Archives for February 2014

A Rude Awakening

February 11, 2014 (18)Our winter, which shows not one sign of abating, has been our snowiest and coldest for 20 years.  My landscape has rarely been subject to temperatures below zero – never the extreme below zero numbers that have been routine this winter.  A worst case winter like this is bound to have consequences.  I fear the spring may not only be an awakening, but could well be a rude awakening.  Have I planted marginally hardy species in my garden?  Yes.  Magnolias and dogwoods are somewhat marginal here.  Other trees common to my area, as in redbuds, London Plane trees, sweet gums (liquidambar), and even tulip trees are very sensitive to extreme cold.  Many specialty evergreens that thrive in the Pacific northwest that have been planted in my zone may not fare so well.  I have already seen many Alberta spruce with substantial cold burn. I know of several long established sweet gums who routinely have crown dieback in a middling cold winter. What will happen to them this year?  Furthermore, years of reasonable winter temperatures have encouraged me to try plants that are on the edge of my hardiness zone.  This has worked for many years.  This year, I may be in for a little course correction.

snowy landscapeI am not a worst case alarmist. It could entirely be that I will see little damage.  But professional growers I have known for years are concerned about what our spring will bring.   I have magnolias which are definitely a zone 5, and maybe a zone 6. For 18 years, those trees have done better than survive.  But weather cycles are much longer than my gardening lifetime, and the lifetime so far of my landscape.  I am quite sure there is not a single plant in my yard which is 100 years old or better.  Bob Schutski, professor of horticulture at Michigan State and well known lecturer in landscape practices, predicts we will have no magnolia flowers this spring.  Ouch.  I hear of peach growers in Michigan talking about total crop loss.  My gardening friend Michael whose barn is pictures above-his mountains of snow may be the least of his worries.  He has trees and mature shrubs missing their bark above the snow line.

mature quinceThis picture from his garden is from a mature quince.  Every branch which above his current snow line has no bark.  The 6 feet of snow we have had so far this winter means that there is little winter food for wildlife.  This damage is most certainly the result of gnawing from hungry rabbits.  Though the extreme cold will take its toll, the deep snow meant the bark of this quince would become rabbit food. A shrub or tree stripped of its bark can no longer sustain the life of that limb.

girdled treeThe damage to the landscape may not be apparent until the snow has melted, revealing disaster like what is pictured above.  Deep snow means wildlife are struggling to find food.   Deep snow can be damaging in other ways.  When the sun moves higher in the sky, the light reflecting off of the snow can thaw evergreen branches.  An evergreen branch brought out of dormancy by the reflected light and heat of the winter sun can burn, or die, once temperatures drop dramatically at night.  Tree bark that warms during a sunny day, and then refreezes at a rapid rate may produce sunscald.  Most frequent on the south side of a tree, sun scald can kill the inner bark.  Winter burn, sun scald, frost cracks-these are all conditions brought on by an extraordinary confluence of  extreme cold, extreme snow and sun. Rabbit damage copy.previewFrost cracks, or vertical splits in tree bark from extremely low temperatures, can damage a tree.  These splits, though they may heal, are an ideal point of entry for disease and insects. No gardener has any control over any of this.  A friend in Chicago has written that she sees frost cracks on London Plane trees now.  Circumstances beyond one’s control are never easy to take, but some understanding can help relieve the shock.  I have been thinking when spring comes, all will be well in my world.  In fact, five weeks hence, I may have issues in my landscape that are not to my liking.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAt least I have no deer.  My very populated urban area is not a habitat of choice.  Were I to walk to my rose garden once the snow had melted, the sight of my arborvitae denuded by hungry deer might make me black out. This gardener whose plants are pictured above-I cannot imagine their anguish.  I have had severe damage to my arborvitaes from ice and wind that weighed down and splayed out long branches.  Though they have all been professionally staked by an arborist, they have not completely grown out of the damage which dates back six years.

winter light 4Our winter is not even close to a close.  Am I beat down to the ground by the incredibly cold temperatures and relentless snow-yes.  So far today we have had high winds, hail, and freezing rain.  Though there is nothing I could have done to protect my plants from exposure to any of this, as usual, I have hope.

