What a wonderful day! 70 degrees and I have the house wide open. Back yard is like a bog though with all that rain we had last night! So I put on my wellies and did a walkabout. The most amazing discovery was my cereus cactus! It has survived 2 weeks of hard freezes! No mushy bits anywhere!
The second thing that caught my eye was the hollyhocks .. I had put 2ltr bottle cloches on them to keep the squirrels from digging them up. They are green and growing!
Anyone else have nice surprises?
X
It is interesting, seeing what did well and what didn't. Some things that I didn't think would do well are fine - my split leaf philodendron did fine on the southside of my house protected by a sheet and blanket. I really expected damage, but none that I can see so far.
Barb
The grass between my house and my neighbors is still green! I'm thinking maybe the brick helps create little microclimates.
X
Probably does. I know the grass is greener i.e., not brown..., on the southside between our house and the neighbors than the rest of the lawn.
What kind of grass do you folks grow??? My centipede is brown brown brown, no signs of life.
Lol, my yard is the museum of grass .. I have centipede, bermuda, st. augustine, and I think the grass guy said some fescue and bahia? Lets not forget the dichondra either.
When I first moved here the yard was nothing but weeds, mostly dandelion and a real bad case of henbit in winter .. it took 2 years of diligence, but I finally got to mostly grass then discovered the eclectic lawn. The area between the two houses is mostly st. augustine. My mostly centipede in the front yard is totally brown too. I'm trying to encourage the st. augustine to take over in the front yard .. that centipede is pretty tough stuff.
X
I'm pretty sure the only green is a smaller weedy grass. We have st augustine and it's all brown.
It's definitely St. Augustine .. I think being between 2 brick houses created a micro-climate because the sun hits the walls directly for over an hour each day.
X
"museum of grass", LOL, X. I have quite a variety, too, but it's mostly centipede and mostly brown. Got some zoysia and some St. Augustine, and a 4th mystery one I haven't figured out.
My biggest surprise was my little tree fern (Dicksonia Antarctica) which looks almost perfect after having just a sheet thrown over it.
My split-leaf Philodendron that was up against a north brick wall looks pretty darn poorly, but my neomarcus Walking Iris, which should be fried, are only bout 1/2 burnt. I think they'll make it. :)
Here's the only surprise I've come across as far as harbingers of spring.
Deb
Deb, I've always wanted a tree fern. I bought a very small one from the Biltmore's garden store a few years. Killed it within 2 months....
Barb
Barb, this is my 2nd one. I killed the first one, but I thought I'd figured out where I went wrong and tried again. T2 1/2 yrs on, it's doing well. Slow grower, but it IS growing. Yay.
