Mears Garden news April 10, 2012 Dark Cloud

April 10, 2012
Dark cloud.
In the midst of the glory of the blooming trees, bluebells and everything else, there is/has been this dark cloud.
It’s the F words. Frost and Freeze. In the wake of our historic warm winter and early spring, cooler temperatures have finally appeared. You see them coming in the 10 day forecast. The numbers slowly creep lower. Anxiety increases.
Last week we brushed up against a freeze, with frost appearing down the street.
Now we have upper 20’s in the immediate future/present casting a pall (what is a pall?) on the joy of the spring color.
I have always said there are questions you like to have asked and those you don’t. You like the question of which flower will be amazing. You don’t like to ask which plants will die when the temperature gets to what temperature.
Mostly we worry about frosts/freezes in the fall. At that point the plants at most risk are the impatients and the peppers. My experience is that those plants will toast at 31.
I know that some early hosta will toast at 25. It seems that everyone I know understands the analogy to the lettuce that gets in the too cold part of the refrigerator. Yuk.
Some hosta, like the wonderful Montana aureo marginata, are known for toasting in the early spring. My glorious Montanas are completely up and unfurled at this point. I didn’t cover them Monday night when it got to 30. I will probably cover several this evening, when it is again going into the upper 20’s. I will do that if I can bear going out amongst the doomed. Maybe I will think of it as a controlled experiment.

Update- It is Tuesday night and now the forecast shows it dipping down to 25. Oh my.


But let me give you pictures.
For your voting pleasure this week here are several gems from this week’s garden.

First here is this wonderful little bearded iris. I really like the sometimes odd color combinations.

Second is the aforementioned Montana, in with the bluebells.

Next is this mutated lily of the valley. I have one plant, obtained as a gift last year. I understand that like many mutations, it is not very vigorous (it doesn’t spread) and it is likely to revert to the plain green after a few years. What a combination. It is still a fun plant to find in the garden.

Finally here is one of the late daffodils, called Sun disc. It’s foliage is similar to wild onions. Again it is one of those fun flowers that puts a smile on your face.



Here are other pictures from the garden this week. The other hosta is the queen of the hosta at the moment, Liberty. If you have only one hosta in your garden it should be Liberty. More about hosta later in the spring.


These next two pictures are hosta Liberty.


Here is a duck. This past weekend two ducks came by and decided that our pond would be a nice place to spend time. While this is a pleasant thought they would eat the fish and pull up the plants. So I got to chase them. It was probably an amusing sight.



That’s it for this late post.
Philip