 

A Belated Valentine

cut-flowers.jpgI did have Valentines flowers to arrange and deliver Friday, most of which got away from me before I could photograph them.  But the process of arranging gave me some time to think about them-the flowers, that is.  In the dead center of February, in the middle of a too cold snowy and icy winter, I had tulips, roses, alstromeria, waxflower, ranunculus, lisianthus, tracelium, white button pomps, black red carnations and godetia in my hands.  Just the smell of all of that fresh and living was pretty exciting.  Like most gardeners, I am used to the dirt that nature dishes out.  But this winter came early, and shows no sign of letting up, months later. I have to admit I am ready for a change of seasons.  No wonder Valentine’s Day comes at this time of year.

flowers.jpgThis winter began for us in November.  By Thanksgiving, the ground was well on its way to freezing, and we had snow.  We are closing in on three months in which we have had snow entirely covering the ground, and cold that penetrates to the bone in a matter of minutes.  Of course I am dreaming in color.  And thinking about flowers.  Nothing in my environment is green now, much less flowering.  The work I am doing now revolves around design.  This means black lines on white paper.  Ideas. Representations of places.  All of this work is abstract.  I am not standing on a patch of dirt, with the sky overhead.  I am not digging holes.  I have not one patch of green, anywhere.

pink-alstromeria.jpgThis is as good a time as any to talk about flowers.  Did I evolve from a person to a person of gardening inclination from exposure to flowers?  It could be.  I am not a botanist, but my quick take is that flowers make the process of pollination and seeding a visually sexy affair.  Some flowers are irresistible to hummingbirds or bees, or moths.  That flowers might be attractive to me is not nature’s intent.  Some hybrid flowers are sterile.  Though they are beautiful beyond compare, there will be no babies.  Just me-I have been reduced to a baby state by the length and ferocious nature of this winter. I understand completely that plants do not flower to make my gardening life more beautiful.  But they do.   What they do for this garden starved person in February-enormous.

Hollywood rose 002There are many things about gardening that satisfy, beyond the flowers.  I am interested in outdoor spaces designed to embrace people.  I like grass to lay down on, after a long day.  I am awed by trees of age.  I am interested in texture, mass, motion, rhythm, line, color, and form-in the landscape.  There is a fondness and respect for every  green plant.  Is one better than another?  Not really.  I may like peonies better than delphiniums, but that is a matter of taste, not worth.

May 2 2013 (33)There are some years when the flowering trees enchant.  Last spring was the first spring in two seasons that this magnolia bloomed.  The previous year, every bud was frosted off by a long late spring cold snap.  I was so ready for those flowers to emerge.   Other years, I feel like flowers on trees look silly.  How could any tree as sculptural and majestic as a magnolia go the frivolous route of tarting themselves up with big blowsy pink flowers?  Are the big glossy leaves and pale gray bark not enough?  The magnolia stellata outside my window this morning is  making ready for spring.  How can I tell?  The snow this morning is accumulating on the enlarged buds.  The snowbuds tell me March is not so far away.

4284263358_538beec025White flowers are not tough to love.  They have a fresh and pristine look so unlike the dirt they came from.  The white of this double flowered hellebore is all the more striking, given the pale yellow stamens and green flares.  I like single flowered hellebores, but I would grow this double without hesitation. Why?  I like flowers.  Ugly flowers-could those two words ever be side by side?  The flowers of butterburrs, Dutchman’s pipe and American ginger are not exactly what I would call lovely, but they are flowers none the less.

July 28, 2011 028
Roses fall in and out of favor so fast a gardener can hardly keep up. They can be easy to dismiss, given their ungainly habit of growth, their affinity for disease and Japanese beetles.  Not to mention that they are so, well, girly.  This overblown pink Carefree Beauty flower is not to everyone’s taste.  I grow this rose in spite of all the work they require because I like the flowers.

Aug 25 2013 (4)There are lots of other roses I cannot grow, that are only available to me as cut flowers, grown by someone else.  My Carefree Beauty roses would never be available as a cut flower.  They last no longer than a day or two when cut.  The history of the romance of the rose aside, a flower which can last for a week or better in water is especially welcome in mid February.

Mother's Day 2012 011I like cut flowers in season. When the tulips are in bloom, arrangements with cut tulips have that extra from the garden cache.  But there are no flowers of any description in season in my February.  How great it is to have the opportunity to put vegetables and flowers in a grocery cart in February. Tulips, Dutch iris, delphinium and sweet peas in February?  Bring them on.  Buck brought me a dozen Confetti roses for Valentines.  As much as I love the yellow flowers whose petals are edged in orangy red, I am most fond of how willing they are to open wide and flat – this a memory of the roses in my garden.  They look so beautiful this morning.

valentineOf course everyone has their own idea of what tugs at their heart strings, come February 14.

