January Gardening Chores

One of my favorite native plant catalogs to order from Missouri Wildflowers Nursery.

January Gardening Chores

You bet there are gardening chores in January, it’s the one month when a gardener can sit back and do some of the most important work: dreaming and planning. Most of mid-Missouri is in USDA Hardiness Zone 5b which means the last frost is in May and the first frost around Halloween, although climate change is making spring and fall seasons longer and shortening our summers and winters.

1.     If you haven’t ordered your favorite gardening catalogs, get them ordered. Look for catalogs with detailed plant descriptions and good photographs so you can use them for reference.  One of my favorites is the Missouri Wildflowers Nursery catalog, it has lovely pictures with a quick guide on what growing conditions the plants require.

2.     Order favorite seed catalogs. Some companies will send free catalogs if you ordered from them before; others will charge for a catalog if you are a new customers. Plant seeds locally-adapted. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Company is a favorite seed catalog from Mansfield, Missouri.

3.     Review your garden diary from last year. If you’ve missed a few entries, add them now. Underline items you wanted to get done this year. I make a list, then decide which projects I want to tackle,  I also carry over the ones I didn’t get to last year, or drop them off the master list. This is a good time to dream.

4.     Identify what plants you want to add this year so you have a shopping list. Focus on adding native plants, once established they will be low care and tend to require less water than other plants.

5.     Read. Whether it’s Missouri Gardener Magazine, which provides good local gardening information and gardening books, catch up on what you couldn’t get to last year. I keep a pile of gardening books from our local library’s semi-annual book sale just for snowy, cold and blustery winter days.

Remember to water new chrysanthemums so they can get strong roots established.

6.     On warm days, remember to water mums planted this past year. New mums need a gallon a month to keep their roots moist their first year. Once established, mums will become perennials and deter bugs from around where they are planted.

7.     Remove any broken limbs in pathways to keep walkways clear and safe.

8.     Pile mulch and leaves on garden beds if they’ve been blown off by winter winds.

9.     Check inside plants for any hitchhiking bugs and remove. Make sure the plants, not the bugs, are getting their sunlight needs met. If not, move the plants. Water with diluted fertilizer. Prune as necessary.

10. Drop your garden pruners and other garden tools off to get sharpened, this is a slow time of year and this will give you a head start on the season.

11. When feeding birds, add a little sand in the bird feeder mix. Birds need sand to help them digest seeds. Also ensure they have an available water source. Feed suet on cold days.

12. If you have fish in an outside pond, make sure it has a hole in the ice so fish will get oxygen.

Anything else you do for your January gardening chores?

Charlotte

Recycle Cut Christmas Trees

Some of the cut Christmas trees left at Rolla Recycling Center to become mulch.

Recycle Cut Christmas Trees

Some friends are finally taking down their fresh cut Christmas trees and tossing them into garbage piles. That's a shame because these trees can easily be recycled and keep contributing in a variety of ways through the rest of winter.

The following are seven ways cut Christmas trees can be used now that all ornaments, lights, tinsel and cats have been removed:

1. Cut branches off and pile them into a small teepee shape at the corner of your property for wildlife refugees. I keep several piles around my one-acre hillside and keep them "refreshed" with twigs and other cover through the seasons so wildlife have a protected hiding space. In spring, it's fun to see what comes out of those refuges. Last spring, I saw a number of rabbits making the wildlife piles home.

2. Cut Christmas trees also make good bird cover under bird feeders. If you don't like having a whole tree at a bird feeder, cut off branches and use the branches to provide a green safe space at the foot of a bird feeder. 

3. Better yet, use the cut Christmas tree as a bird feeder. Place the tree up against a post or tie it to another tree and add orange slices, strung popcorn, old cranberries and even a bird feeder to give birds a safe place to eat. One of the most beautiful garden sights in snow is to see red cardinal birds in the evergreen branches of a cut Christmas tree!

4. Striped Christmas tree trunks can be set aside to weather and then used as fence posts and bird feeder poles.

Chipped trees and donated branches become a gardener's dream, a pile of potential mulch!

5. Donate your cut Christmas tree to your local recycling center. The Rolla Recycling Center collects trees and chips them up into huge mulch piles that sit through the rest of winter waiting for spring. When weather warms up, residents can stop by on Wednesdays to have the loader fill their pick-ups and trailers with the chipped wood for garden mulch.

The mulch is also available the rest of the week but you have to shovel your own so Wednesdays become a popular day to visit the recycling center.

6. Tie a weight on the cut Christmas tree and sink it in your ponds for fish cover. Evergreen trees make good cover for baby fish as well as providing safe hiding spaces for larger fish trying to get away from predators.

