Tangled Branches: Cultivated

happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia

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'
Tulips are blooming in my garden! I planted these very close to the road in hopes that the critters would find it an inconvenient place to eat. The strategy worked long enough to take a picture, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

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
Agastache foeniculum 'Golden Jubliee' produces golden babies, even when planted next to the plain green species.

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!

Labels: in bloom, weather

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.

Labels: peppers, weather

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.

Labels: snow, weather

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.)

Labels: seasons, weather

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)

Labels: bulbs, weather

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

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