As the new year approaches and spring seems so distant I am comforted reflecting on the garden’s successes, and look forward to more in the coming year. Certainly, there were bumps along the way, but I am pleased that none haunt me as plans are made for spring.

Today, temperatures will rise slightly above the freezing mark after two chilly days with nights falling to six and seven degrees (Fahrenheit). Most of the garden’s plants will shrug without a worry, but the cold will test ones marginally cold hardy that have intentionally been left unprotected. Why take the chance that schefflera (Schefflera delavayi,…

Already, I count the days until spring, or at least the time when multitudes of hellebores and snowdrops paint the garden. There is small consolation that the earliest hellebores have begun flowering. One is visible through the front window as I descend the steps from our bedroom (below), and soon others will be coloring the…

I wonder if old foliage covering the trunks of two yuccas (Yucca rostrata ‘Sapphire Skies’, below) should be removed. This is not a plant health question, but an aesthetic one. There’s no right or wrong. I’m certain the preference is completely personal. My thinking is that keeping the browned leaves doesn’t look bad, and in…

Over the weekend I planted a soon to be released introduction, a doghobble (Leucothoe axillaris ‘SR2020’, Bohemian Beauty, below) despite overnight temperatures expected to drop into the low twenties and the plant’s recent home in a nursery just outside Mobile, Alabama. I admit to never calling leucothoe by its common name, doghobble, except to entertain…

Should I remove foliage of hellebores and epimediums in December, or not? I understand the recommendation to remove leaves so that late winter flowers are not obscured, but there are multiple considerations that dictate waiting until later in winter. First, though I am out into the garden daily, my motivation is lacking. There are numerous…

Despite recent weeks with nighttime temperatures falling into the low twenties (Fahrenheit) and colder, splendid blooms continue. Periods of mild temperatures shortened the flowering of a handful of native, common witch hazels (Hamamelis virginiana, below) from months to weeks, but mahonias and camellias will flower through much of December and often into the new year….

The Winterberry hollies (Ilex verticillata, below, several weeks ago) are bare, typical for this early week in December. I’m uncertain if birds consume the majority, or if they just fall to the ground. Berries are never so abundant that I would see accumulations in the ground clutter, but I’ll presume these do some good by…

Following a chilly mid-November with nighttime temperatures falling a time or two into the upper teens (Fahrenheit), the paperbushes (Edgeworthia chrysantha, below) look dreadful. Yellowing leaves have turned a ragged brown, and thankfully the large flower buds stand above to give assurance they remain alive. I’m anxious for the leaves to fall, which should follow…

Additions to the lower, rear garden this year have been successful, I think. A raised planting bed was dug from a small area of weedy, damp lawn, so any change was likely to be an improvement. The recently added rock and gravel garden along the edge of the raised bed isn’t much to look at…

There are a surprising number of possible entry points for wildlife to get into the house. After years being oblivious to this potential, I am now very aware after several snake sightings in the basement by my wife. Certainly, these are not the first sightings, and in several cases I’ve managed to shoo snakes large…

It’s cold out there. It’s winter, or at least it’s cold like winter. So, who cares about flowers in the garden if it’s too cold to go out there? Well of course, I do. Unless the weather is unusually nasty, I’m in the garden every evening, and more on weekends. Some days this might be…