“We’ll just have to wait and see.” That’s what the state’s chief horticulturist says. In his weekly newspaper column and the weekly e-mails he sends out, he answers questions about plants and landscaping and garden care. What he says in, at least one of those outlets each week, is that “we’ll just have to wait and see,” how the perennial/annual plants and trees and lawns will come back (or not) in our landscapes.
My next door neighbor has two epic Live Oak trees. The horticulturist has said, after that giant sleet, snow, and ice storm we had, we should give our Live Oaks the time they need to heal. We don’t have Live Oak trees. We have a big crepe myrtle, and a pecan that’s lost as many small limbs as those crepe myrtles. Both of those trees are probably able to regroup and live!
“We will just have to wait and see.”
Meanwhile, we have some other kinds of plants, and almost all of them have rebounded. Like these:
I can see the still somewhat small, but older, living plants, and then the lower plants which aren’t even trying to make it. (And, don’t be fooled by all the green, green, healthy plants. Those are daisies.)
These plants are a little hard to see well. There are three that are growing back, green and full. Then, in between those good plants, there are some broken down-to-sticks plants. The broken down ones have died off completely, even though the living plants have become found. They are Turk’s Caps. I was at a lovely nursery recently, and an employee has been explaining the growing habits of these plants. I found a pink variety of them, but, couldn’t purchase them, because I’m not sure which ones I’d planted. I know there were three red ones and three pink ones. And, apparently, one kind is much more winter tolerant than the other.
Check later, to see which ones really are winter tolerant.
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- Look what I found on these verbenas! It’s a Monarch. I haven’t seen a Monarch butterfly around here for ages.
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- This is a Viceroy butterfly. Look straight to the right from the butterfly, and there’s a bee, who is not paying ANY attention to the butterfly.
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- Many of the thyme plants have delicate white flowers. Bees like that, too.
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- The yellow yarrow is starting to bloom.
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- This is an Autumn Gold fern. It doesn’t usually change this much. I’m attributing it to that big ol’ snow and freeze we had.
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- This is Salad Burnett, which grows in my herb garden. See that reddish thing at the botom center. That’s a flower. It has NEVER, EVER bloomed before. Until this year.
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- I’ve had Apple Mint growing in this planter for a few years.
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- It never, ever has grown so lushly in so short a time.
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- This is Asian Jasmine, which I’ve grown for quite a while. There were quite a few empty spaces, after the Big Freeze. When the tree guys came to trim the hedges, I asked what they thought the prognosis was, and they said, “It’s not looking too good.” They were wrong! It’s filling in again.
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- These yellow roses have been planted in this bed for YEARS. They’ve done all right. So-so. Apparently, it took a giant ice storm to make them sit up and take notice and do their part.
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- This is the fifth (the last remaining) Nandina plant, who is finally getting with the program.
I have said to David that he should NOT buy me any birthday gifts, or Mother’s Day gifts. I have spent quite a lot on plants. And potting soil. And plant food. I should start thinking more carefully about perennials instead of annuals.