7. Two years ago, a local garden center was giving away their cut Christmas trees so I picked several up and used them for a wind break around my honeybee hives.

Cut Christmas trees also make good wind breaks around honeybee hives facing the south.

In the photo I have the trees pulled away from hive entrances so the honeybees can easily take their winter cleansing flights. As soon as the temperatures dropped to make them cluster back inside the hives, I moved the cut Christmas trees back in front of the hives for a wind break.

Here's a closer look of one of my hives with bees taking cleansing flights.

It takes a while for evergreen trees to dry out, even if they aren't placed in water so you have about half a year of good use before the branches become brittle.

Charlotte

2018 Gardening Calendar

If you don’t keep a garden diary, this is a good time to start. You can keep track of what worked well, and what didn’t, as well as other major garden changes, through a diary. I started mine in 1985 and included wildlife observations. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

2018 Gardening Calendar

To keep my major gardening chores organized, years ago I developed a gardening calendar associated with federal holidays to help me remember important milestones. This came in handy when I worked away from home full-time because it helped me get supplies and plan ahead for what I wanted to get done on those long weekends.

I live in USDA Hardiness Zone 5b, which is the US "belt." Here's my calendar for 2018:

Jan. 1 New Years:  Spray inside plants for hitchhiking bugs; remove dead branches. Mark garden catalogs for possible projects.

Jan. 15 Martin Luther King Day: Check plants wintering inside are getting enough sunlight; move them around and give watered down fertilizer. Mark gardening calendars for items to order. Check deck pots outside for moisture and add compost.

Feb. 14 Valentine's Day: Prune fruit trees. Clean and repair garden implements; wash flower pots; repair bird houses. Start looking for blooming crocus.

Feb. 19 President's Day: Plant onion sets, lettuce, spinach, radishes either in garden or in deck containers.

March 17 St. Patrick's Day: Plant potatoes, snow peas, Brussels sprouts and broccoli; start tomato and pepper seedlings.

March 20 Spring Equinox: Prune and compost roses. Add compost to raised garden beds. Plant more lettuce, spinach, radishes, onions.

April 1 Easter: Plant tree seedlings and native wildflowers. Update garden diary for bulbs I need to divide and move this fall; mark locations so can find them when it’s time to dig them up.

April 23 Earth Day: Plant last of my spinach, peas and lettuce. Cover garden with tulle to keep deer out. Start pinching mums back once a week.

May 13 Mother's Day: Last day of frost so everything can get moved outside. Leave delicate plants outside for a few hours for the first few days to get them used to outside conditions. Leave seedlings in containers outside for a few days before moving them permanently into the garden.

May 28 Memorial Day: Last day to plant anything from seed in garden including basil, pumpkins, cucumbers and zucchini. Compact fruit trees, bushes and perennials also get planted so they can benefit from June showers.

June 17 Father's Day: Last weekend to plant perennials.

July 4 Independence Day: Last day for planting beans. Last weekend for pinching back Mums so they bloom bushy this fall.

Sept. 3 Labor Day: Harvest fall crops; check for bugs; add compost, and start getting raised garden beds ready for winter.

Oct. 8 Columbus Day: Trim deck plants. Start moving them inside house for winter.

Oct. 31 Halloween: First fall hard frost. Add compost to raised bed gardens.

Keep track of the changes in your garden by taking photos from the same spots, especially if you have made major changes. Gardens change all on their own, too. (Photos by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Nov. 11 Veterans Day: Clean and store pots, garden tools; toss out torn gardening gloves; mark envelopes with saved seeds; update garden diary. If there's been a hard frost, good time to mulch plant beds so soil temperature doesn't fluctuate. Check for spring bulbs on sale.

Nov. 22 Thanksgiving: If ground is frozen, mulch garden beds.

Dec. 21 Winter Solstice: Water first year mums and pansies once a month through winter. Make sure winter birds have defrosted water to drink.

Dec. 25 Christmas: Make a note on who admires your Christmas cactus to give starts to next year.

Happy New Year!

Charlotte

Best Missouri Gardening Magazine

A sample of Missouri Gardener magazines, these are from my library, I use them for reference.

Best Missouri Gardening Magazine

If I had only one gardening and landscaping magazine I could order, it would be Missouri Gardener magazine. Besides what every gardener enjoys, beautiful photography, this bi-monthly publication offers a variety of information from region-specific tips to plant insect and disease identification and what I love, inspiration through features about other lovely and interesting gardens.

I first became aware of this magazine in a doctor's office. I had just leafed through another waiting room staple, Birds and Blooms Magazine and was wanting something with more substance when I saw a copy of Missouri Gardener. Not only could I enjoy beautiful photography but this publication had the details I was looking for, how to plant a rock garden, ward off pests, even a recipe to cook with cilantro. I have kept all of mine handy so I can access the different seasonal information when I am doing my garden planning, and some of the feature articles are just sheer inspiration.

