Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Doctor Zhivago
What's the difference between Dr. Zhivago's Varykino and my house?
Dr. Zhivago's:
Mine: 
Mine has real icicles.
His didn't. Well, not the inside shots anyway. Not sure about the exterior. Anybody know?
(for the record, all my icicles are outside)
Monday, February 08, 2010
A Winter to Remember
Normally, about this time of year I begin tormenting northern gardeners with pictures of snowdrops or crocuses or maybe even an early daffodil. This is not a normal year.
That's my deck at Tangled Branches North yesterday morning.
You may have heard about our recent snowstorm. I think it was on the news. But you may have forgotten about the similar storm we had in December. Coming so close to Christmas, I didn't write anything at the time but I did post some pictures on Picasa.
That's the same table on December 20. We guesstimated that was about 20 inches of snow, but after the recent storm we actually measured.
That's a patch on the driveway. About 24 inches of snow. It took the spouse and I three or four hours of shoveling, but we finally broke through to the street yesterday. And we don't have a long driveway.
This is what we saw when we opened the garage door Saturday afternoon.
That is not a snowdrift. That's flat accumulation of snow.
This is after the first shoveling session.
There is a similar-sized pile of snow behind the photographer. The blob to the left of the pile is a Japanese yew that I've hated for years. I think nature may have helped rid me of it. I brushed some of the snow off, but it's quite bent.
There's a lot of tree and shrub damage with this snowstorm. This is a small oak tree in our wooded backyard.
The white blob to the left of that is my favorite holly tree. You win some, you lose some, but I'll take steps to try to save the holly.
This is the neighbors' detested (by me) Bradford Pear. There was a low branch that protruded over the sidewalk. Nobody but a small child could walk under it. That branch is lying in the street in this picture.
Normally, I don't post wide shots of the backyard because I find few angles that don't include the neighbor's woodpile, compost pile, shed, swingset, garbage cans. As I say, this is not normal. The snow airbrushed out all the uglies.
Well, I think you get the idea, but it really was a storm for the record books:
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT...CORRECTED REAGAN NATIONAL INFO
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
1030 PM EST SAT FEB 06 2010
...PRELIMINARY SUMMARY OF TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL SNOWFALLS EXCEEDED IN THE BALTIMORE-WASHINGTON AREA...
THE 32.4 INCH TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL RECORDED TODAY AT DULLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT EXCEEDS THE PREVIOUS TWO-DAY STORM RECORD OF 23.2 INCHES ON 7-8 JANUARY 1996.
THE 24.8 INCH TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL ESTIMATED TODAY AT BALTIMORE/WASHINGTON INTERNATIONAL THURGOOD MARSHALL AIRPORT EXCEEDS THE PREVIOUS TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL RECORD OF 24.4 INCHES FOR BWI AIRPORT FROM 16-17 FEBRUARY 2003. THIS WOULD ALSO BE THE 2ND HIGHEST TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL ALL-TIME SNOWFALL FOR BALTIMORE RECORDS WHICH DATE BACK TO 1871...BEING SECOND ONLY TO THE 26.3 INCHES WHICH FELL 27-28 JANUARY 1922.
THE 17.8 INCH TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL RECORDED TODAY AT RONALD REAGAN WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT IS THE SECOND HIGHEST TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL RECORD...SECOND ONLY TO THE 18.7 INCHES FOR NATIONAL AIRPORT FROM 18-19 FEBRUARY 1979. THIS WOULD ALSO BE THE 4TH HIGHEST TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL ALL-TIME SNOWFALL FOR WASHINGTON RECORDS WHICH DATE BACK TO 1871...BEHIND ONLY THE 27-28 JANUARY 1922 KNICKERBOCKER STORM WITH 26.0 INCHES...THE 12-13 FEBRUARY 1899 STORM WHICH PRODUCED 19.0 INCHES...AND THE 18.7 INCHES WHICH FELL 18-19 FEBRUARY 1979.
AS WITH ANY MAJOR CLIMATE RECORD ACHIEVEMENT...THESE PRELIMINARY RECORDS WILL BE QUALITY CONTROLLED BY NOAA'S NATIONAL CLIMATIC DATA CENTER OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL WEEKS.
Friday, March 06, 2009
Snowy Bulbs
The snow earlier in the week was a blessing in a way. For one, it's been a bit dry here and we can use the moisture. But even better, I get to take pictures of spring bulbs flowering in the snow. I always used to fall for these pictures in catalogs, imagining that the flowers forced their way up through the snow. Only much later did I realize that those pictures are taken after late snowfalls on the already blooming plants, just like this.
Even though we received about 6 or 7 inches of snow and the temperatures have been very cold, the early March sun did its work and melted much of it. The crocuses reappeared yesterday from where we had shoveled snow on top of them. They just laughed it off.
Plant photos, top to bottom, are:
Narcissus 'Rijnveld's Early Sensation'
Iris reticulata 'Gordon'
Crocus sieberi 'Firefly'
Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty'
Labels: bulbs, crocus, iris, narcissus, snow
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Snowdrop Update and Blog Tinkering
Thought I'd show you how the snowdrops fared after my Bloom Day post.
We got a surprise snowstorm on Thursday - about 4 or 5 inches. Oh well.......it is winter.
