Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Monday, February 15, 2010
Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day
...is a bust. For the visuals, see the previous post.
No flowers here. Even the indoor orchids are still just buds. I think I should go buy another one just to have something blooming.
This may be a record at Tangled Branches - longest period of time with no flowers.
But there are some hopeful signs. The snow is melting, just not very fast. I heard a cardinal singing this morning. While scanning the trees for birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count, I noticed the maple buds seem just a little more plump.
Welp, since there's nothing much to look at here, this might a be good time to have another cup of tea and start scanning the list of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts for flowers elsewhere.
Labels: birds, in bloom, weather
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, December 18, 2009
Garden Bloggers' Bud Day
Taking advantage of the lull before the storm, I'm here to report that I had no flowers in bloom for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day earlier this week.
But there are buds.
This is one of 3 such buds on a Camellia japonica, newly planted this spring. I cannot believe that I lost the label already. Its neighbors, with no buds, still have intact labels. Why?
I hope those buds survive to make flowers for a future GBBD, but today it sure feels like we're in for a long cold winter. I'm a novice camellia-grower, but I think the japonicas are less hardy than the sasanquas? But that one is still a very tiny plant, probably less than 12 inches tall, and if we get the foot of snow that's predicted it will be totally covered up and well-insulated. (I first typed insulted instead of insulated; hmmm.....)
Labels: camellias, in bloom, weather
Thursday, December 10, 2009
December Tomatoes
Did she say December tomatoes? Yes! But it isn't like they came fresh from the vine today. This one has been "ripening" since mid-October when we frantically picked all we could before the frost. I think it may be the variety 'Persimmon', but in our haste we didn't bother to sort the tomatoes by variety - just dumped everything into any container we could find. We'll call it Persimmon. Or maybe Kellogg's Breakfast. Or maybe even a Virginia Sweets. One of the big yellow ones anyway. But I think it's Persimmon.
A good many of those hastily harvested tomatoes never "ripened" but this one did and we ate it for lunch today. It wasn't the same as a mid-August tomato, but it wasn't bad either. I scrounged a small amount of coriander/cilantro from the garden this morning, but unless we get a heat wave, that will be all until spring.
Earlier in the week I made a sort of pasta all'Amatriciana with some other varieties of tomatoes that had "ripened" off the vine but those weren't as good as today's.
With all the precipitation of the last few weeks the garden is sloshy soggy. The deer have been making their presence known by eating almost every green thing left in the garden, and now they're wading ankle-deep in mud to do it. Well maybe I exaggerate a bit, but the hoofprints are quite deep. And they've been eating things they are reputed not to like. Onions for example. So it's just as well that I didn't get my fall onions planted. The ones the deer are eating were the perennial types that I left in.
I'm content to just let the garden go for a few months. I like vegetable gardening, but it's very time-consuming. So time-consuming that I didn't write half the blog posts I had planned. Maybe I can make the clock run backwards, writing up the garden events in reverse chronological order. By the time I get caught up, we'll be back to spring and time to begin again.
Labels: coriander, deer, tomatoes, weather
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Angry Weather?
Is this map trying to tell us something?
Labels: weather
Friday, February 06, 2009
Snowdrops!
Kicking off the season of spring bulbs. A bit late this year, but January was the 18th coldest on record.
From the National Weather Service climate summary:
AT DULLES...THE JANUARY 2009 AVERAGE MONTHLY TEMPERATURE WAS BELOW NORMAL...THE 18TH COLDEST ON RECORD...AND THE COLDEST JANUARY SINCE 2004. 18 OUT OF 31 DAYS THIS JANUARY AVERAGED BELOW NORMAL.
THE MINIMUM TEMPERATURE OF ZERO DEG F ON THE 17TH WAS THE LOWEST MIN TEMPERATURE RECORDED AT DULLES SINCE FEB 6 1996 WHEN IT WAS -9 DEGF.
JANUARY 2009 MONTHLY PRECIPITATION WAS SLIGHTLY BELOW NORMAL AS WELL WITH NEARLY HALF OF THE MONTHLY PRECIPITATION FALLING ON THE 7TH.