Wondering about the USDA Hardiness zones? Missouri Gardener magazine explains the zones.

In the January-February 2017 edition, for example, there was a good article about the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Hardiness zones and what they mean. As someone who lives on a Missouri limestone hillside on the second highest point in the county, I was intrigued to discover USDA zone 5b dips down from Missouri's center to pull in where I live. Just looking at a map, I would never have guessed that my growing area had more in common with the northern part of the state.

There are a variety of herb uses including cooking with them, this article has tips and a recipe.

That same publication had an interesting article about one of my favorite herbs, Cilantro, including a pesto recipe I want to try. Now I have three recipes with cilantro to try, perfect reason to keep growing it!

Love large color photographs of plant pests and diseases, makes identification so much easier.

Pests can decimate the best plants so knowing how to identify them, and then what to do to discourage them, also comes in handy. Most other publications I have seen have tiny, maybe even black and white photos, which doesn't help when trying to identify tiny pests. 

Larger, color photographs are easier to help with pest identification and also the kind of damage one will see on the plant itself. If I can't see the bugs, the symptoms of the presence of the bugs will help me with a correct identification.

James Quinn, a University of Missouri Extension horticulture expert, offers tips for my area.

Throughout the glossy publication, beautiful photography as well as helpful hints. I live in the Central Region so my master gardener colleague James Quinn provides good gardening tips.

Fun to talk to gardening groups around the state and collect upcoming events for this calendar.

I would be remiss if I don't mention the upcoming calendar of events that is both in print and online. As the editor of that section, I spend a lot of time tracking down upcoming gardening-related activities that would be fun to attend. The deadline for this calendar is 4-6 months ahead of the publication date so if you don't see your favorite event listed, it's because the details were not available at publication time.

You don't live in Missouri? Good news, state-by-state gardening has similar publications for more than 21 other midwest and southern states. Cost for an annual subscription is $19.95. Did I mention the subscription includes a card for 10% off purchases from participating businesses?

There are some other perks. By subscribing, you will get monthly enewsletters with tips and updated information. There is an online State By State Gardening bookstore with a nice selection of state-specific reference books, hard to find at least for Missouri, and mogardener.com is an online forum where you can ask questions and get access to other articles, videos, recipes and more.

One of my feature articles in Missouri Gardener about a lovely forest garden in Newburg, Mo.

I am delighted to be a contributing writer but I would subscribe even if I wasn't associated with it, it's a good resource for timely local gardening and landscaping information.

Ready to subscribe?

Charlotte

Sheets Over Apricot Trees

Bed sheet covers a compact dwarf apricot tree.

Sheets Over Apricot Trees

Even though we had a mild winter last year, we also had a last hurrah of cold weather right after my compact dwarf apricot trees bloomed. As our climate continues to rapidly change, we can expect even more erratic weather patterns so knowing how to protect plants from radical temperature fluctuations will come in handy.

Freezing temperatures are not good news for any blooming plants and trees but anything below 27F means there will be no fruit later in the year.

Having missed several years of fruit because of late frosts, I have tested a number of combinations of items around the house to protect the fruit blooms during freezing weather. Last year, I tried bed sheets by themselves. This year, I combined bed sheets with the lightweight fleece blankets I use for furniture covers to keep cat hair off my chairs.

I first carefully draped the compact dwarf apricot trees with the fleece blanket, then draped them with the sheet I then tucked underneath and pinned closed with quilting pins.

Only once did I sneak outside at night to double check that the pins were holding the sheets closed. They were. That next morning, there were good signs that the combination of fleece and sheet was working.

Flowering apricot blooms peek out from under sheets covering a light fleece blanket.

Peeking out of the corner of the sheet, I saw the end of one of the tree branches still showing the lovely pink blooms of the apricot blossoms. It was day 3 of the 5 days of cold weather so we still had a couple of more days to go but that was encouraging to know they had made it this far.

Peeking under the sheet, the apricot flowers inside looked even better.

The combination of a sheet over the fleece blanket kept the apricot tree blooms protected!

By the time the low front had moved through, the flowers had pulled through safely and my bees were once again pollinating the apricot tree flowers.

The sheets by themselves are not enough but the combination of sheet wrapping around the lightweight fleece did work.

To recap then, winter jackets work, and so do bed sheets over lightweight fleece blankets.  Next, checking on using corn sacks as frost protection for compact dwarf fruit trees.

Charlotte

Rose Pruning

Inspiration to learn how to prune roses, it is relatively simple once you follow a few steps.

