Category Archives: Garden

Are my plants dead?

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My plants here in Tennessee had completely forgotten what a hard freeze feels like.  Last week, they all got a reminder. When I walked around this morning, they were showing off their displeasure with those arctic temperatures. Do your plants look like this too?

Frozen plantsDead.  They looked DEAD!
After a deep breath, my brain said “Remember, these are perennials!”
My eyes took over and yelled “They still look DEAD!”

What to do? First I looked below the brown and crispy leaves of the Hellebore.  Lo and behold, there are little buds and green sprouts. For the more woody perennials, I took out my trusted plant tester – my fingers – and felt the stems.  Stems that feel cool to the touch are alive, dead stems feel warm.  Go ahead, go outside and feel some of your plant stems, pick up a dead branch from the ground to feel the temperature difference between a live and dead branch.  Hey, isn’t that cool?

Now I just have to remember to be patient and let the plants do their thing.  Resisting the temptation to cut back all the unsightliness is difficult, very difficult.  The time for trimming will come AFTER the plants sprout out for good this season.
Pass me the knitting needles for a bit longer.

Frozen Plants second look

Plants are not dead.

 

Leaf blankets for plants!

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This has been the coldest week here in Tennessee that I remember and we’ve lived here in Chattanooga for more then 20 years. This region is broadly included in that vague area known as ‘The South’.  Cold, for us, generally is a night in the 10’s followed by sunshine and days in the 40s soon after.
Not this week.  For many plants, these temperatures below 0 degrees Fahrenheit predicted for tonight will be a true challenge to some of our plants because we did not get any snow.  Why does snow matter?  Snow is Mother Nature’s heating blanket for the garden.  Snow insulates and protects plants when the temperatures are frightful.
If you have been following our facebook page, you’ll know that we love to push Hardiness Zones and grow subtropicals such as canna and brugmansia plants outside.  What to do?

Here’s one solution: We distributed the bags holding our fall leaves (and still awaiting their spot in the compost) on top of our semi-tender plant stumps. Voila – plant blankets – and hopefully they will keep the canna nice and toasty for the rest of this winter.

Plastic leaf bags as plant blankets.

Plastic leaf bags as plant blankets.

Plants that bloom in Winter

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I was told ‘writing a blog is easy, you are good with computers.’ Right. It has not been easy, I have had to learn the difference between a page and a post and I am not sure I have really grasped that concept yet.

Right now, our garden is mostly brown. The best thing about it is the lush yellow flowers on the Winter Jasmine and the buds on the lenten roses – promises of beauty to come.
Here’s a short list of plants that liven up our garden in winter:

  • Helleborus (Lenten Roses)

    • They are represented twice in the pictures because I think they are are just awesome! Singles, doubles, all kinds of colors and patterns, there’s just no end to how much I like them. Completely care-free and tough once established, they will grow anywhere from Zone 4 to Zone 8.

  • Chaenomeles (Quince)

    • Flowering Quince delights with bright pink flowers on naked stems in early February here in Tennessee. Stem can be cut and brought in for forcing too. Be warned though, this plant has 1-inch long thorns that can really do a job on one’s arms when trimming or cutting, I guess it makes this a good plant to grow under windows! Hardiness Zone 4-10.

  • Erysimum (Wallflower)

    • This is a super tough and drought tolerant Perennial that comes in many colors, from loud orange to subdued lavender. No matter where it’s grown, it will form a lush, low mount and explode in color in late March, early April. They are hardy in Zones 6-10.

  • Jasminum nudiflorum (Winter Jasmine)

    • The cheery yellow flowers of winter jasmine make up for their lack of scent by opening continuously throughout winter. The slender green side branches of this sprawling, trailing shrub gracefully tumble over walls and rocks. Tiny leaves replace the flowers in spring. It’s sometimes confused with forsythia, however, these blossoms lasts much longer and are of a softer color. Hardy from zone 4 to 8, maybe even 9.

    [fgallery id=3 w=600 h=450 t=0 title=”5 Plants for Winter Color”]

Happy New Years! Winners from our Garden

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I had some ideas for a post yesterday, unfortunately, something went wrong with WordPress and I was unable to log in and write. So you’d think, I’ll just write it today.

I am learning that that isn’t quite the way it works as my ideas from yesterday have poofed into thin air while I slept. Maybe you can relate to this experience and maybe not. But I used to be able to remember EVERYTHING, yes SIREE! I do remember I was planning to write about the Winners in my garden in 2013. The plants that just stood out and gave my garden that special oomph and brought a smile to my face when I walked out with my morning coffee. I posted pictures of some of them on facebook over the last few days and I am proud to say that I figured out how to insert the pictures into this post!

Happy 2014 to you and yours – may health and happiness find you and may your garden be all that you hope for with few weeds that can easily be pulled!

[fgallery id=2 w=600 h=500t=0 title=”Winners in our Garden”]