THE 19TH WAS THE ONLY DAY WITH MEASURABLE SNOWFALL FOR THE MONTH. THE SNOW TOTAL OF 2.0 INCHES WAS OVER 6 INCHES BELOW NORMAL. OVERALL THIS IS THE 9TH JANUARY IN A ROW WITH BELOW NORMAL SNOWFALL.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Life is About Maintenance
I once heard Patricia Schroeder say that and the older I get the more I agree with her.
There's my maintenance work for the day. This is the only time of year I don't like living on a wooded lot.
Not all the leaves are on the ground yet, and we still have some good fall color in the backyard. Hope to do a post about that soon, or at least before the snow flies. Speaking of snow, today is the 21st anniversary of the great Veterans Day storm of 1987. I remember watching the snow fall while cross-stitching a Christmas stocking for my niece, but don't remember if the trees still had leaves. It seems to me the leaf drop happens later every year.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Plant Tip from Tropical Storm Hanna
Don't leave your biggest best green tomatoes on the vine when over 2 inches of rain is predicted.
To be fair, some of these cracks are from the previous rain. But now that the rain is over I think I could stand in the garden and watch these cracks develop (if I had enough patience).
Fried green tomatoes for lunch tomorrow!
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Iowa Tornado Video
Ever wonder what it's like to be in a tornado? Watch this amazing video from a bank security camera in Parkersburg, Iowa (sorry about the advertising you have to watch first, but the video is worth enduring the ad).
Update: An advertising-free version of the same video is on the BBC web site. Thanks, Amanda, for the link!
Labels: weather
Monday, April 14, 2008
Spring Surprises - Good and Bad
Surprise! It was 86 degrees (F) on Friday. Not springlike, but I enjoyed it all the same.
 |
| Tulipa clusiana 'Tinka' |
Salvia patens is springing back. According to Thompson & Morgan, this is only hardy to zone 8, and I'm in either zone 6b or 7 depending on which version of the hardiness map you use.
Verbena hastata 'Pink Spires' has not sprung back. Supposedly hardy to zone 3. No sign of Eupatorium purpureum yet either.
 |
| Agastache foeniculum volunteer seedlings |
I'm learning to know the frogs by their sounds. The earliest ones were Upland Chorus Frogs. Now we have Spring Peepers and Gray Tree Frogs, as well. Did you know that frogs start singing very early in the morning, even before the birds? We slept with the windows open on Friday night, and before the dawn was perceptible to me, the frogs began calling.
The march of the branded plants continues. This isn't really a surprise, but Saturday I discovered a new (to me) brand - Hort Couture. I have to grudgingly admit that their packaging is very attractive and the plant selections were interesting. The very idea of branded plants still makes me a little queasy though. When I got out of college I worked at a wholesale/retail nursery where we dug customers' desired number of plants out of wooden flats and wrapped them in newspaper. They were just beginning to move to plastic cell packs. Geez, I feel like a garden geezer....
Labels: branded plants, frogs, tulips, weather
Monday, April 07, 2008
Catching Up, Part 2
Is this a lame excuse for a blog post?
I dodged the raindrops today and took these photos. I posted them on Picasaweb, but haven't gotten around to writing anything about them except the captions. I'm not sure what I think of embedded slideshows - comments welcome!
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
More One Liners
I forgot a couple in the previous post.
1. Spring peepers are singing at Tangled Branches South.
2. The ground is disturbingly dry for this time of year.
Labels: frogs, seasons, weather
One Liners
Been kinda busy lately - no joke. I've even been in the garden instead of in front of a computer screen! Things happen, whether I have time to blog about them or not, so here is the briefest of summaries of things I've noticed or done recently.
Creeping Phlox was blooming Saturday in somebody's front yard in Richmond.
Red maples are blooming along I-64 west of Richmond.
Purple Finches are still at the bird feeder at Tangled Branches South.
A song sparrow was hanging around with the juncos and cardinals under the feeder at TBS on Friday and Sunday.
It was so warm yesterday I drove with the sun roof open.
Winter aconites are blooming at Tangled Branches North, but I haven't taken a picture.
Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty' has been blooming since at least February 21, but I haven't blogged about it.