Rose Pruning

Ok, it’s that time! If you are one of those people who have wondered through the year when you should be pruning your roses, the time is now. I look for green stems by St. Patrick’s Day, a good way to remember what time of year roses should be pruned.

To prune roses, start with sharp trimmers cleaned with alcohol so you are not spreading last year’s diseases. I use old socks soaked in rubbing alcohol to wipe down my trimmers. I also make sure the trimmers have been sharpened so the cuts are clean; using dull trimmers will cause stem tissue damage to the plant and invite diseases as well as slow down growth.

Now pruning anything can be nerve-racking. The good thing to remember is that most plants, including roses, are forgiving so take a deep breath.

The second tip is to take your time.  When I first started pruning, I tied pieces of yarn and old bread ties where I was thinking of cutting. I would adjust the cutting plan before actually making the cut. If I made a cut and didn't like it, I would remind myself of tip number one.

After trying several different approaches, here is how I start. I first remove any and all dead stems, that usually gives a better view of what's left behind and what you should trim next. Go slowly; some branches that are dead may only be dormant. If in doubt, first scrape the branch gently with your fingernail to expose what's underneath. If it's green, that branch is still alive.

Some branches may be yellow green; that means it may be dying but it could rally with a little help so don’t give up on it just yet. Definitely mark that rose for a little extra soil conditioning and give each plant ¼ cup dried coffee grounds, half to one banana peel and 2 tablespoons Epsom salt mixed together. I also add crushed egg shells and dried orange peels when I have them. Feed once a month through the growing season.

You want to keep a shape that leaves air circulating through the center so remove branches that crisscross or are in-growing.

Now that the dead branches are gone, and then the criss-crossing ones have been removed, what is left is almost done.

Look for the pink nodes facing outwards, that's where you want to cut to encourage growth.

Look carefully at what is growing where. Find the pink nodes facing outwards, that’s where the plant will grow. Cut the branch 1/4 inch above the swollen bud at a 45 degree angle, that will encourage the branch to grow outward.

In general, also follow the following guidelines:

If you want your rose bush to be about the same size as it was last year, cut it down by half.

If you want a smaller shrub, prune to one third of its original size.

If you want something larger, prune to two thirds of its original size.

If this is your first year growing roses, prune much lighter at first; I usually wait until at least the second year before doing any pruning.

Charlotte

Fleece Coat Saving Blooms

My old fleece coat covered my compact dwarf peach blossoms during the last winter storm.

Fleece Coat Saving Blooms

If you pick up any gardening catalog, there are a number of fancy products to help protect plants from winter damage, from special coverings to water wands that deliver a mist to keep below freezing temperatures from damaging blooms.

Over the years, I have tried a number of options to protect my compact dwarf fruit trees from late winter freezing temperatures and this year was no exception. The week before spring, five days of below freezing temperatures threatened to nip all of my blooming fruit trees.

Without pause, I raided my closet and pulled out all of my extra winter coats to wrap around my small compact dwarf fruit trees. Most easily fit around the blooms without causing damage, and the extra large fleece jacket fit around the older of the three peach trees.

Peach blossoms were protected under my old fleece coat.

After five days of waiting to see how they would do, it was time to check inside the jacket.

Carefully unbuttoning the front, I peeked inside to find all of the peach blossoms were still intact, even still blooming. 

There may still be homegrown peaches to sample in my future this season, not to mention my best-dressed fruit trees.

Charlotte

Protecting Fruit Trees

Wrapping coats around flowering compact dwarf fruit trees helps protect blooms.

Protecting Fruit Trees Late Winter

Spring is literally only days away but winter is making one heck of a last hurrah this year. After several weeks of spring-like weather, five days of below freezing weather, including a hard frost have zapped my lovely blooming daffodils, hyacinths and possibly compact dwarf fruit trees.

Or maybe not.

After trying a number of different materials, I have found that wrapping my compact dwarf fruit trees in some of my winter jackets has successfully worked in keeping the flowers from getting nipped.

It's not the prettiest sight in the garden. Luckily I don't have neighbors close by or I would be a leading candidate to be reported to the lawn police. After all, who wants to be looking over to a neighbor's house to see shapes that look like strange creatures standing around.

My jackets are serving as compact dwarf tree covers during below zero temperatures.

I ran out of clothing so for my apricot trees, I used fleece blankets under dark honey bed sheets. 

Snow gathered on top of the sheets so I had to remove the snow to prevent the weight from damaging the flowers underneath. When I peeked, most seemed to still be okay but that was before the night with the hard freeze so we will have to see how they fare through those temperatures. It can take a couple of days before I will know wether this was enough protection through those temperatures.

Fleece blankets under bed sheets cover my flowering compact dwarf apricot trees.

