With a swing in temperature from seventy-five to sixteen within a week, the gardener is not surprised that some damage is done to late winter blooms. There is relief that injury to flowers and to newly emerging leaves is minimal in this garden, that probably fared better than others since magnolias and camellias that are…

Saturday morning update – Temperatures dropped below twenty degrees overnight, but surprisingly, no damage to flowers is evident this morning. I expected magnolia (below) and camellia flowers to be most vulnerable, but even these escaped damage. It is likely that flowers that have fully opened are more susceptible to cold injury, so other gardens might…

I suspect that I am not the only gardener who has gotten a jump on his spring cleanup. In a more typical winter, with only a few spells of warmth I am likely to waste the days in less productive pursuits, and this was true until a few weeks ago. Now, the early weeks of…

As this mild winter winds into March (the Virginia gardeners’ spring), I do not question for a moment the small effort required to plant a winter garden. Without flowers of hellebores, Winter jasmine, and witch hazels, winter would seem interminable. I greatly sympathize with gardeners in more northern climes where winter drags on, where gardens…

Though temperatures this afternoon did not warm as much as anticipated, I was delighted to get out to begin a bit of late winter clean up. Finally, the inactivity of winter caught up to me, so I was anxious to get out into the garden, even as light rain showers passed through. I figured to…

Probably, most gardeners are anxious for spring soon after the first hard freeze of autumn, and each day of winter that follows is counted down until the first warm afternoon of March. The Virginia winter is rarely severe, and short by comparison to many other parts of this country. Still, too long and dark, but…