Each Little World

Back to winter

Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! We did not get the big storm that was being forecast for the Midwest on Wednesday. But what we got was nasty enough that it has me concerned about my garden. Here's a closeup of the fat buds on my foot-high species Paeonia mairei on Tuesday afternoon. 

The same Peony on Wednesday afternoon with an old sheet draped over a plant hoop. The snow was coming down fast, the temperature was down to 33°F. (-16.11°C.) and high winds and freezing rain are next on the agenda. 

Paeonia japonica on Wednesday afternoon. The buds are less obvious in this photo but the plant is covered with them.

With these Peonies up a foot or more, I was worried about damage from the weight of the wet snow as much as everything else. But most of the plants I wanted to protect were too big already to fit under these big buckets. 

There are nice big clumps of Martagon lilies (below), Hellebores and Fritillarias all budded. But they are going to have to make it on their own. Too many plants to protect even if I had a good way to do it. After waiting a year to see all these treasures, I am going to be devastated if this weather kills all these flower buds.

At the same time both Mark and I are well aware that an early or late snow makes the garden shine.

The water is a sheet of rippling black glass and the stepping stones and gravel are warm enough that the snow melts when it hits them. Thus the garden has many more textural contrasts than when it is totally snow-covered.

We fired up the Weber grill (foreground above), set up the furniture and basked in the sunshine and warmth Tuesday afternoon, refusing to believe the weather reports. 

I just went out to check on things and it is so cold and windy I am leaving my crazy plant covers in place for now. Much of the snow has melted and these Martagon lilies seem to be taking it all in stride this morning. 

Wednesday vignette

It took me a little while to figure out what was wrong with my Japanese maple that is right off of our deck. Finally the snow at the edge of the house has melted enough that I could manage to walk out and take a closer look. This is an Acer palmatum dissectum with a single trunk. So what is that other trunk that is visible on the left?

I realized a branch had broken off the big Honey Locust that towers over the house. It clearly had fallen straight down into the branches of the Japanese maple and was lodged in there rather nicely. It's more obvious when you look at it from the back side — which I was able to reach wearing Wellies and climbing through the snow. If you follow the fallen branch structure all the way up, you can see that it is actually taller than the maple tree itself. 

Luckily I was able to pull it out with no damage that I could see. It's been stuck in there through ice and wind storms but I decided I did not want to let it stay in there any longer. So one bit of spring cleanup taken off my list. My little Japanese maple is all ready for the wind and rain that are predicted for the next couple of days.

Trapped in a white world

We are finally seeing sunshine but it has been cold enough that not much melting has occurred — except for icicles on the north side of the house for the first time in ten years!

i have not been out into the garden since I don't remember when. It is still buried under snow. I guess the good news is that it is slowly disappearing as I can now see the support posts for the bridge over the dry stream. The snow has been so deep that it is too dangerous to try to walk around out there with shrubs, rocks, stepping stones, water features and all manner of buried booby traps.

Much warmer temperatures are forecast for the next few days — along with rain and flooding. So we shall see what things look like later this week. I would love to see a little bare ground.

Snowdrops make an appearance

Ha! Don't be silly. We still have deep snow cover though the temperatures are finally rising up to normal for this time of year, so perhaps Spring will make an appearance. Despite the weather I do have snowdrops, courtesy of Carolyn's Shade Garden in Bryn Mawr, PA.

I have ordered snowdrops "in the green" from Carolyn Walker a few times over the years. Buying them this way — in growth — is the best way to guarantee snowdrop success according to the experts. Though it will be a while before they can go outdoors, they should manage quite well potted up by a sunny, cool window. 

I've found ordering snowdrops "in the green" has advantages that I had not realized when I first ordered some:

1. First, I get something green and growing at the moment when I am most desperate to get out into the garden, but can't yet do so.
2. Unlike a bouquet of Tulips from the grocery store, these plants will go into my garden and not onto the compost heap.
3. And most important, when I plant them out, all the spring bulbs — including other snowdrops — will be emerging. I will be able to easily add these newly-arrived snowdrops to groups of the same already in place in the garden. And I can see where there are holes at this season where I can easily slip in a few new snowdrops. Something that is very hard to do in the autumn when I could plant them as dry bulbs. By that time of the year I can't remember the spring garden at all, nor can I work well from photographs. So snowdrops "in the green" are a win-win purchase for me. 