Although this may not work, I couldn't sit back and not try. My compact dwarf fruit trees are small enough that I should be able to cover them if I can just get the right combination of warmth and lightness so that it doesn't damage the blooms.

Charlotte

Blooming Semi-Dwarf Pear Tree

The first blooms on my semi-dwarf Bartlett pear tree enticing my honeybees.

Blooming Semi-Dwarf Pear Tree

I almost cringed at the news, the forecaster called for temperatures to dip into the low 20s and snow.

It's been a record mild winter in Missouri this year, with spring a good 3 weeks earlier than previous years. Besides bees setting up house almost a month early, my compact dwarf fruit trees are also blooming early, not a good development when winter has not finished with us yet.

The biggest impact will be on my semi-dwarf Bartlett pear tree, planted next to my driveway in 1984. This tree had not produced fruit for so long I had actually forgotten I had planted it there until 30 years later when in 2010, I finally saw it in bloom.

What a sight. At first I thought it was snow. That's what one gets from looking out the window without glasses on. On closer inspection, and finding one's glasses, I realized my pear tree had finally found it's bloom.

Another close up of the clustered semi-dwarf flowering Bartlett pear tree blossoms.

The flowers of Bartlett pears are so pretty, reminiscent of small single roses.

That first year the pear tree bloomed, I had also cleaned out my birdhouses and found an increased number of small wasps nests. As I looked through dozens of pictures I took of the pear tree, I realized the pollination was courtesy of the wasps that had taken up residence in the birdhouses. I haven't looked at wasps the same since.

One of the pictures I took the first year my Bartlett pear tree bloomed thanks to visiting wasps.

We don't think of wasps as pollinators but they part of the family of insects, birds, bats and other insects and animals that form that fascinating family of pollinators. That was the same year I added honeybees to my garden later in the year. They have joined the wasps visiting the Bartlett pear tree in bloom as well.

Every year since, I wander through the flower beds checking out to see how soon my bees find the rest of the flowering compact dwarf fruit trees. I usually find at least one bee beats me to the flowers.

This is a semi-dwarf Bartlett pear tree full of flowers this year, even though its too early.

On this particular cloudy, overcast day, I didn't see any bees among the flowers but I still enjoyed looking at all of the white.

When one has waited 30 years to see a tree in bloom, one doesn't get tired of finally seeing flowers. And one does cringe at the thought that all of these beautiful possible pears will be gone if a freeze hits the area.

My beautifully-blooming Bartlett pear tree next to my driveway.

My other fruit trees are small enough that I can cover them in coats and sheets but this pear tree is too big to protect.

So every morning, I go outside and check to see if the blooms have made it, hoping that this year in spite of the late winter, I will still get pears later. That's excluding the battle with the squirrels.

Well, one battle at a time.

Charlotte

Apricot Trees in Bloom

My compact dwarf apricot tree in bloom almost a month earlier than usual.

Apricot Tree in Bloom

I have them all over my one-acre hillside gardens, compact dwarf fruit trees instead of ornamental ones. I have planted them for years in the middle of garden beds, in part for color, in other part for the fruit provided I can beat squirrels to it.

These trees provide regular-sized fruit on short stock so they are easy to pick. I have small paths that lead up to the trees for easy access.

I love the rich pink color of the compact apricot trees against the rich green of the vinca.

This year, the apricot trees are blooming earlier than usual by about 3 weeks. These two rich, dark pink, flower-covered trees lead to my small herb garden. One is shorter than the other courtesy of visiting deer that trimmed one tree shorter than the other one.

The blooms were particularly thick this year.

Compact dwarf apricot tree should be ready to set fruit this year.

As I was photographing the flowers, I wondered if my honeybees had paid a visit. A movement out of the corner of my eye answered the question as a pollen-ladden bee landed on a nearby flower.

One of my honeybees visits the compact dwarf apricot tree blossoms.

Hopefully this will be a good year for fruit yields from these trees courtesy of my bees.

Charlotte

Winter Tomatoes

My winter tomato plant is nicely setting fruit in one of my living room windows. One of the challenges of growing tomatoes inside is the lack of insect pollinators but Howard appears to have had some visitors before I brought him inside. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Winter Tomatoes

Over the years, I have mentioned to friends that I grow tomatoes in winter. I know there are some skeptics so meet Howard, my tomato plant for this winter.

Howard is probably a Roma by the shape of the fruit. It’s a good guess because I tend not to worry about labeling my plants. I can tell one vegetable from another and, when it comes to tomatoes, I like them all. If I have to distinguish the variety, I vote for taste sampling.

Now Howard had a rough summer last year. Actually he wasn’t much of a tomato plant at all, if you count being a tomato plant as actually going to fruit. Howard was the tomato plant that had all leaves eaten off by tomato hornworms when the caterpillars discovered my deck garden plants.

