Woohoo! No work today due to weather. I bet the fish aren't as excited as I am. The pond looks like a giant slushie:)
Snow Day!
Throw a jacket on that Budda will ya!? Brrrrrr.
Seriously, nice - very, very, nice indeed.
Nice pond and I agree your Budda looks cold! Here is a couple of shots of our endless stream taken this month. The dogs love it as much as the birds do. But they make a horrible mess when they come inside. Patti
Patti - don't you lose a lot of water by running it in the winter?
We only run it on occasion from mid Dec until March. We turn it off at nights year round. It is pretty short about 40 feet and not very deep. We are having a warm spell so we have it going now too. Can't wait to see if any of the hosta that I planted along the edges in the water come back. Patti
We had a two hour delayed start (I'm a teacher) yesterday due to weather, also! It was so nice. Today we have pretty nasty weather, but it has made for beautiful scenery.
I couldn't believe that snow actually fell last night (even though my husband told me this would happen). How is it that this week one day I am cleaning up in the garden in a sweatshirt, another day vacuuming the pond in a t-shirt and now snow. Three seasons in one week!
Oh, BTW, anyone else notice the signs of spring around them? I have little plants coming up, leaf buds on trees that you can clearly see with sunglasses (only) and even my hostas are starting to poke through and say hello! My Empress Woo has even said hello (which I am glad to see . . .)
However, I noticed my Umbrella Pine is very yellowed from winter. I had burlap loosely around it to protect it from full sun until I can plant some companion trees around it this summer. Is this yellowing an indication of problems or just a normal winter result? I think I will give Rich's (the specialty pine guy) a call to discuss it. Glad I didn't buy a big specimen ($1000.00). If this dies, I won't have to also . . . LOL!
Under this Sciadopitys verticillata
Lies buried mothermole
She gave this conifer her all, even sang it a sonata
But it yellowed and died , and though she tried
Now there are two dead things in the hole.
LOL!!
The tips of some of my bulbs were starting to show before the snow. I know this late wet snow is good for them though. My yarrows and plants close to my foundation on the west side were starting to green at the bottom. March is only a few weeks away, it will be spring before we know it!
Gosh you guys. There is absolutely no sing of anything above ground greening up here. One water lily has some new leaves up. Judging from next weeks forecast they might go back in the mud.
Snapple: Thanks so much for the BIG laugh out loud! My son thought I was laughing at something he did in his Playstation game (he was struggling at the time) and got all upset and ran out of the room. . . Another roar of laughter! Thanks!
Linda
☺
You all might remember me telling you I ordered a large leaf magnolia via mail order and instructed a May delivery (something late like that) and they shipped it out the next week. I was angry because it sat freezing in my mailbox at below zero weather. Long story short, vendor ordered full replacement and I said I'd plant it up and see what happens. Well, it is starting to leaf out finally (as it sits in a pot in my master bathtub . . . )
Also, I recvd a piece of ginger from a Dave's person in the summer and it took forever to take off (October leaves finally peeked out) and in the last two weeks it outgrew my south facing window. It is about 2 feet high. It grew about 8 inches in 2 weeks. All that extra sun! This is why I like gardening! Natures miracles!
MM
Here is a picture of my Westie, Pete, checking out the pond yesterday. He is such a poser:)
And here is my son all bundled up. He has lovely blue eyes behind those lids. LOL
Oh that's so sweet and funny. That picture's a keeper.
I don't think umbrella pines are supposed to yellow out during winter...
Adorable pictures!!!
I went to Rich's Foxwillow Pines and checked his out and they were more yellow than mine. He said it is normal after harsh winters. We will see how it turns out in a few months.
Seems like a lot of people are on pins and conifer needles wondering if certain plants have sucessfully made it through the winter. I have a Cedrus deodara 'Eisregen' hardy to zone ?? Some say 5 others say 6 at best. We hit -17° here this winter. Definitely not zone 6! So far I see no sing of needle drop or browning. However the classic sign of cold stress in a C. deodara is top die back. So, I have to wait it out until April or May.
