Zanthan Gardens
Week by Week in the Garden: Week 07: 2/12-2/18

February 19th, 2010
Week 07: 2/12-2/18

2010-02-18. Here’s something you don’t see often in our drought-stricken land: a mossy bank. We are on heavy clay which is now saturated with rain.

Dateline: 2010

Austin’s unusually cold and wet winter/spring seems even more so in contrast with the last two drought years. Both the garden and I have been under the weather all February. The sun came out for a couple of days this week but I didn’t get much done. I lacked the stamina to deal with the cold and wind. Although I’m way behind in my chores (this is normally my busiest season), I feel that this drizzly weather has given me permission to take a break. A season of rest and reflection is something I often envy. So rather than fret about what isn’t getting done in the garden, I’m cultivating other pleasures.

This has been a slow spring. The big freeze of January 2010 killed the buds or flowering stalks of the various paperwhite and tazetta narcissus which would normally be in flower. It killed off the already flowering false dayflowers and snapdragons. And what I thought would be very early flowering cilantro and larkspur also froze (not the whole plants, just the bloom stalks). The mahonia didn’t flower this year at all; I think bud formation fell victim to the drought. The only flowers happily on schedule are the common selfsown: henbit, chickweed, dandelions, and sow thistles.

To compare, this week in 2009 I had roses and narcissus blooming at the same time. The arugula was bolting and the English peas about to give into the heat. The Jerusalem sage was flowering and the the duranta was still flowering from 2008.

The Mexican plums which have bloomed as early as January 29th, finally opened one flower (2/18). That tied the date for 2004 and missed the all time record for the latest first flower (2/19) made in 2002. I haven’t seen any sign of my most reliable harbinger of spring, the redbuds. I always look for them on Valentine’s Day.

I’m still cleaning up freeze-dried plants. I cut back the duranta which flowered throughout last winter and had reached a height of about 8 feet. They are dead to the ground now. Whether they will resprout from their roots is yet to be seen. The leaves on the oleanders are completely dead but the branches feel flexible and springy. This is a good opportunity to cut them back to size which I find hard to do when they are green and covered with buds. I also cut back the leafless vitex last month. I still need to prune back the crape myrtles, the rose of Sharon, and the Texas persimmon (which has never lost all its leaves before).

The roses, especially ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ and ‘New Dawn’ are covered with new leaf buds. They love this extra moisture; unfortunately so does black spot. I stripped last year’s leaves off the roses and cut back old canes.

In the vegetable garden the first English pea flowered. Last year at this time, they were producing well and by the end of February I had to pull them out because temperatures hit the 80s. I just got around to ordering my tomato seeds this week. This is much too late and I’ll probably have to buy tomato starts, too. Now that Gardens has closed, I’ve lost my favorite source of unusual varieties.

First flower: Pisum sativum ‘Progress #9″ (2/16); Prunus mexicana (2/18).

Dateline 2009 via Twitter

2008-02-19. Narcissus ‘Ice Follies’ started blooming yesterday.

Austin finally got some rain (2/16) and Sunday (2/17) was one of those rare perfect days: sunny with all the plants glistening with raindrops, temperatures near 70F and little wind. We spent the afternoon busily trimming back trees and brush before it buds out, which will be any day now. Already the Mexican plum and the redbuds are flowering. And that means one thing in Austin. Spring done sprung!

Following Carol’s lead, I set up Twitter in my sidebar. This is more for my own record-keeping than for public consumption but y’all can see whether I’m an ant or a bumblebee. I spent a lot of the week planting seeds and transplanting seedlings or perennials I’d grown from cuttings. The yard is still a mess from last year’s unfinished construction project and I want it to be somewhat presentable for Spring Fling visitors.

We harvested our first lettuce and salad greens to make a salad for our Valentine’s Day dinner. The chard is harvestable but we haven’t had any yet. I planted borage and what was left in the lettuce packets. I have more chard packets to plant and I still haven’t put in a seed order.

First flower: Prunus mexicana (2/13); Narcissus tazetta ‘Grand Primo’ (2/13); Cercis canadensis (2/14); Narcissus ‘Ice Follies’ (2/18).

Dateline: 2007

When I fretted last week that spring was too soon coming and I wasn’t ready for it, I had no idea that the weather would respond by hitting us with the two coldest days this winter. In fact, Wednesday (2/14), I gathered up the sheets and blankets I use to cover the plants whenever we get a frosty night, washed them and put them away. Thursday afternoon I was rushing around to put them out again.

By Friday morning we’d dipped down to 25F degrees and everything was frozen solid. The violas, the peas, the cabbages all thawed out a few hours later. I should have covered the lettuce, though. The cherry tomato finally succumbed. And I was surprised that the St. Joseph’s lily (a hardy amaryllis) froze to the ground, as did the crinum. Today we were back up in the high 60s and I spent the day in the garden manuring trees and shrubs. I also yanked out my ‘Peace’ rose which didn’t bloom at all last year and had died back to the graft.