Happens every year. The little tomato plant starts look beautiful for awhile, turning my corner deck garden into an amazing lush green wonderland. Then one morning, I find the telltale green pellets on the ground, a sure sign that caterpillars are gorging themselves on the tomato leaves.

Tornado hornworms turn into hummingbird moths.

Since those caterpillars turn into beautiful pollinating hummingbird moths, I don’t destroy the caterpillars. Instead, I carefully pick them off and move them to a tomato plant I set aside on the side of the deck. As long as I find all of the caterpillars, they leave the rest of my tomato plants to fruit in peace and peacefully finish their metamorphosis.

It was a good caterpillar crop so poor Howard ended up pretty nude by the end of the summer growing season. I almost forgot about him until October, when I bring my tropical plants inside. He was sitting behind one of the tropical hibiscus; I assumed he was spent. Instead, he was showing very healthy new growth so I cleaned him up and brought him inside as my one winter tomato plant.

Tomatoes are perennial plants in their native Peru. They are also heavy feeders, which means they need rich soil with healthy microorganisms to keep them alive and growing. To make sure they have nutrients they need, I added composted soil, Epsom salt and worm castings, giving them three different sources. I wasn’t sure the flowers would get pollinated but apparently a few did or I would not have fruit ripening.

Just as in our summer gardens, winter tomatoes also prefer even watering. To make sure Howard didn’t dry out, I added a plastic bottle with holes buried up to the bottle opening so that when I water, the soil gets more evenly soaked.

I keep trying, though, because more often than not, I have one tomato plant growing all winter and making it into spring next year. The longest growing tomato plant – so far – was one that grew for 4 years.

Howard tomato plants turning red, almost ready enough to pick!

With Howard in a pot sitting in a southern exposure window, I started getting ripe tomatoes by mid-January. They aren’t as sweet as summer-ripened tomatoes but they are better than any tomatoes I have purchased during winter.

Nice treat to enjoy in the middle of the non-growing, snowy season.

Charlotte

Winter-Blooming Daffodils

These daffodils are blooming a good month earlier than they should be.

Winter-Blooming Daffodils

There really is no such thing, winter-blooming daffodils. There are species of daffodils that bloom early, in the past sometime mid-March, depending on weather. A good rain, even with cold temperatures, could coax greenery out of the ground long enough so that sunshine would bring a bud to the surface.

This year, traditional blooming patterns are kicking off the year even more unpredictably than they were last year. Hellebores, which usually start blooming mid-January were not setting bud until a month later. Daffodils, which don't bloom until mid-March, the beginning of spring, were nodding their bright yellow heads a month early, which inspired me to call them winter-blooming. That was also confusing because although mid-February, temperatures were in the 60s, breaking yet another record for the warmest recorded days.

Ok, I'm not loosing my mind. According to the National Phenology Network, "spring continues to arrive three or more weeks early – now making an appearance in Missouri, West Virginia, and the southern parts of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Washington DC is 22 days early."

USA National Phenology Network has a simple mission: "We bring together citizen scientists, government agencies, non-profit groups, educators and students of all ages to monitor the impacts of climate change on plants and animals in the United States."

Nature's Notebook, a citizens involvement program, is quantifying what gardeners and beekeepers have been doing for years, collecting observations and comparing notes. In the case of spring-time, they are suggesting this trend will continue:

"By mid-century, early springs and late-season freezes will likely become the new normal, which may result in more large-scale plant tissue damage and agricultural losses."

Let's hope we also will continue to have winter-blooming daffodils. Hard to think of spring without lovely yellow cheery daffodils.

Charlotte

Yellow Hellebores in Bloom

How about that, the mystery hellebores are yellow doubles!

Yellow Hellebores In Bloom

I picked up these wonderful perennial winter-blooming plants on sale a couple of years ago. Because they were on sale, I didn't know what they were in terms of color, I just knew they were hellebores and I wanted to add more to my hillside Missouri garden.

Hellebores are very interesting perennials. They bloom usually in the middle of cold midwest winters. their flowers the only blooms within miles. The flowers are actually leaves protecting the center stamens were the seed pods grow, usually appearing by late April.

This year, my established hellebores didn't start to bloom until mid-February, which is about a month later than in the past. The rest of my garden is also a bit off schedule. I have bulbs growing a good three weeks ahead of schedule with the exception of crocus, which in the past have bloomed on Valentine's Day, February 14. I have half a mind to give up trying to guess when something is going to be in bloom except that I have bees and I keep track of what's in bloom to track their food sources.

Although my hellebore plants were close to where they were picking up pollen substitute, my bees were not showing any interest in the budding flowers.

