Each Little World

Holiday greenery

I spent the afternoon of December 8 in the garden as it was unseasonably warm. It was a lovely day to work outside if you didn't assume climate change was responsible for the temperatures in the low 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

I wandered the garden with my clippers cutting evergreens to fan out around the big Mark Skudlarek plate by the front door. There's a long rolled-up tube of chicken wire curving behind the plate to hold the stems of the greenery.

Many of the evergreens in our garden are now mature enough that I had no qualms about cutting a few small branches off of any one of them. I ended up with the most mixed display I've ever had, using clippings from seven different evergreens. 

The mix includes Arborvitae, both Canadian and Japanese Hemlocks, blue Juniper, Scots pine, Russian cypress and an unknown lacy yellow Chamaecyparis. I put the Canadian Hemlock branches in with their silvery blue undersides showing for more contrast. 

I love how the blue tones echo the color of the plate.

I added a string of battery powered mini lights and then decided it needed something more. I tried a few still bright Allium seed heads.

But that bright pink seemed a bit much. So I calmed it down with a few bigger and much less colorful Allium seed heads and am generally pleased with the result. 

The only downside is that I learned via a discussion on the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society FB page that the professionals said not to do any trimming while it is this warm. They noted the trees and shrubs are not dormant and the fresh cuts could prove harmful.

I love the education I get on that Wisconsin site, but I sure wish the subject had come up before I went clipping here and there. 

White Sound

When rain

whispers

it is snow.

 

— Julie O'Callaghan

Saturday night's light rain turned into snow sometime during the night. I sat on the couch admiring the garden Sunday morning and casually shot this photo with my phone through the window; thus the strange bit of reflected light. By late morning it had started to lightly rain again and most of the snow is gone this morning.

The strange weather continues with temps hovering around 40°F during the daytime hours this week; until Friday when the forecast says we'll hit somewhere in the 50°F's.

Over the weekend I told a gardening friend that I will no longer blame myself when plants in my garden die. From week to week for the last year we've had little of what used to be our "normal" weather. It's becoming extremely difficult knowing what to plant and what kind of weather to protect the plants from. At least my Amaryllis is putting on a gorgeous show to keep my spirits up.

Winter bulbs: Amaryllis

For many years I got a big order of Paperwhite Narcissus bulbs. I've always liked the fragrance; though Mark was less of a fan. I used to put multiple pots of them in the front hall. I loved coming from the cold outdoors and being hit by an explosion of flowers and fragrance. I still have the containers and the pebbles I used to hold the bulbs in place, but it's been years since I bothered with those blooms. I also kept Amaryllis bulbs going and growing for multiple years and then got tired of them as well. 

But I decided to try my hand with Amaryllis again after seeing them in the charming Arthur Parkinson's book earlier this year. It's a gorgeously inspirational book (and so is he)! After much online searching I found a source for three bulbs of the variety 'Mandela' that he displayed in the book. It's a deep, dark red and a far cry from the sweet 'Apple Blossom' bulbs I used to grow.

Until I pulled this pot out of the cool front hall closet, I'd forgotten how much fun it is to watch these bulbs from day to day and even hour to hour. This is what 'Mandela' looked like on November 13th. The pot is in front of a wall of south-facing windows with the curtains drawn to modify the light level.

Arthur Parkinson used willow twigs to create a "fence" to help support the big Amaryllis blooms. 

I used a handful of late season pruning twiglets as you can see on this photo from November 15th.

After we had our roof and gutters blown free of leaves and debris in preparation for winter, I rescued all the tidbits of moss that came down onto the driveway. I thought they would be a fanciful addition to the Amaryllis pot. November 21st.

November 24th at 6:45 a.m.

November 24th at 4:30 p.m.

November 25th

November 28th at 8:30 a.m.

Given the dramatic differences in the heights of the stems and stages of the buds, I should have flowers for quite a while. I am already thinking about summering theses bulbs in the garden; letting them get bigger and bigger and more and more dramatic for next winter.