Carolyn mailed them last Monday and they were at  my door Wednesday morning. You can see how they were packed in shredded paper that cushioned them from the slightest bump or jarring. I slowly let the shredded paper slide into a plastic bin until I could see the ziplock bag holding the plants. 

I double-checked Carolyn's receipt against my original email order to her and then got to work potting the snowdrops up. I'd brought a bag of potting soil and a group of pots from the cold garage into the house a few days earlier in preparation. I knew I would not want to work with such cold material, nor would I want to subject the plants to yet another shock.

I bought some very typical varieties like G. elwesii ex Carolyn’s Shade Gardens (a species snowdrop from Carolyn's own naturalized plantings) and G. nivalis ex Carolyn’s Shade Gardens (another species snowdrop which Carolyn described as the "progeny of the vigorous strain that has thrived on her property for over 100 years".) The pots are on a shelf under my big Boston fern. 

I also opted for two snowdrop varieties that are new to me: G. 'White Dream' (syn. G. nivalis ‘White Dream’) which have a pronounced white stripe on the leaves and according to Carolyn are a vigorous strain and should multiply rapidly. The stripe is visible on the few larger leaves but not from the angle I took the photo.

The other new variety for me is G. ‘Jonathan’ (unique single snowdrop, G. elwesii) with extra large, globular flowers and broad blue leaves. It was found in 2000 in a North Yorkshire garden by snowdrop author Michael Myers. The picture below is from Carolyn's website, but you can easily pick this one out in the photo of my group of potted snowdrops. It reminds me somewhat of G. 'Diggory,' which has large flowers but is much more expensive. 

My two G. 'Jonathan' bulbs!

Everyone is potted up with their id tags, ready and waiting for the snow to melt and the ground to thaw so they can be planted in the garden. Exactly how long a wait that proves to be is anyone's guess!

Dealing with snow, ice and a garden

We've been gardening at this location for more than twenty winters. Many of them have been like our current winter: cold, snowy and icy. Every time the driveway is clear, it seems to snow again. We are careful about what we use to melt any snow or ice on the driveway, knowing it can have a negative effect on our plants, trees and shrubs that line the street and our drive. If you are new to gardening in a snowy climate or would like to see if you are helping or harming your garden with your snow removal techniques, this article on the Chicago Botanic Garden's website tells you everything you need to know.  

One of my favorite images from the Chicago Botanic Garden that Mark took on a winter visit a number of years ago. We went to hear U.K. garden designer, Dan Pearson. 

. . .

Just saw this excellent list of winter garden advice from Proven Winners, so I am linking to it here.

Is winter over yet?

It started snowing again sometime after we went to bed Saturday night. I knew it was more than just a potential storm warning when I heard the plows go down our street while I was still half asleep in the early morning darkness Sunday. 

We woke up to a lot of new snow on the ground. The wind was gusting and snow was still coming down as dusk fell Sunday evening. I haven't kept track of every snow storm but it certainly feels like we've been having at least one per week since New Year's Eve. And we're still a month away from the Vernal Equinox! 

The other zonal denial

Since I don't have a greenhouse or room indoors to keep marginal plants alive when the temperatures fall, I've pretty much avoided growing things above my USDA Zone. But in the spring of 2017, I tried a little zonal denial by planting a beautiful Alstroemeria 'Inca Ice' and a Sarcococca 'Fragrant Valley.' Both of these are plants that typically need a zone warmer than where I live. But these varieties were both listed as hardy for my zone. Alas, they died along with a depressing number of older shrubs and trees in the winter of 2017/18 when we had extremely cold temperatures with little to no snow cover. In fact, our biggest snowfall last season happened in late April.

PHOTO: DEC. 15, 2017

When I look at the print garden catalogs that are now arriving in the mail, I always look to see what zones are listed at the end of a plant's description. When I go plant shopping online, I tend to click on all those special ways of digitally searching — like listings of new plants, rare plants or those that a nursery has hybridized themselves.

Now and then I look at what plants a nursery offers that are specifically appropriate for my USDA hardiness zone. When I used my Zone 5 as a search tool recently, I had a bit of a lightbulb moment. Something I've known for as long as I've gardened in Wisconsin was right there in front of me; I realized I had been seeing it but not really acknowledging it in recent years. 