I am glad to finally find out what color these mystery hellebores on sale are. It's a nice surprise to know they are yellow double hellebores and will fit right into my spring landscape along with all of the other yellow daffodils and tulips.

That has a nice ring to it - spring.

Charlotte

February Gardening Chores

Check seeds, most are good for 2-3 years. Old seeds, back, are only good to hold memories!

February Garden Chores

There are signs of activity in my hillside garden, ever so slight maybe but activity nevertheless. I am spotting mole runs through some of my walking paths, and the mums I planted last fall are sprouting little tufts of green in the center. I live in USDA Zone 5b.

I know, I should appreciate cold enough days that I have to stay inside but I enjoy sunny, warm days when I can get some things done. Here are my garden chores for February:

1.     Prune trees. I focus first on my compact fruit trees, pruning them into a goblet shape. I have one pear tree that I didn’t prune for many years, now I am trying to catch up by pruning only up to 1/3rd of the tree every year.

2.     Composting yet? If not, this is a good time to pick out and area and get it set up. There are many ways you can compost, from using pallets, reinforced chicken wire or splurge on a self-contained unit. I have three because I knew my wildlife would consider the other methods as fine dining.

3.     Remove dead branches. I used to wait to do this until a branch almost hit me on the head. I now remove them as soon as I see them, even if weather conditions are not conducive to being outside.

4.     Photograph your flower beds. It will give you an easy reference later when you decide to reshape them with plantings. Good bones are important for gardens, too.

5.     Inventory bird baths. How are they doing in terms of giving birds access to water? Add a heater to at least one to make sure your feathered friends have water access. If you have a base or a cut off tree, buy only the bird bath top to make sure you have a source of drinking water. My little waterfall off my front porch has been running most of the winter, inviting all sorts of birds and wildlife to take a drink including 9 bluebirds and 3 robins at the same time. I also enjoy having birds on my favorite throws like this birds in the garden. Keeps me warm!

February is a good month to get your key garden tools sharpened, such as my favorite pick ax.

6.     Get your gardening tools sharpened. Many home and garden centers offer this service so if you haven’t checked, this is a good time to do so.

7.     Save milk jugs, toilet paper rolls, kitty litter containers. You can use milk jugs for early spring plant covers; make planting pots out of toilet paper rolls and repurpose empty kitty litter containers into watering cans.  Save a few extra to exchange with other gardening friends who may have plastic bottles you can puncture holes in and bury in pots for watering.

8.     Check indoor plants for mealy bugs and other pests. Usually by now those bugs have found a foothold and need some nudging to leave.

9.     If you haven’t ordered gardening catalogs, do so now. Catalogs are good references for names and plant care. Plant tags have become very generic and almost not much help so get at least one catalog you can use as a reference.

10. Have your early spring seeds picked out? Lettuce, spinach, peas all like cool spring growing conditions.

What are your February garden chores?

Charlotte

Lenten Roses

Lenten Rose, also called Hellebore, in bloom in my garden.

Lenten Roses

For many years, Hellebore niger were expensive plants. So expensive that I promised myself only to splurge when I saw them on sale.

Several years later, I found my first Hellebore, also called Lenten Roses, for $3. Having no experience about how they grew, I planted them in a shady area where I could watch them from the comfort of my living room chair. If this plant was going to bloom in the middle of winter, I didn’t want to miss it. Ok, so I also didn’t want to commit myself to going outside to my garden, in the cold, to check on it.

On the third winter, I found my first Lenten Rose in bloom, a dark rich burgundy blooming against the snow-covered ground. What’s even more amazing is that these flowers lasted – are you ready for this – until early May.

Turns out Hellebore “flowers” are actually leaves that turn color. The flowers, much like Poinsettias, are actually teeny tiny inside the colored leaves we mistake for petals. The “flowers” gradually turn, fading from a deep burgundy to pink as the flowers inside form seed pods.

I was hooked. Now my visits to plant sales included a search for more Hellebores. I ended up with half a dozen or so, different colors planted in shady areas where I can easily see them from my walking paths.

Now I do go out, even in cold weather, and check to see if they are blooming. Considering that nothing else is in bloom outside at the same time, they are easy to find, the buds and flowers waiving over dark green leaves. When fully grown, the plants are a feet tall with dark green leaves that remain dark for most of the year.

Lenten Roses are also easy to grow. The base of the plant needs to be planted one inch below the soil line, no deeper. Plant it right the first time because their roots grow deep.

They like more alkaline soil rich with compost and humus, and need some protection from winter winds. I mulch them after the first frost and have them on the east side of my house, which gives them good wind protection. I also planted one under a bird feeder, not such a good idea. Those Lenten Roses are more apt to be damaged by squirrels and birds trying to get to the bird seed that falls around them.