IVOM: More pots

The last time I used this little blue and white bulb bowl from the Metropolitan Museum of Art was on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day in 2013. When I saw two small pots of about-to-bloom Muscari at the grocery store last week I couldn't resist. Blue Hyacinths and the similarly colored "grape hyacinths" will always come home with me when I see them.

I pulled the bulbs out of the dirt, washed them off and put them in the bowl. I was feeling very Dutch with this combination of flowers and container! I went looking for my other blue and white container with lots of openings in it. Turns out the blue and white brick is meant to hold flower stems and not bulbs. The bowl holds 5 bulbs, only half of the number I brought home. 

Thus the others got plopped in a little cachepot from the late Johannsens Nursery, once a mere five minute drive from my house. This container is one of 5 that I bought one year at Easter along with a number of different succulent plants to put in them.

All of the flowers are sending up a second bloom. I put the one container right next to where I sit most evening so I can enjoy both the flowers and the fragrance up close. 
As the flowers keep blooming it seems as though the bulbs are shrinking. One fell through the hole and had to rescued before it drowned. Maybe it's just that they're out in the air and not protected with soil. Or maybe it's just a fluke. 

The bulb bowl has lots of small openings perhaps meant for baby bulbs; who knows. It did occur to me, however, that I should try putting big leafy flowers in the bulb openings and fill the small holes with the delicate stems of spring ephemerals. We'll see what I can do come spring when there's more in my garden than snow. 

In a pot on Monday

I rarely have house plants on display in the winter. Sometimes there's little ferns or pots of Cyclamen bought at Thanksgiving, but that's usually the extent of it. Last summer I did a couple of big outdoor containers with large Begonias as the centerpiece. I want to use them again this coming garden season, so I repotted them and brought them into the house in October. 

Begonia x ricinifolia is described as a large plant with large leaves and I have to agree. The newer leaves are very shiny

But it's the stems and the back side of the leaves that make this plant such a winner. It has tall wands of pale pink flowers that look delicate when contrasted with the red spikes — which are actually soft.

The red stems and backs of the foliage are the standout characteristics of Begonia 'Cotes de Castillon.'

The new foliage is a lovely bronze . . . 

that ages to dark green. I can picture this Begonia underplanted with Japanese painted ferns and Heuchera with red or purplish foliage next summer. Or maybe Geranium phaum with their purple splotched leaves and dark flowers.

I'm enjoying coming up with potential plant combinations to keep my mind off of the snow and frozen mix forecast later this week — after four days where we may hit 40°F.

Winter returns

It has snowed every day since last Wednesday. But almost all of that snow has been so light and delicate that it has looked like fog. You couldn't be sure it was actually snowing unless you could see the snow against something dark like evergreens.

By Saturday morning we might have been approaching three inches, but it was not enough to blanket all the plants in the garden. Ivy by the house, Carexes and ferns on the hills — lots of greenery was still visible. 

Not any more. It snowed seriously for a while during the day Saturday and then picked up again in the evening and overnight. Looks like the week's total is a good 8 inches.

Since the temperature this morning is at 14°F (feels like 4°F according to WeatherBug / -10°C and -15°C.), I am thrilled to get some garden protection. Monday's high is only supposed to reach 4°F with a low of -12°F (-24°C.). 

We made a brief stop at the grocery store Saturday morning after our weekly coffee gathering, so we are nice and snug. Well, I am, though Mark had to trek outside manhandling the snowblower to clear the driveway. But that job is done, so we can relax by the fire with our stash of books until Spring.

January blahs

I think there was a sunny afternoon earlier this week, but I'm not really sure. It's been endlessly gray, though not as snowy as the garden needs. The latest storm dropped some rain that turned into about an inch of wet snow. Before that happened I wandered around the garden to see if any plants were pushing up, confused by the rain and warmer weather. 

No Hellebore buds or snowdrops were visible, but a disturbing amount of new Alliums had started growing. I think it means I did not plant them deep enough. Whether their flower buds will still be viable come summer is the big question. 