What I saw were the temperatures that go with a Zone 5 designation:

USDA Zone 5a:  —20° to —15° degrees F.

USDA Zone 5b: —15° to —10° degrees F.

In reality, we recently woke up to a low temperature of -28° with a wind chill of -48°,  significantly colder than the expected lows for Zone 5.

PHOTO: MARCH 2, 2017

According to the map, I live in Z5b. I have an urban garden which makes it a little more protected but I have been ignoring, if not denying, that very cold zonal truth. We've had multiple snowstorms since the Winter Solstice (Dec. 21). They've beautifully covered garden with a deep blanket of snow which I hope was enough to protect everything from the Polar Vortex temperatures we just went through. We had a few days were the temps went up into the mid-40s: a change of 70°almost overnight. Then back to snow and freezing rain and snow again. 

Despite all of our talk about warmer weather as part of climate change, it is the drier winter with little snow cover and cold temps like we had last year that is deadly for gardens like mine. Rather than playing with Z6 plants, I should be thinking about Z4 or even Z3. Time to get real in the garden again. No more planting for hotter summers. It's the colder winters that I need to be thinking about when I go plant hunting from now on.

Something wicked this way comes

I took this photo last Thursday afternoon as we were waiting for the next round of ice to fall on us. In a matter of minutes the weather went from from pretty to petrifying. This kind of heavy ice load on the trees and power lines is definitely worrisome. We were lucky and did not lose power though neighborhoods near us were without it for hours.

The wind came up in the evening and lots of twigs and small branches came down. But we all discovered the big thuds we heard on our roofs were not falling branches. It turned out those loud noises that sounded like they were above us were actually at ground level. They were frost cracks: booms resulting when the rainwater in the ground next to house foundations quickly froze. Who knew?!

The sun was out blindingly bright on Friday and Saturday but the cold temperatures meant that barely a drop of ice melted. Our street is pretty clear but many side streets are dangerously slippery and icy. That's our weeping white pine which is right on the other side of the window glass. A dusting of snow came down late Saturday, so the ice is now covered with white. It's too gray today to do anything but stay indoors and try to distract myself from the weather forecast by counting the days until Spring. 

Same old, same old

We are definitely experiencing a return to an old-fashioned winter. Though it didn't seriously get started until the new year, it's been on and off, high and low, rain and snow almost continually. Luckily those chilling Polar Vortex temperatures came while we still had deep snow cover in the garden. I'd guess it was at least a foot deep. But once that cold moved on we got temps in the mid-40s and rain. So the snow is only a couple of inches deep at this point.

Now we're into a mix of alternating freezing rain and snow. But that combination has the garden looking lovely and we have not lost power or had any trees come down which were both possibilities in yesterday's forecast. Luckily there's very little need to travel anywhere for the next few days. 

Compare the amount of snow on the bench in the views above and below to see how the snow cover has changed. The picture below was taken on January 28 and we had another storm just a couple of days later. 

So the sudden loss of snow cover is more extreme than I'd prefer since we have a long way to go before Spring arrives. I definitely don't want to go through the wide-spread loss of plants, trees and shrubs that we experienced last year. I'm sitting tight and trying to get used to these constant swings in the weather — and my mood!

At least the sun is shining . . .

and gloriously! All that brightness reflecting off the snow is shining in our big southern windows and warming up the house. But Group Health Cooperative (our docs), UW Health Sports Medicine Fitness Center (our gym), area schools, UW-Madison, state offices, and the public library system are all closed, along with many local businesses. The three things on my calendar for today were all cancelled and now comes word there won't be any mail delivery.

All of our neighbors put their garbage out, so I guess our great public employees will be going to work as usual. And our newspaper was delivered. I find it all a bit amazing since I've gone to work during many bad snowstorms and dangerous wind chills in years past. You always go to work if your job is at the newspaper or a hospital or the cop shop and a long list of similar places. 

Back in the late 1970s we had a legendary ice storm when I was in grad school. The University did not close. In fact, I well remember driving down my street to get to the U because I had an important exam. I remember it so vividly because there were live wires down on my street that I had to drive around — which gives you a sense of the seriousness of that storm! Though the photo below looks like it's from the 19th century, it is an NOAA image from that storm which was statewide.

But this time around, we've got heat and power, books, digital devices, food, coffee, and a fire in the fireplace. I'm not sure about Mark, but I may stay indoors until Spring arrives!