Do any of you use those bags to cover your plants-they are breathable but help with winter winds and frosts?
I bought 2 of them last fall when I was in England for a wedding and visiting the in-laws and not only have they done well but they were a heck of a lot cheaper than what I find in the states. Better quality too! Smith and Hawkin (who the heck would have so much money left after plant buying that they could even consider buying anything there . . .) had some around $25.00/ea and they were small. Mine worked out to be about $6.00 each and I bought the large size to cover two boxwood sculptured bunny rabbits in planters. . . They look fantastic and these are boxwoods that normally would yellow in zone 5 on the tips. Cheap-o Wal-Mart specials. I am going to have to get my Mother-in-law to buy me a few more to cover up my umbrella pine and a few other things next year.
I have two pinus parviflora that are showing more yellowing in the needles than I care to see. They are supposed to be zone 5 hardy but I think this winter was another zone 4 winter for us. We had several days with "highs" of -15 and lows overnight of -30 BEFORE windchill.
Highs of -15 and lows of -30!!! I had no idea it got that bad in your area. I hope you had good snow cover to protect the smaller stuff. The odd thing here is I have a Tsuga canadensis 'Cole's Prostrate that's supposed to be zone 4. It' showing a lot of winter burn. It's parked not more that 6' from the Eiseregen that should be showing some winter damage but isn't, at least not yet. Both are sheltered from strong winds and the T. canadensis was under a real heavy snow cover for the worst of the cold. I don't get it.
I thought Japanese White Pines were hardy to 4?
These two cultivars are only to zone 5. One was under a good snow cover, the other was partially under snow cover. The part that was not under snow cover on #2 is showing some burn, the entire plant on the tiny one that was under snow is looking kind of bad. But, they were $100 and $75 respectively, so I will wait until late spring before passing judgment.
We had some cold, cold days. January was absolutely the coldest in memory. Record cold days and continuous days at that. I got frostburn for the first time in my life when I had to take off a glove to put air in my tires and the metal from the gauge burned me, it was THAT cold. It is healed now but I'll have a scar. Just absolutely crazy, my hand was out of the glove for less than two minutes.
I just can't imagine that. You have been hit hard. I'm healing up a steam burn from microwaving squash. Your burn was an accident - who would have thought! Mine is just stupid. Somebody nearly old enough to collect social security ought to know better. I'll probably have a scar and I feel dumb explaining how I got mine!
I just noticed today that I've got some leaf burn on a Rhododendrum degronianum ssp. yakushimanum 'Yaku Princess'. (Formerly R. yakushimanum - this renaming, reclasifying stuff is killing me). I'll bet I lose the flowers. Major bummer.
Your rhodo is gorgeous-they are hard to grow in my area so we don't see them much. I have two on my property but they need my help to survive and flourish. They grow like weeds in MA .
They do grow like weeds in MA! When I was an undergrad in Boston, I answered a student ad looking for "garden help" and trimmed a giant patch of rhodies over the course of a weekend. It was some of the hardest work ever, it was a really neglected patch. The elderly man wanted me to be his permanent gardener but I told him that I could not do work like that more than once a year, LOL. Now I look back and think, sheesh, during the warm months I work like that every weekend and no one pays me or brings me lemonade and sandwiches!!!
I lived in North Andover and had about 30 rhodie's and azalia's on my property and in the forest growing wild behind my property. My experiences living there were unusual. I lived in a relatively new home yet it was haunted (and I never believed in ghosts until I lived there). I lived in a community like the stepford wives - very creepy. No one there understood why I would even WANT to do my own yard work. They thought I was a slave to the garden and this garden was easy to handle. Very strange women - locals anyway. The local men were so friendly whilst the women were odd (but nice if they ever let you get to know them).
I'm glad to be back in the midwest even though we are naturally landscaped challenged compared to MA.