And the pasque flowers (Pulsatilla vulgaris) are right there with them.

I had to bring in the seedlings from my cold frame for a couple of nights, but they're back out now, and today it's cloudy, so I've taken off the fleece cover that protects tender seedlings from too much sun.  

Over half are annual poppies.  Everything I read says not to start poppies indoors because they don't transplant well.  I've never had any trouble with that, and in fact, I've never had good results planting the seeds directly outdoors.  It's a chore transplanting so many, but it's so satisfying when there's lots of them.

The rose cutting from my 'South Africa' bush actually produced a bloom.  So cool.  (At least I have it labeled as 'South Africa', but it does look a lot like 'Razzle Dazzle'.  I'm going to assume I labeled it correctly - with no reason whatsoever to assume that and plenty of past experience to think otherwise - and assume it's as orange in color as it is because it hasn't been out in the sun.  The blossoms on the parent bush are a deep, dark gold.

I got some potatoes in the ground yesterday morning before the rain started.  This year I didn't purchase any red potatoes.  I got 'All Blue' - a purple variety - just to see what it was like, and 'Yukon Gold', which has become my favorite.  They produce well and cook up so creamy and delicious.

A little honey bee scout was out this morning.  I hope he decides this is a good place to support a hive.

Fingers crossed that spring has finally arrived.

Garden in winter

My last post was mid-October, when we experienced an unusual cold snap.  It stuck around for a couple of weeks or more - there was snow on the ground at Halloween.  That's not normal.  But since then, until now (January 3, 2020), it's been more like fall than winter. 

After the snow melted, everything looked about the same as before the cold spell.  Even the supertunias and marigolds were still blooming.  I wasn't terribly suprised by the marigolds, but the supertunias amazed me.  They're so delicate.  I thought they were strictly warm weather flowers.

I tried to lay my tomato plants down and cover them so the dozens of large green tomatoes might be able to go ahead and ripen, but they never did.  It was a sad year for tomatoes, because it got too  hot too early for them to set much fruit, and then when they started producing well, it started to get cold.

I ended up with exactly one cabbage for the entire year.  

Violaceo di Vernoa

What was left stayed green for all of November and much of December.

Arugula gone crazy

The roses held out longer than other years.  They didn't bloom much, but the leaves stayed on and green.

When the weather turned half-way decent again, I got the chance to finish digging, turning, and mulching my perennial bed.  I also managed to plant some roses and alliums in it, so I'm excited to see how it looks in the spring.

   

Eventually, some time in December, most everything died back,and I had the opportunity to mulch the rose, tulip and cut flower beds.  I covered the rose bed with chopped up maple leaves and then tossed a thin layer of shredded cypress bark on top to keep them from blowing away.  Hopefully that will be enough to keep the shrubs alive.  If the rest of the winter is as mild as December was and January is starting, I have no doubt they'll be fine.

I planted two beds' worth of tulip and daffodil bulbs the first week of October.  Dozens and dozens and dozens.  I know I took pictures, but I have no idea what became of them.  At any rate, I put white markers everywhere I planted bulbs so I'll know whether anything fails to come up and can get replacements.  I also overplanted the beds with crimson clover for a green manure and then put down a light cypress bark mulch.  The clover is still green and growing, so I'll have to decide how to deal with that when the flowers start emerging.  I may be sorry I planted it.

The perennial volunteer red-veined sorrel is also still green and growing.

As are - amazingly to me - some of the California poppies.

Other things that are still green (if scrappy) are yarrow...

Gaura...

 

Perennial salvia, believe it or not...

Lisianthus...

...and one oiental poppy.  

 

It's not that the other oriental poppies I planted from seed aren't still green and growing, it's that they never germinated.  I spread some more seed from a different supplier last month, and I'll try putting out some more next month.  Hopefully I'll get some more plants.

Those are all in the perennial garden.  Overall, though, the garden looks like this right now:

 Background: vegetable garden (with crimson clover groundcover); foreground: (l) rose garden, and (r) cut flower garden

Even the rose on the southeast corner of the house has some new supple leaves.  I don't think that's a good thing.

I've already started some seeds in my cellar set-up: celery, because in my past experience, it's extremely slow to get big enough to transplant; and craspedia (aka Sun Balls), because in my one year of previous experience, the germination rate was poor and growth was slow once I transplanted them to the garden.  I got my seed from a different company this time, and the days to germination was listed as two to three weeks. So I planted several 6-packs with lots of seeds early.  They came up in four days, at about a 100% germination rate!  And they seem to be growing rather quickly. 

I had to separate them out to have no more than three per cell, and now I have fifteen 6-packs of them! I'm going to be in trouble if they get very large before the weather allows me to transplant them to the garden.  But if the winter stays mild and spring doesn't go haywire, maybe I can put them out early.  The ones I planted last year grew right through fall until that hard freeze at the end of October, so maybe they can handle cool weather.  Fingers crossed.

I also have some little spruce sprigs potted up that I got for donating a few dollars to the Arbor Day Foundation.  I guess I'll be nursing these along for some years before they're big enough to plant out.  But, if I get them going well, some day they'll be a welcome windbreak on this property.

The Foundation also sent two bare-root crape myrtles.  I have no idea if they'll live, but if they do, they're big enough I can put them in the ground next fall.

And, having nothing to do with gardening, I saw a Northern flicker in the bald cypress tree outside my window the other day.  My reference guide says they're year-round residents in most all parts of the mainland USA, but I've never seen one before in my life.  At least not that I noticed.  And I think I would have noticed.  It was gorgeous.  I couldn't get a picture of it, but here's a nice one from the internet:

Is that not fantastic?

Keep your eyes peeled.