February weather & gifts

So far the winter season of 2016-2017 has been quite mild.  Very little snow; none in January.  And now a significant thaw in February with high temperatures reaching the 50s and low 60s.  Lots of our early spring flowering shrubs are exhibiting bud swelling, and one witch hazel is already in flower.  Snowdrops are in bloom in a neighboring garden, but again none of this is too extraordinary given the mild temperatures.  However if it's too mild for too long in February, cold weather in March will be quite damaging.  Several shrubs in our gardens have been planted in shady areas deliberately to forestall early flowering because these species tend to flower at the first thaw and then get frozen.  Rather have them flowering late than getting frozen. 
Hopeless romantic that he is TPP was constrained by his wife's wishes regarding any gifts for Valentine's day: don't buy me anything sweet and fattening; don't buy me any flowers (we have several things in flower now); and just back from a vacation doesn't leave her in a mood for dining out (yet).  But yet a guy wants to show his affection, so what better than a new implement of destruction/gardening tool?  Buy candy in a heart-shaped box if you must, fellows, but getting her a new garden toy that looks very mean, that's a show of affection.  If you garden you probably recognize the brand; it isn't shown or mentioned because of our non-endorsement policy (they haven't offered to pay!). If you can't do something useful with this bad boy, you don't have much of a garden. Having a reversible handle usually means the "lefty" can use it OK.

February - tough month for gardeners and recent retirees

The most recent snow missed us (too bad), and now another cold front has settled upon the upper midwest. It looks grimly cold outside. This is a tough month for gardeners psychologically, and physically with limited exercise, but things are even worse for non-gardeners. As a recent retiree, people keep asking if TPP is OK, enjoying retirement, and keeping busy? Yes, yes, yes. There is a great thing about being a plant-loving, gardening botanist which is that you cannot actually find the demarcation between your work and personal life. So, when gardening is bleak and impossible, TPP turns to curation work and plants growing in the glass houses, and other things. And even now arrangements are being made for the purchase of a new Scaidopitys to replace the one that died from the summer drought in 2013. And of course, sort of conflicting with gardening, field research continues, although at this stage its just preparing for the field so seeds are being vernalized and seedlings have been brought out of cold storage. Lastly when you get stone cold bored, you can always blog, or cook, or do home improvement projects for you know who. So, no question about it, TPP finds plenty to keep himself busy and amused. An encounter with an unfortunate colleague demonstrated the problem some recent retirees have. He doesn't garden, cook, or do anything domestic; his research was expensive and the grants dried up, and students did all the work anyways, and someone else will be assigned the lab space. He said he found himself sitting at home watching TV and he realized how pathetic that was, but still hasn't found anything to keep himself amused, which is why he was hanging around the dept office talking with people. The lesson here is that everyone should garden; you always have something to do even if it's just reading seed/plant catalogs and browsing through nursery web sites waiting for February to pass.

Spring has sprung, almost - in February?

Here in the upper midwest February has been a winter month for as long as the Phactor can, uh, uh, oh, something, period.  And both my faithful PC and my fancy satellite-signal updating watch say today is the 17th of February, and the high today will be 50F.  The earliest any plant has ever flowered in the Phactors' gardens, not counting the silly chickweed which is already in flower, is March 1st.  On the route to work a favorite hedgerow, long neglected, is filled with snowdrops and aconite, and they are in full bloom, an event always ahead of the Phactors' shady gardens.  The tens of thousands of scilla that will turn our yard blue are poking up everywhere along with all the other early bulbs.  Still witchhazel usually wins the trophy for earliest in bloom.  It's going to take quite a bit of mental resetting, maybe by satellite signal, to start thinking of February as spring.  A terrifying thought just occurred; field research will start earlier than ever and overlap even more of the semester!  How to ruin a decent morning's late winter revery.  Pass the seed catalogues and a margarita, please, and we'll see if we can adjust. 

Distant Memories - Six Months Ago

Think about it. Six months ago it was February 3d, and this photo was taken out of our front door. July has a way of making you forget about February. Suppose if we didn't we'd move to a more reasonable climate. So having forgotten the snow, the Phactor did typical enough summer things. A relatively new to this area invasive species, the Japanese beetle, has emerged, maybe not in as many numbers as two years ago, so the dwarf apple trees were netted up, and while at it so were the cucumbers. Around here just about the time your cucumbers begin bearing fruit, cucumber beetles show up, and while not particularly destructive themselves, they vector a bacterial wilt that kills your cucumber vines prematurely. Since they were planted late to begin with, keeping the cucumber vines out of the reach of beetles until they begin flowering, but then because pollination is needed, you have to provide insect access unless you like hand-pollinating lots of flowers, which in a garden on our scale is feasible. The herb garden, some of the more recently planted trees and shrubs, and the Japanese parasol pine (Scaidopitys) all got watered because they handle these hot days best when well watered. Having gotten through the "to do" list for the day, it's time for a margarita.

A Lame Holiday in February

Someone somewhere, but no one knows who, declared Tuesday February 22nd National Margarita Day. Nothing would please the Phactor more than to celebrate one of his favorite beverages, for which he has generously provided you with a tippler's recipe, but this holiday is just plain lame. You simply can not drink margaritas inside or in weather where you cannot sit outside wearing a Hawaiian shirt. It isn't done, at least not in the best circles, and personally, we do not travel elsewhere, and with perceptive and sophisticated readers, perhaps this is preaching to the choir. So what kind of dolt decided a day in February, a month whose only redeeming feature is brevity, would be a good time to celebrate the best uses of lime juice and tequila, either separately or combined? Clearly they are not of the northern temperate zone, and the southern temperate zone, what there is of it, has just never caught on to margaritas. Officially summer here begins when the Phactors can come home from work, sit on their patio, gaze at their botanical creation, and sip a margarita. Yesterday there were snow flurries, and you can't even have those in the same sentence with. Margaritas. Unless you are one of those low-life, low-class no-nothings who actually drink those abominations called "frozen margaritas". A shiver just ran down my spine and it had nothing to do with the cold. This holiday will be celebrated when the Phactor says it can be celebrated! So don't put all your salt on the sidewalks.

Berry-go-Round #25 - A Valentine for Plant Lovers

Wow, where did the week go? Here's the February round up of plant blogs, Berry-go-Round #25, a virtual valentine for plant lover's over at Foothills Fancies. Life is like a box of chocolates.