Shirl kindly provided a link to a video showing how to plant snowdrops in-the-green, and that got me started snowdrop surfing. I turned up some interesting web pages. Several of these mention Hitch Lyman, who is seemingly the only purveyor of snowdrops in-the-green in the US. If you know of any others, please share.
- Cold Climate Kathy's post about snowdrops and Hitch Lyman prompted me to send for his catalog a couple of years ago.
- Last March the Washington Post's garden editor wrote about snowdrops, Hitch Lyman, and The March Bank at Winterthur.
- The Transatlantic Plantsman has a photo of a very enviable stand of snowdrops - escaped from cultivation. Maybe that's the secret - toss them in a ditch and see what grows.
I've been doing some tinkering around the edges of the blog. My right-column blogroll had gotten very out of sync with my reading habits - I had been using Bloglines but came to prefer Google Reader and so didn't keep the Bloglines list up-to-date. I'm still working on merging the two lists. And I changed the format to try to make it easier to read, but that typeface looks rather small to my aging eyes.
Yesterday while looking for something else, I came across a snippet of Blogger template code to display the name of each commenter on the main page (i.e. you don't have to click the "comment" link to see who has commented). I tried it out, but I'm not sure whether I like it or not. One of the things I don't like is that the commenter's name isn't linked to the comment, but to the commenter's Blogger profile page (or some other web page in the case of non-Blogger commenters). We're getting into the political season here in the US and polls are all the rage everywhere, so how about helping me decide this issue?
Labels: blogroll, snow, snowdrops, template
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Non-Calamintha Snow
What's the Inuit word for "snow too heavy and wet to make the calamintha look pretty"?
That's the kind we had today. This isn't all that bad, but the Calaminthas need something fluffier and lighter to look their winter best. Maybe we'll get another chance later in the season, if they're not totally flattened by then.
Here's an antique video for the first snow of the season. For you folks who aren't from the Chicago area, have you ever seen it?
Labels: snow
Monday, April 09, 2007
Snowy Easter Weekend
There are more pictures of our central Virginia weekend snow here. Nothing as dramatic as some other places - northeast Ohio, for example - but unusual for the time of year.
Here in northern Virginia, a few plants are looking wilty-like and unhappy, but I didn't see anything really frozen and dead. I think the nighttime low temperatures weren't as cold as predicted. Surprisingly, the epimediums are among the unhappy plants. I thought as wiry as they are, they wouldn't be much affected. The new shoots are very slender - maybe that's why?
Labels: epimediums, snow, weather
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Whine
April 7.
In Virginia.
In central Virginia.
Snow. Snow!
2+ inches of snow.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Last Snow
These are positively the last pictures of snow I'm going to post until next winter. Even if it snows another two feet, which it won't, I will not take a picture.
While I was out photographing the narcissus in the snow, a red-bellied woodpecker started drumming on the neighbors' chimney cap. The robins were back today, and so was the pine warbler. The goldfinches are starting to wear their summer feathers. And it's finally going to warm up outside!
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Spring or Winter?
Every time I declare spring, it snows. I was just thinking of declaring spring after last weekend in the country, so snow is in the forecast.
Last weekend in Central Virginia, the weather was warm enough to open the windows and air out the house. The sound of spring peepers (or something) drifted in on the breeze (more like a gale, actually). I wandered around the woods looking for wildflowers or fiddleheads, but it was still too early. The maple trees are starting to bud out. The birds were singing noticeably more than the previous weekend. Our well-fed suburban birds have been singing for weeks, but I think the rural birds were still just trying to stay alive. Now the bugs are starting to come out and they can think of other activities. I didn't see any deer, but did find their tracks in the mud, however those were nowhere near the recently planted woodies. So far, so good.
Back to those spring peepers for a moment. According to what I've read on the internet, spring peepers are nocturnal. So then, what was I hearing during the daylight? They started about 10:30 in the morning and went until late afternoon. The sound was coming from the brushy side of the stream. I tried to look for the critters, but could see nothing. I found a site with sounds of a dozen frogs and toads, but none of these sound like what I remember. So the identity of the croaking creatures remains to be discovered.
In Northern Virginia, a few more crocus flowers popped open yesterday. I do mean popped open. Sunday I swear there was nothing there - hardly even any leaves; Monday - flowers. And some of the very early narcissus are open. Pictures soon.
A rare bird stopped by this afternoon - a pine warbler. I guess they really aren't all that rare, but this is only the second time I've seen one in the backyard. Not rare at all, but very welcome, a large flock of robins was rummaging through the leaves in the woods late in the afternoon.
Did I mention there's a snow advisory for tomorrow?
Labels: birds, critters, crocus, narcissus, snow
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Flaky
We woke up yesterday to a sparkly coating of snow. The fluffy kind that looks pretty and then fades away by afternoon. So, of course, the schools were closed. I was going to heap some more sarcasm on, but CapitalWeather.com did such a good job that I couldn't possibly improve on it.
I posted a few pictures of some snow-frosted plants, including my favorite - Calamintha. It looks so lacy and delicate in the snow, but you have to wait around for just the right kind of snow. A little bit stickier snow might have been better, but if the predictions come true, the next storm is going to flatten them.
Labels: plants for winter, snow
