In the continuing saga of adjusting my gardening skills and plant palette from coastal southern California to Sierra foothills, I have this observation. This year is cold. Algore notwithstanding, for me and my garden, global warming is a crock.
It has been just above freezing every night for over a week now. No frost in the morning and no snow yet (our last snow was in February and broke our African Sumac). Interestingly, one of my early cymbidiums is blooming. The poor things are so confused by the weather here but somehow this one pot got it right. This is exactly the time it would have bloomed in SoCal. Between the super hot summers and the super cold (relative to SoCal) winters, I probably should just give up and find something that will grow here but I am a stubborn cuss and will keep growing them so long as they continue to cope.
I continue to be surprized by my Brugmansia. I thought it would be among the first of my SoCal plants to succomb. Not so. In fact, there is a one which I see hanging over the fence down the hill that seems quite happy here. My plan is to plant my large potted brugmansia in the ground in my back yard. I rooted some cuttings from the big plant in late summer for backup. The ones from hard wood rooted nicely but the softwood cuttings failed to root. I have two small ones in reserve. The large one got infested with some bug or other. It amazes me that a poisonis plant can fall victim to bugs. The leaves got spotted and the new growth was covered with webs. Spraying with the stuff I use on my roses reduced it but did not eliminate it. I am not confident about planting it but intend to proceed. I missed the good planting time before it got cold so I will wait now until at least March.
My next project is to find a replacement for Agapanthis. Whey does anyone plant them here in hot Sacramento? They look awful in the Summer heat with their crispy brown leaves. I am thinking about a small Aloe of some sort or maybe Kniphofia.
The catalogues have started coming so I can begin my garden fantasies for 2007.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment