Listening to shivering co-workers, the recent period of cold must be the second coming of the Ice Age. Instead, these temperatures are quite ordinary for January, and not extreme at all. I’ll exercise restraint and not tell the long and probably boring stories of extreme temperatures from thirty years ago, but it must be noted…
Category: landscaping
Not so cold for hellebores
Never mind the cold. Despite the recent stretch of cold temperatures in late January, the garden’s hellbores (Helleborus orientalis. H. niger, and hybrids) continue to bloom, and flowers that were opened partially were unscathed by the cold. On the other hand, the flowers of hybrid camellias turned to brown mush on the first night of…
Winter flowers, and more to come
This week, another warmer than usual winter is disguised by a heavy blanket of frost. On a cold, blustery January afternoon the garden’s flowers don’t make the shivering temperatures feel any warmer, but they promise that spring is nearer by the day. On average, the coldest temperatures of the winter are the second week of…
Hasty conclusions
I hesitate to make pronouncements of any but the most obvious sorts. Too frequently hasty conclusions are quickly disproved, and unquestioned observations are contradicted. Along the driveway there are a handful of hybrid camellias, two of one cultivar, and three of the other, ‘Winter’s Star’ and ‘Winter’s Interlude’, though I don’t recall which is which until…
Neglected chores …. again
Inevitably, one garden chore or another is neglected. Not only in January, when I make an effort to do as little as possible, but through the year. The resulting calamity is predictable, but rarely are the consequences so dire as to cause any more than a few hours additional labor. In recent days it’s become…
Something’s missing
The garden escaped the late October hurricane without substantial damage, but storms earlier in summer blew trees over and broke some nearly in half, so there are gaps to be filled and considerable rough edges to smooth. I’ve resisted the urge to replant for the most part. For once I’ll take a bit of time…
Are flowers in January too much to ask for?
I sense I’m a bit of defensive when writing about mid-winter flowers in my garden. Somehow, I feel slightly apologetic that northwestern Virginia doesn’t suffer Arctic temperatures and is just mild enough that a few hardy souls are able to eek out sporadic blooms through the eight weeks that is the worst of our winter. I don’t…
Men are inclined to collect?
A few days ago I was reading a story about Colchicums in the English gardening magazine Gardens Illustrated (my favorite magazine, with superb writing, though the gardens hardly translate to the much warmer and more humid mid Atlantic region of America). The author related that he, like many men, has a tendency to collect. I…
Recollections
I recall as a young child climbing a crabapple that grew adjacent to the walk that led to our family’s small apartment in Langley Park, Maryland. At the time the crab seemed huge, and I sensed the danger in swinging from branch to branch, dangling “high” above the concrete. Of course, I know now that…
Not only native
Cardinals and jays frolic in the rear garden. Here, there is a substantial cover of deciduous trees and tall evergreens, some from the native forest and others planted by the gardener over twenty-three years. Mossy boulders nestled beside the rills of garden ponds (above) provide still water easily accessed for a drink or bathing. And,…
A December project
I am not typically anxious to undertake projects in the cold of December, but recently I discovered an invasive bittersweet vine invading the tree tops of a grove of wild mulberries that lurks in the thicket beside the garden. If the vine was not eliminated it would have easily hopped over to the nearby ‘Elizabeth’…
Blooming in December
I’ve just returned from visiting nurseries in the southeast, and after a month of freezing nighttime temperatures in Virginia it’s difficult to imagine that it’s winter along the Gulf Coast. There are flowers everywhere. Not only late blooming camellias, but also roses and autumn flowering Encore azaleas. This shouldn’t be much of a surprise, and certainly…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 