After the frost
‘Carefree Beauty,’ burned by frost
December’s Bloom Day arrived just in time for this Austin garden. Early in the morning on the 16th and 17th, central Austin received its first light freeze (30 degrees F). By yesterday morning, the dozens of flowers and buds on the front-garden roses, ‘Carefree Beauty’ and ‘Belinda’s Dream,’ looked like this.
The freeze curled the leaves and dimmed the color on the frost-tender salvias, like this Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha ).
The hardworking narrowleaf zinnia gave up the ghost.
And the orange-red flowers on the cigar plant (Cuphea ignea ) shriveled and darkened into narrow tubes of Christmas-red.
Salvia leucantha and Miscanthus sinensis ‘Yaku Jima’ now display a quieter beauty.
The garden looks more seasonally appropriate now—less like autumn and more like winter. I know this probably looks like fall (maybe summer!) to gardeners digging out of snowdrifts and watching the ice melt, but we never get the stark, white-and-black winter landscapes familiar to Northerners. Our brief winters are much greener.
Anyway, it’s not winter yet, of course, and we’re back in the 70s as I write this post.
I’m not weeping for the burned roses. The frost tread more lightly in the sheltered back garden, and the roses there are still fresh. And there’s plenty of green in the front garden to keep it interesting after a freeze. Here you see a variegated agave given to me by MSS, plus a mature weeping yaupon (Ilex vomitoria ‘Pendula’), heavy with red berries.
My “hedge” of bamboo muhly (Muhlenbergia dumosa ) is still green and lush. A hard freeze will render this clumping grass straw-colored, but not yet.
My potted amaryllis from Target is budding. A beautiful Christmas bloom will be here soon.
All material © 2006-2007 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Your poor garden got quite a jolt it looks like. Thankfully it will be able to rebound quickly. We are watching the snow and ice melt here. I really must try another amarylllis sometime. They are such cheerful plants.
Jolts are fairly common at this time of year. The native and other well-adapted plants handle these ups and downs with aplomb. It’s the tropicals that can’t take the cold, and yet a lot of Austinites plant them because they work great in our hot summers. I have a few semi-tropicals in my own garden, in protected locations. But a really hard freeze could still get them. It’s all about taking chances for the love of certain plants, isn’t it? —Pam
And yet, still beautiful. That bamboo muhly is awesome. I’m sure you’ve shown it to us before, yet I don’t remember. Do you use anything to balance that fine texture? Or is that unnecessary? Fine texture is tricky, imo.
Is/was an annual narrow-leaf zinnia? I ask because it looks like it got really big. Zinnias don’t usually get so big where I am.
Oh yeah, I show off the bamboo muhly every chance I get. I’m in love with this feathery grass. I should probably do more to balance the fine texture, but I generally just use this muhly as a background plant. It has wonderful movement like other grasses, and that chartreuse color really stands out. For my hedge along the fence, I keep it trimmed and fairly tidy, but I let it loose in the naturalistic back garden, where it develops a more vase-like shape. I believe it’s native to Arizona, and it’s drought-tolerant and works great with broad-leaved agaves, but it’ll take partial shade too.
Yes, the narrowleaf zinnia is an annual. I’ve only seen it in orange or white, and I plant a single white one every year by the ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave. It gets about 2′ wide by 8″ tall—pretty compact, really. —Pam
I guess it had to happen. We’re in the 50s this afternoon, and the sun felt good after the freeze of last week. I love your bamboo muhly. Is it hardy to zone 7?
Perhaps, Dee. This site says it’s hardy to Zone 7, though Dave’s Garden suggested Zone 8. Sounds like you might be right on the edge of its range, but it’s worth a try. —Pam
Wow, Pam. We’re so close and my yard is yet to have any freeze burn. I must get some bamboo muhly, I LOVE IT!! I adore the path photo; is there anything more inviting than a garden path? I must think about creating a wandering path for my backyard. Thanks for inspiration.
-Libby
Hmm, then maybe you’re gardening in the warmest spot in Austin. I thought I was. 🙂 Thanks for the nice words about my path. —Pam
The weeping yaupon looks wonderful. Judy just bought one and is looking forward to planting it.
It’s a beautiful tree. I hope Judy enjoys hers as much as I do. —Pam