The floating hellebores' petals are still in good shape after almost 2 weeks, but the stamens are withered.
Seed starting is starting in earnest, and that deserves a longer post.
I planted coriander seed outdoors yesterday.
I just finished planting my narcissus bulbs yesterday, but don't tell anybody that.
Labels: birds, in bloom, seeds, weather
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
An Ice Surprise
As late as yesterday afternoon, the Weather Service assured us that the freezing rain was nothing to worry about because the temperature was soon going to get warmer.
By the time we returned home from dinner, the Weather Service had issued an Ice Storm Warning. It rained all night and the backyard looked like this until midafternoon today.
The crocuses look worse for the wear, but the snowdrops shrugged it off. They were happy and upstanding as soon as they were freed from the ice.
Labels: ice, snowdrops, weather
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Back to Work with Earlier Sunrises
The 12 Days of Christmas are over and it's back to the salt mines for me. If we were all living in a time and place where the holidays kept going until January 6, the return to work would happen at about the same date when the sun begins to rise earlier (at about 40 degrees N latitude). Is this a coincidence?
We've been gaining daylight at the end of the day since early December here, and the sun is setting about 15 minutes later now than it was then. Now it's time for the days to lengthen at the end and the beginning. But human arbitrariness has intruded once again on the natural rhythm of things. While I was cruising the internet looking for interesting links about the latest sunrise, I found this interesting observation: because the end of Daylight Saving Time was moved to the first weekend in November in 2007, we actually had our latest sunrise in official government-approved clock time in early November. In the vicinity of Washington DC, the sun rose at 7:36 AM on November 3, and today rises at 7:26 AM.
As Chuck B. has gently reminded me in a comment on the previous post, the Earth's orbit around the Sun isn't really a circle, but an ellipse. Because of that slightly squished circle (OK, ellipse) we're closer to the Sun now than we will be in June. I realize that this fact has nothing whatever to do with the current weather, but yesterday felt like spring break instead of back-to-work. And it isn't just here. Tornados in northern Illinois in January?!?!? I can hardly imagine such a thing, probably because the last time anything like that happened was before I was born. I sure hope Edwards Apple Orchard is able to recover from the damage - in addition to excellent apples and cider, they have some of the best cider donuts ever.
Meanwhile, the benign side of springtime is almost on display here. The snowdrops were just showing a few pointy green leaves last week, but now the flower buds are clearly visible. Pictures later - it's still dark as I type this. Those earlier sunrises will be very welcome.
Labels: astronomy, seasons, snowdrops, weather
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Pepper Update and Other Stuff
Aren't these pretty? I gathered up all the red peppers I could find, and put them in the oven to dry. I just spread them out on a sheet pan and leave them in the oven with the light on, not the heating element. It works well enough on the thinner ones, but I'm skeptical whether the thick ones will dry before they rot. Time will tell.
I ransacked my kitchen to see what chile-containing products I could discover, and wrote them up over on my food blog. I don't have as many as I thought I did, but it's a fairly diverse collection. Thanks for the idea, Ki.
Did you see today's NY Times article about the giant pumpkin growers, er, I mean growers of giant pumpkins? Buried at the end of the article is a very interesting point. Miracle-Gro is out of fashion with these folks. These behemoths are grown using sea kelp, compost tea, and mycorrhizal inoculant! And another thing - the growers don't mind drought. They prefer the degree of control they get with irrigation.
Drought. How dry is it here? Well we're not in as much trouble yet as, say, Atlanta. But the official records for Washington DC are measured at National Airport, and this is what the National Weather Service had to say this morning:
...RECORD TIED OFFICIALLY AT WASHINGTON FOR CONSECUTIVE DAYS WITHOUT
MEASURABLE RAIN YESTERDAY...
THE RECORD FOR THE LONGEST CONSECUTIVE DAYS WITHOUT MEASURABLE
RAINFALL AT WASHINGTON REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT HAS BEEN TIED. THE
PREVIOUS RECORD OF 33 STRAIGHT DAYS WITHOUT MEASURABLE RAIN WAS SET
FROM AUGUST 7TH TO SEPTEMBER 8TH 1995. THE CURRENT STRETCH BEGAN ON
SEPTEMBER 15TH.
