It Seems Winter is Here

It's 48 degrees at the moment, but the forecast is for another cold night. It was in the 30's this morning, but the weather did the classic Atlanta thing and warmed up quickly. My transplanted Bostonian attitude has kicked in as I hear shoppers talking about the "snow coming to Atlanta!" (Translated as perhaps a semi-frozen flake in the midst of the rain tomorrow morning.) Quick! Let's all run out and buy toilet paper and milk! (I've never understood why these are the two things that we MUST have in our homes during a blizzard.....I'd rather have brownies, ice cream and cognac if I'm being snowed in).

In the garden, it's amazing what difference comes in a week. Here are a few shots from this week.

From the top: This camellia was hidden for ten years behind one of the arborvitaes that was cut down a couple of weeks ago. It's amazing what a little sun will do for a flower!

The mustards and chards are taking on incredible color as the weather chills.

The creeping fig looks so beautiful at this time of year when the asparagus is down for the winter.

The fatsia japonica with its "Sputnik"-like blooms

It looks like snow, but it's just a view through the elderly Autumn Cherry.

Bake some brownies and light the fireplace!

The Battle of the Fragrances

It's been in the high 60's and mid 70's for the past several days, and as much as I know that we'll get zapped with at least one more good cold blast, I can't help but be in the garden as much as possible. Everything is budding, I'm popping Claritin, and I can finally see the warmth on the horizon.

Yesterday I was at the big house cutting back the Jurrasic Park-sized Fatsia japonica, and walked on a path that goes between the house and the garage. As a result of the warm weather, there are just dozens of white Dutch hyacinths blooming there. We planted them last fall in three rows in front of the gardenias which will bloom later; in fact I mixed the white (L'Innocence) with a butter yellow (City of Haarlem), but only the white are blooming so far. In any case, the fragrance is so awesome I kept making excuses to take that path again.

When I got home, I had to pass the Daphne Odora which is planted at the base of the front steps. It is my favorite miserable plant (I'm sure it will up and die any day now), but while it's in bloom, there is nothing better! The fresh, almost citrusy fragrance is such a welcome note in the early spring.

Once in the house I opened the kitchen window, and was met with the most wonderful fragrance from the Burkwood Viburnum that is planted outside that window. It's really nothing to look at, and I honestly planted it because it was inexpensive and would form a hedge between me and a neighbor's yard; the early spring fragrance is another one that is pretty amazing! This is one that you need to have in your garden, and keep it somewhere fairly close to the house where you can enjoy the fragrance before real gardening season starts.

Back out to the garden again, still working to clean up some of the mountain of leaves that have fallen over the winter.......and to see what else is blooming!

The Morning After

At this moment it's still just 19 degrees in suburban Atlanta, which is crazy cold for this part of the world; the forecast of temperatures reaching into the low 40's today has me optimistic that there is hope on the horizon, though.

The good part of the cold weather is that I'm not working in the garden until around noon, so I have an unexpected relaxed morning. Sadie the dog and I took a long leisurely stroll around the neighborhood, for her the opportunity to sniff every new aroma that might have landed on the ground in the past 48 hours -- for me a chance to enjoy the sun and check out how things fared during this cold blast.

The Fatsia outside my dining room window is completely bowing down in the cold, almost as though it is huddled there in a coat of its own giant leaves; whenever it goes down into the 20's this particular shrub behaves that way, and it's always cool to watch it start to open up and stretch again when the sun comes out. By this afternoon it will be right back to its usual pseudo-tropical look. The Daphne Odora near the front steps looks just fine, but I'm sure this cold is going to delay the exposion of color and fragrance that I expected by this weekend.....based upon the nature of Daphne, I'm always pleased to see it still alive!

The Flowering Quince (Chaenomeles speciosa "Toyo Nishiki," pictured above) is completely covered with buds, making me happy it's planted in a place that keeps it a couple of weeks behind those of some friends. Their's were in full bloom this past week, and probably now zapped by the freeze. Every summer as it tears the skin on my legs with its vicious thorns, this quince is referred to as "that horrible bush," but in winter it's the star of the mixed border. Perhaps it will stay for another year....