My robin, which I haven’t seen for a couple of years, is back. Maybe it only hangs around when the winters are particularly fierce up north.

My big question this week is “Where have all the flowers gone.” Looking at my records for February I see I’m not wrong in expecting daffodils, redbuds, Texas mountain laurel, plum trees, summer snowflakes, the tradescantias, and even some rose bushes to be flowering by week 7. This year. Nada. Zilch.

I suspect the culprit is last year’s drought rather than the cold. We’ve had a pretty mild winter and a much wetter one than last year. But from fall 2005 to January 2007 it was very, very dry. Our lakes are still only at half capacity.

First flower: Narcissus ‘Grand Primo’ (one stalk) (2/17).

Flowering: viola, rosemary, mahonia, 1 lone larkspur, Narcissus italicus, snow peas, Mexican plum (just a couple of flowers), henbit, Meyer lemon (potted).

Dateline: 2006

After a record high (82F) on Thursday (2/17) temperatures plunged 40 degrees overnight and continued falling all day Friday. Icy rain is predicted for the weekend. This was a disappointing development for the hubby who is running in his first marathon on Sunday. However, I don’t have any worries about the plants. This is typical February weather in Austin.

Around town the Texas mountain laurel, redbuds, paperwhites, and even Indian hawthorn are blooming. And Metroblogging Austin reports ‘Ice Follies’ on schedule. Not in my yard. However, the rose ‘Ducher’ is still doing fine and one of the Mexican plum trees has a scattering of flowers. More lavender is coming into bloom.

New garden blogs are sprouting: I’ve enjoyed comparing notes with fellow Central Austin gardener, Pam Penick, in her blog Digging. She and I both started gardening here in 1994. She’s much better at carrying out her design projects than I am!

Dateline: 2005

2005-02-22. ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’.

I always expect to see the first redbud in bloom by Valentine’s Day. So far, I haven’t seen one. However on Valentine’s Day and the Tuesday after, temperatures soared to 80. On Wednesday it was a of lovely, more normal, spring day with a high of 62. But instead of weeding, I walked over to the Eyes Wide Open exhibit at Zilker Park. But the week ended cold and rainy again.

The roses that froze in the bud around Christmas are putting out their first display. ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ began blooming on February 6th, and this week has quite a few flowers. Hah! She beat the spring cankerworms this year! ‘Madame Joseph Schwartz’ and ‘Ducher’ have a smattering of flowers. ‘Blush Noisette’ opened her first flowers of the year on February 17th. The real beauty this week is my neighbor’s ‘Mutabilis’ which is throwing a cascade of multi-colored blossoms over the chain link fence.

Spring bulbs are pushing up. The summer snowflakes began blooming on February 14th; the ‘Ice Follies‘ daffodils, on February 17th. The N. ‘Grand Primo’ is in full bloom. And a few N. x italicus are hanging on.

Like the redbuds, the Mexican plums are in limbo. There is a blossom here and there, but not enough to make you stare in amazement. Oh, and one little pink (Dianthus chinensis) bloomed. I planted a couple of six-packs of winter annuals in October 2000 and, although greatly decreased in number, the survivors hav. kept on blooming. Some annual!

Dateline: 2004

This year Valentine’s Day meant snow!

Dateline: 2003

Valentine’s Day means that Spring is officially here in Austin. True, we still have another month to go until our last official frost-free date. But the garden isn’t waiting around. Everywhere you look, the signs of spring are evident. You have to go and look for them, but they are there.

Everyday something new is happening. In Austin, this is the time of year when you can work all day in the garden and still have as many things to do at the end of the day as at the beginning.

This has been a very wet winter and mostly mild. We’ve only had a couple of hard freezes but they blew out quickly. The largest Mexican plum tree is in full flower The ‘Ice Follies‘ daffodils began blooming on the 12th and the ‘Quail’ followed on the 14th. There are still ‘Grand Primo blooming, so there is a nice overlap. The summer snowflakes began blooming last week and are just now starting to make a show. The first crocuses opened on the 13th. One bluebonnet is blooming.

Dateline: 2002

The redbuds are blooming. The early daffodils are blooming (so far, two ‘Quail’ and two ‘Ice Follies’). Even the ‘Trevithian’ daffodils are sending up buds this year. The Crocus tomasinianus are blooming. Today three summer snowflakes opened. I see buds on the bluebonnets and some larkspur are sending up flower spikes. All the roses are beginning to open their bud eyes and a few (‘Ducher’, ‘Heritage’, and ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’) have the odd flower. The Asiatic lilies are poking through the mulch.

by M Sinclair Stevens