Weeks ago, as the winter chill set in, I determined (quietly, so I would not hear the I-told-you-sos) that I would exercise restraint in my winter plant purchases. With finances a lesser concern this was not a necessity, but there are diminishing open spaces in this thirty-seven year old garden. I realize there are limits to the number of plants that can be crammed into a space though my additions to the garden have increased in recent years.

Unsurprisingly, the plan has been abandoned, and as you suspect, probably not intended at all. I don’t set budgets and I have no idea of expenditures from previous years, but I’m off to a good start. Not a restrained start. I laugh, thinking what will happen in a few weeks when the garden centers are fully stocked.

My purchases are not dictated by a plan. The garden is already here. I’ll be spotting plants into gaps, so when I stumble upon an interesting plant my criteria before ordering is “will it work somewhere in the garden” and usually without a particular location in mind. The complications begin when deliveries begin, but everything finds a place.

Until recent years, armloads of plant catalogs would arrive in the first weeks of January. Most were discarded, and of the few that arrive by mail today, few result in purchases. For better or worse, online searches for a particular plant that lead to unplanned purchases are made quickly with less internal debate prior to forking over the cash. Visits to the garden center are limited by how much can be jammed into my tiny car.

Unfortunately, my passion for trees can not be fully quenched. The garden has long been overfilled by trees, and several redbuds planted in the past year filled openings created when a Bigleaf magnolia fell in a June storm. Still, I’ve ordered a Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria auracana) and a small Wheel Tree (Trochodendron arailiodes, above), figuring to replace the one in the garden that appears to be failing. An evergreen dogwood (Cornus hongkongensis) is not quite cold hardy in winters like the one ending soon, but I’ll figure a protected spot for it. All are trees, small to start and slow in growth. I’ll be happy knowing they’re here, no matter that I’ll witness only their early years.

With low temperatures hovering near zero (Fahrenheit) in recent weeks, I’ve second guessed several purchases, though it appears that questionably cold hardy plants in the garden have survived with a covering of frost cloth. This minimal effort is worthwhile. Several marginally hardy plants overwintered in the basement will be planted in spring. I suspect this chilly winter won’t become typical, and it’s unlikely I’ll have to worry about any of tbe fatsias and scheffleras as they become more established.

Today, I anxiously await the melting snow. Temperatures are becoming milder. Soon, I’ll be out working in the garden, the early magnolias will flower, and a few weeks later mailorder plants will be delivered. No doubt, all will find a home.