 

 

At A Glance: Leaf Deprived

 

Sept 1b 2012 006The Michigan landscape has a decidedly arctic look to it right now.  I thought these pictures might be a comfort to leaf deprived northern gardeners, myself included.  Strobilanthes is commonly known as Persian shield.

Sept 1b 2012 003asclepias incarnata, orange sedge, and verbena bonariensis

Annuals 2006_09_19 (7)calocasia, coleus, creeping jenny and scotch moss (sagina)

Sept 15, 2013 (65)plectranthus, dusty miller, and barbed wire plant

dgw c (2)hosta, lime green selaginella, and clear sky primrose pansies

DGW 2006_07_26 (31)
blue green and red-violet- Persian shield, perfume purple nicotiana, red bor kale, senecio “blue chalk”, lavender star verbena, silver falls dichondra, petunia

Aug 9, 2011 027caladiums

Sept 15, 2013 (78)caladiums and polka dot plant

dieffenbachiadieffenbachia and company

Sept 15, 2013 (68)red bore kale and variegated scented geranium

audi 027Can’t wait for the coming of the leaves.

 

Freezing

 

February 9, 2014 (1)

Freezing is a state (presumably,  a transitory state) to which I am reluctantly becoming accustomed.  Freezing temperatures are the order of the day.   Freezing-what is that, exactly?  Water which is subjected to temperatures below 32 degrees transforms from a liquid state to a solid.  We commonly call frozen water ice.  We have ice just about everywhere.  Icy is an adjective that describes relationships gone bad, cold color schemes, the mini stalactites hanging from my gutters, the surface of my driveway, my windshield, and just about every street surface between me and work.  Icy means I need to dress in multiple layers-this takes a lot of time, and doesn’t always work so well. Well  below zero ice means I need to cover my face, lest my eyelashes freeze.   As I am a gardener, and not a scientist, I would define freezing as that state when the world more or less comes to an end.

ice.jpgThis section of the roof is always in shade, and the gutter stops up with little or no provocation.  Snow fills the gutter, and when subjected to extreme cold, we have ice filled gutters.  Once it overflows, icicles form.  Understanding the process makes it no less aggravating.  The lower part of the roof is laced with heat tape-no matter.  The snow has been heavy, the freezing has been severe, and long standing.

ice.jpgPlants have a mechanism for dealing with freezing that is much more efficient than mine.  Spring flowering hardy bulbs, for example, cannot be frozen through and through.  The usual cause for the failure of potted spring bulbs is a complete freeze.  The soil temperature is always higher than the air temperature.  Soil which is insulated with a thick layer of snow is less likely to freeze deep.

February 9, 2014 (11)Cold winter temperatures trigger a biochemical response in the bulb, which converts the starch in the bulb to glucose (sugar).  That glucose lowers the temperature at which the cells of the bulb will freeze.  Salting a walk does just about the same thing.  Salty water requires temperatures below freezing to freeze.  The ice on my street is a result of air temperatures that have been so low that even the salty water and snow freezes solid.

February 9, 2014 (13)Even small bulbs that are only planted a few inches below the soil surface are rarely bothered by extremely low temperatures.  When they are completely frozen and rot, there is usually a lack of snow cover.  The frost can penetrate the soil in Michigan as deep as 4 feet, but in a year with lots of snow, the frost is not near that deep.  Down below the frost line, the soil is a uniform 55 degrees, year round.

icicles.jpgThe technology exists to harness the ambient heat in the ground to heat cold buildings in the winter, and and cool hot buildings in the summer. Such a system transfers heat and cold, rather than producing it. 50 degree air on a below zero day is a lot of heat.  50 degree air on a 95 degree day is a lot of cooling.  The upfront cost of such a system is considerable.  I am sure someday that the technology will be simpler, and less expensive to install.

February-snow-in-Michigan.jpgIn the meantime, a 6 foot tall person walking down my sidewalk today would be completely hidden from view.  This frozen snow will need warmer air temperatures to melt.  A good bit of it will sublime, meaning it will pass from a solid to a gas without that intermediary melting stage.

old-and-new-snow.jpgThe snow plow did heave a lot of dirty frozen snow up over the curb. At least last night’s new snow freshened up the look.

Detroit-Garden-Works.jpgI am sure all of the tulips are safe and sound underneath our mountains of frozen snow.  It’s February, through and through.