THERE IS A CHANCE THE RECORD COULD BE BROKEN TODAY...ALTHOUGH THERE
IS A SLIGHT CHANCE FOR ISOLATED RAIN SHOWERS ACROSS THE MID ATLANTIC
REGION LATER TODAY. RAIN CHANCES WILL INCREASE AS A COLD FRONT
APPROACHES THE AREA ON FRIDAY.
DAILY RAINFALL RECORDS IN WASHINGTON DATE BACK 137 YEARS TO 1871.
RAINFALL STARTS TO MEASURE AT ONE HUNDREDTH OF AN INCH.
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.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Hearts and Flowers
Happy Valentine's Day! I brought you flowers. This is a genuine unretouched photo of the azalea plant I was recently complaining about. I guess I'll keep it a while longer. Behind the azalea, through the dining room window, you can see our latest reminder of winter. Our snow storm sleet storm ice storm precipitation event left everything looking like a freezer in need of defrosting. No transparent ice glaze; no sparkly snow; just this white crusty mess. I think we got every type of frozen precipitation there is, except hail. This is the best photo I could manage of the crud. eeeYEWwww! But while trying to find something pretty to take a picture of, I stepped on a daffodil bud. Just a few more weeks to go.
Labels: azaleas, seasons, weather
Friday, February 02, 2007
Groundhog Day
Hmmm, what if it's neither sunny nor overcast on Groundhog Day? Does that mean we're getting only 3 more weeks of winter? And I wonder if the Groundhog Indicator is only valid in the early morning?
This is the sky about the time of sunrise this morning. Then we had a beautiful diffuse golden glow. Then we had sleet (honestly!). Then the sun came out. Now it's overcast. The birds sang through it all. I first noticed a cardinal singing in the morning about 10 days ago, and other birds are joining in now - more every day.
Whether the Groundhog is right or wrong, I still like the idea of beginning the seasons on Cross Quarter Days. This year, the actual astronomical cross-quarter day known as Imbolc, Candlemas, Groundhog Day, Risshun, and probably others, coincides with that great American traditional end-of-winter celebration known as the Super Bowl.
Go Bears! (Some of them are even nice guys.)
Friday, December 29, 2006
Whoosh!
What was that?!?!?
That thing that just went by?
That was December.
Join me in Janaury for Snowdrop Watch. The warm winter (so far) has them fooled. I have a very silly Scilla in bloom already.
Happy New Year to All!
(first thing I've been early for this year)
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Wild Weather Postscript
Just after I wrote the previous post, I looked out the window and saw parts of my cold frame scattered around the backyard. I told you it was windy. I was actually very surprised because that cold frame has survived countless storms. So, I went out and tried to pick up the pieces. I got all the big ones, but I think I'm missing some important connectors. The plants which were in the cold frame (florist's azaleas and some newly planted seeds of various things) have joined the Cupheas in the garage. It's getting crowded in there.
Labels: cold frame, weather
Friday, December 01, 2006
Wild Weather
Windy, very windy! Just decided to take a break from watching the neighbors' unraked leaves blow into my laboriously raked yard. I hope when the wind shifts later this afternoon, they all go back into the neighbors' yards.
But our weather is positively tame compared with what the Midwest is getting. I wonder how many snowflakes it takes to make, say, 12" of snow over an average sized city? The answer might be somewhere on this site, if one had the time to go through it all. Individually, snowflakes are so pretty. Some of them even look like flowers. Like this one, for instance. And this one looks a lot like Ipheion uniflorum to me.
I'm choosing to ignore winter this year. Yesterday, I bought some hardy (I hope) plants to replant the containers on my front steps for the season. I got white heather (in bloom), creeping cotoneaster (with berries), and variegated English ivy. I promise not to let the ivy escape into the wild, assuming it lives through the winter. If the containers turn out looking like anything at all, I'll post pictures, otherwise forget I said anything.
I'm too late for the Garden Bloggers' Book Club, but I hope to post my review of The Essential Earthman next week. I plan to be on time for December's selection. I don't want to read any of the other reviews before I write mine, so it's time for me to get offline before I'm tempted.
Labels: books, plants for winter, weather
