IT'S A SMALL MIRACLE

Today I turned my attention towards the garden. My poor neglected garden. How could I have left it for so many weeks to endure one of the coldest winters we have had in a long time. The blankets that I use to cover cold sensitive plants lay in a pile in the potting shed. I had to trust my greenhouse heater to a never-yet-tested thermocube which is supposed to switch on the heater when the temperature dips to 34°

Maybe it did switch on because the Kalanchoe, Mother of Thousands is in bloom. Admittedly it is growing in the cactus bowl and was sorely in need of water, but after a day the flowers have perked up and I can enjoy their welcome burst of color for a few days.

There are, however, many losses in the garden. This Agave desmettiana, for instance, is only hardy to 25° and I know it went way lower than that.

There is damage on the Mangave, 'macho mocha' which is a surprise as it is in a sheltered part of the front courtyard. Hopefully new growth in the summer will hide the damage.

But I am even more surprised to see frost damage on Agave parryi.

I never have known the name of this agave but apparently it shrugged off the winter cold. I have a larger one in a pot that I will plant in the ground this spring.
But casting aside the damage there is much to look forward to. I see seedlings popping up everywhere.
Outside the potting-shed door I have a seedling nursery with Rose campion, Lychoris radiata.

They are now potted up so they can grow on ready for planting in the garden.

And there are larkspur,

bluebonnets,

California poppies,

columbine,

snapdragon vine, all waiting for someone to move them into a garden bed!

and today a real sign that spring might be on the way after yet another sub 32° temperature tonight.

GARDEN BLOGGERS' BLOOM DAY FEB,15th 2013

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day already! If I hadn't spotted someone else posting about their bloom day I would likely have missed it. So in haste....

The iris are still blooming and every time I walk by the peach iI smell her subtle fragrance.

There is a wonderful fragrance from the Meyer lemon blossoms as they begin their first bloom cycle.

Look how many there are to come.

The longest lasting flowers I know are on the Mother of Thousands. I had some cut flowers in the house and they lasted over 3 weeks. These are in the greenhouse.

A few blooms on the drought stricken Carolina jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens.

Ipheion

Summer snowflakes, Leucojum

Viburnum 'spring bouquet'

And daisy fleabane.
There are lots of violas and stocks but these were fairly recent purchases so not included here.
Hope you are having a great bloom day. Hop on over to our hostess Carol at May Dreams  to see what is blooming in other gardens around the world.

JANUARY IN THE GARDEN

On this beautiful January day I took a break from pruning to photograph the blooms that had, in my absence, missed Bloom Day.

This is the first time my yellow bulbine, Bulbine frutescens, has survived and bloomed with great vigor in January. Admittedly it is in a sheltered spot against the wall of the house and protected from the frost, which rolls down the hill, by the high retaining wall. A deep freeze would have killed the South African plant but I think what it really liked was a dry winter, and that it has been.

The viburnum,Viburnum tinus Spring Bouquet, in the English garden, looked as though it would not produce blooms this winter but here it is. It really looks its best before the flowers open as the pink turns to white once the flowers open.
 I am concerned for our spring wildflowers. For the first time ever I have not one bluebonnet in my sunken garden and only a handful in the front garden. So many times I have been annoyed by being unable to walk though the area for bluebonnets, but now I have only two or three plants and they are right under the little table! Did they hear my grumbles?

This was the front garden in early April, 2011. I think I may need to do a little transplanting from the outside. I find I do need bluebonnets after all.

Another first for me is the bloom on the kalanchoe, mother-of-thousands. While other gardeners show off their pretty blooms mine seems to reproduce without blooming. Hundreds of babies along the edges of the leaf but not a single bloom-until this year. Maybe I really stressed it out by forgetting to bring it in from the cold. Returning home from our trip I discovered the plant had succumbed to frosty nights. The plant itself is a gonner but by golly the blooms were still there so I cut them off and brought them inside. No need to worry about new plants here. Their offspring is growing in every pot I have!
Spring will not be far behind if we continue to have the unusually high temperatures of the past week. I remember attending a gardening seminar shortly after I came to Austin, where the lecturer warned about feeling the warm sun on the back of the neck in early February and rushing out to the nurseries to buy and plant annuals. Just what the nursery business wants. A freeze comes and wipes them out and now you have to buy again. Oh! but it is so hard to hold oneself back when the days are warm and balmy.