These perennials are also called Christmas Roses.  According to legend, a young shepherdess named Madelon was tending her sheep one wintry night. A group of wise men and other shepherds passed by, bearing gifts for the newly born Jesus.

Madelon wept because she had no gifts to bring. An angel appeared and brushed away the snow to reveal a most beautiful white flower tipped with pink.

I have a Hellebore in that color combination, just haven’t seen it bloom yet in my garden this year. Yet another one of the very few reasons I look forward to winter. That and hot chocolate on a snowy day.

Charlotte

Recycle Christmas Greenery

Recycle Christmas trees as wildlife cover, a fish nursery or take to a recycling center for mulch.

Recycle Christmas Greenery

Bless my brother, he didn't even ask why almost as soon as I got back into town, I was texting him from the recycling center. I was curious how many people would be recycling Christmas greenery. Did you know that 75% of what is hauled off to landfills could be recycled? A good percentage of recyclables are easily compostable materials such as Christmas trees, leaves and kitchen scraps.

My brother has started composting. He told me he was amazed at how quickly he has less in his garbage. He started by saving kitchen scraps in a plastic bag stored in the top freezer drawer for easy access. When the bag is full, he takes it outside to a handy composter sitting next to his garage. I suggested he could also bury it in holes in his garden but he lives in northern Minnesota; his garden is frozen seven months out of the year. On the other hand, he's proud to report they have one of the lowest crime rates in the country so there's something to be said about living in tundra conditions.

Besides kitchen scraps, live Christmas trees and other greenery can also easily be recycled, even if it is cold. After removing all decorations, including tinsel:

• Pull off or cut off tree branches and boughs to cover roses and other tender plants, if you haven't already. The best time to mulch is after the first hard frost. Mulch is basically a blanket to maintain soil temperature around plants. With our ever-fluctuating temperatures, it's even more important now to make sure plants have consistent soil temperature so they can maintain their winter dormancy.  Trees that are particularly affected by fluctuating temperatures, and should also be mulched, include cherries and Japanese maples.
• If you have a pond, tie a rock to the denuded tree and sink it in your pond. It will provide a nursery area and good cover for baby fish and tadpoles.
• Place the tree in a corner where birds can use it for protection. One year, we "planted" one of our live cedar trees back in the yard with pinecones with peanut butter and strings of popcorn. It was highly entertaining to watch all of the wildlife that made use of that tree for the rest of winter, especially song birds and wild turkeys. Once wild turkeys discovered the popcorn strings, they spent several days working them out of the tree. I can still remember them walking off, dragging popcorn strings behind them.

If you are more interested in wood chips, most recycling centers allow local residents to haul off wood chips for free. Wood chips make great cover for walking paths and, once dry, are great for mulching flower beds and trees. 

Smaller trees like cut cedars work well as outside brooms to clear off paths.

Charlotte

Wildflower Folklore

One of the books I picked up at our local library sale for reading on a snowy winter day.

Wildflower Folklore

Every year, our local library volunteers have two book sales and I make myself a winter reading box for what I find. Not that I stay out of the box before a snowy day but the idea is to have a stash of books I get to first read on a snowy, icy winter day when schools are closed and most are home staying warm and safe.

This year, when I reached into my snowy winter day box, "Wildflower Folklore" by Laura C. Martin was the first book I grabbed. It was a nice choice because even though we have had a relatively mild winter so far, I was missing my wildflower garden flowers.

This sweet book has the history of listing flowers as well as drawings of what they look like for easy identification.

I opened the first pages to one of my favorite native Missouri flowers, blue-eyed grass, the smallest member of the Iris family.

Wildflowers Folklore has history and drawings of featured flowers, such as blue-eyed grass.

Here's a patch of blue-eyed grass blooming in my garden, love their delicate size and color.

How flowers got their names is part of the story, as well as the background to some of those names. I was happy to see a reference that bees like blue-eyed grass, more because I have seen my bees visiting the flowers when they are in bloom.

Charlotte

Nom-nom-nom....

These little plastic garden dragons where a gift from my brother many years ago. They make their way around every garden season, sometimes munching fall leaves or mid-summer, dining on impatiens.

For years I moved them into a storage space over winter, only to bring them out in spring to keep my spring garden full of tulips daffodils company.

Garden decor like this are wonderful gifts. In addition to adding whimsy to the garden, they are a wonderful memento of the person who gives them.

This past fall, I forgot to bring my little dragons in so they spent this winter outside. They are not any worse for wear; I found one of them as I was filling my bird-feeders, the little open mouth apparently taking in newly-fallen snow.

Hummm, at this rate, getting rid of all of the snow on my garden could take awhile!

Charlotte