The ground was soft enough that I was able to push plastic plant tags right back in where they'd been disturbed, Not a good sign in mid-January. Some plants, like Autumn ferns (Dryopteris erythrosora 'Brilliance') are looking surprisingly good despite extremely cold temperatures and snow. 

I've been taking advantage of this down time to work on more Blurb books: One about the ducks who visited our garden each year, two using old family photos and one of garden columns from my newspaper days and the early blog. Working on them is keeping me from obsessing about the winter garden and ordering too many plants on-line.

On again, off again

It's lightly snowing this morning and the temperature is currently 28°F (-2.22°C), but supposedly it feels like 17°F (-8.33°C). By Monday we'll be hitting 40°F (4.44°C) with rain. 

The only plant that's currently happy is Arum italicum 'Ghost' which comes up in late fall when the temperature drops. It looks great despite snow, rain and seriously cold temps.

December doldrums

Today marks one month since our friend Janice (right) died of cancer. I met Janice back in 2007 or 08 when I first started going for coffee on Saturday mornings to EVP on Speedway.

Janice was a drama queen in the best sense: Statuesque, stylish and impassioned. Always ready to protest, party or talk plants; we did plenty of all three over the years.

I can't begin to add up all the Saturdays we sat around sharing coffee and conversation. Nor can I quite image all those Saturdays to come without her. 

This week marks another unhappy anniversary: Friday will be one year since my sister Meg died of a rare auto-immune disease. This photo of her is so old I haven't a clue as to the date or location. But it's always been a favorite of mine. Her daughter, Sarah, is probably a similar age and looks strikingly like her mom does here. 

Meg's birthday is Christmas Day and my dad's is Christmas Eve. Despite having done a fair amount of holiday decorating, I am definitely not in a party mood and the 10-day weather forecast — rain, snow and cloudy skies — doesn't suggest there's any sunshine coming to push me out of my doldrums. So this is it for my blog posts this week. 

Fall clean-up finished just in time

October began with a few gorgeous days in a row letting me empty all my containers. The perennials went back in the ground, while I brought my Begonias indoors to see if can manage to overwinter them. Then I scrubbed all the pots — the ones that were planted — from the smallest to the largest. 

The small pots went into the garage until next spring. Mark and I turned the biggest decorative ones ones upside down to winter in place. Since they won't be able to hold water, they should be fine with this treatment. Mark can still pretty much turn these pots over by himself. I just help put the wood risers under them. 

They are very big pots. Here's what they look like next to a person . . .

and next to the fence for the winter. Also sitting on wood blocks.

We moved the rest of the decorative pots down to this storage area on the east side of the house. It's a surprisingly protected location with the garage wall, fencing and a big maple tree overhead. We've never lost a pot to winter weather yet. Knock on wood.

I got my work table all cleaned off (except for that big branch) and bagged pine needles from neighbors and a friend by the beginning of the last week in October. 

The weather was terrific so it wasn't as frustrating raking up the endless maple leaves from my neighbor's tree as it would have been on a miserable day. 

We spent the last nice day — Thursday, Nov. 10th — cleaning the garage, washing tools and putting them away. I cleaned and organized my metal shelving and cabinet and Mark did everything else.

Just as the sun was fading and the temperature dropping the team from Tiplok came to blow the leaves off of the roof on the house and the Tea House. Rain was forecast for that evening so we really wanted to be sure the gutters were not going to get clogged up. They did a great job, including blowing the leaves from the roof off of the yew hedge where they initially fell. 

We did get rain as predicted that evening and the temperature took a dive with snow showers on Friday and Saturday. It snowed lightly starting on Monday but it was enough to cover the ground. The view Tuesday morning.

It snowed on and off all day yesterday. Note the snow depth this morning at 7 a.m. My theory of winter is that it will be a long winter if there is measurable snow before Thanksgiving. 

The temperature is supposed to hit the mid-30°s today. But the high temp doesn't get out of the 20°s for the next few days. That's January weather. I was going to add more leaf mulch on some of the newer plants and already I can't locate them because of the snow cover. That's gardening in Wisconsin.