Joy of winter planting
There is such delight in being able to get one’s hands in the dirt no matter the time of year. Mild winters are one of the great pleasures of living in Austin, especially if you’re a gardener. Over the past two weeks of school vacation, I’ve enjoyed a break from the busy routine and have done a good deal of gardening when the weather permitted, which was often.
Yesterday, I planted my new pink abutilon. No, I am not tired of posting about it yet, as it is the only plant blooming in my garden just now. If you’re curious about the other plants in that dappled-sun bed (pictured at top), they are, from left to right and back to front: bamboo muhly (Muhlenbergia dumosa), silver Mediterranean fan palm (Chamaerops humilis var. argentea), ‘Winter Gem’ boxwood, white oxalis, pink abutilon, and Texas sedge (Carex texensis).
I also dug up and transplanted a number of heartleaf skullcap (Scutellaria ovata) rosettes yesterday. This lovely spring-blooming native sleeps through the hot summer and returns in the fall. A winter rosette grows by spring to about 12 inches tall and wide. Oily, fuzzy blue-green leaves and lavender bloom spikes make for a beautiful combination. But be warned: it can spread aggressively both underground and through seeds. I do find it easy to pull up though.
Pink poppy seedlings are coming up in the sunny side-yard garden. Linda at Central Texas Gardener Blog shared the seeds with me last fall. I need to thin them.
You can see how much I pruned in recent days. All my yard-waste bins are full and ready for the city to pick them up and chip them into mulch.
More bundles of clippings from the lower garden.
And here’s the lower garden in all its winter starkness. Natural limestone slabs offer a footpath through the area behind and below the pool. I trimmed the pineapple guavas to try and stimulate bushier growth, and I took out entirely the invasive and unruly pyracanthas that were growing along the fence. I will be adding new shrubs back here through the spring. I already have a native American beautyberry planted and just hope it survives the explorations of my daughter and her friends until it re-leafs and becomes “visible” again.
Enchanted with agaves and now aloes, dyckias, and bamboo, I’ve added some questionably hardy plants to my new garden over the past year. It seemed like a great idea last summer, when the heat and drought threatened never to end, and rumors arose that our growing zone had gone from 8b to 9. But this year’s early cold winter is taking its toll. The Aloe striata, for example, is one of the aloes in my garden suffering freeze damage, even as it tries to put up a winter bloom spike.
And I can hardly bear to look at my poor freeze-whipped Mexican weeping bamboo (Otatea acuminata subsp. aztecorum). It’s supposed to be hardy (and evergreen) to 20 degrees, but after our first, unexpectedly early hard freeze, it began dropping its leaves in shock. Now the ground is littered with straw-like bamboo leaves. With more hard freezes predicted this week, I can only hope it will pull through and return from the roots next spring, as a couple of readers have advised.
Not that this will stop me from pushing the zone! I love some of those subtropicals too much to be deterred by one cold winter. The key, I think, is not to go overboard on the tender plants, and to be sure to base your garden on hardy native and adapted plants that will see you through, no matter what Mother Nature throws at them.
All material © 2006-2010 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Impressive Pam. I’ve yet to get out this winter for anything but raking a few times and two days of cutting back death…which has barely made a dent in the work I have left. You are so right about planting tenders…it’s those tough structural perennials that are holding things ‘somewhat’ together now. It’s going to be a very busy spring. Oh, my bamboo looks the same…sad.
You deserve a long winter’s break, Cheryl, after all that prepping you did in summer and fall for your big garden tour. Enjoy it! Do you have the same bamboo or a different variety? —Pam
I always enjoy visits in your garden. I get so many ideas from you since we share similar climates. I can’t wait to see your Pink Poppies when they bloom.
Me too, Noelle! And likewise about virtually visiting your garden—lots of good ideas. —Pam
I so jealous that you can get out in the garden at the moment. Your pruning is quite extreme from the look of it!
It was. I removed 5 big pyracantha bushes, plus a large tree limb that was hanging too low over the fence, plus lots of smaller trimmings of the pineapple guavas. Whew! —Pam
Love those limestone slabs — yes, it must be wonderful to be able to play in the dirt (go DIGGING?) most of the year. You’ve been a busy gal! Happy 2010!
I do love to dig, Nancy. 🙂 Happy new year to you too! —Pam
I just cringe when I hear people talk about thinning their poppies. I can’t seem to get them to grow here. WHINE… I would love to be able to get out and work in the garden. The soil is frozen here. It is like walking on concrete in the garden now. Sigh~~
This is my first poppy-sowing, and so far it seems pretty easy. I wonder what conditions make it so (because I’m sure it’s not anything particular that I’m doing!). —Pam
How happy you sound, Pam! It is your turn to smile and play while some did the same during the not as hot summer months. I do envy all that pruning, a favorite task here, but not quite time yet. Valentine’s day is our pruning day for roses and the general big cut back of woody plants.
Valentine’s Day is when I prune back the woody perennials, roses, and grasses too, Frances. It sounds like our gardening schedules aren’t all that different, eh? —Pam
I’m saying a little prayer for your aloe and weeping bamboo, may they surprise you and pull through!
My fingers are tightly crossed, Loree. Thanks for the good wishes! —Pam
The aloe tries to say that it is alive! Pink abutilon is so lovely!
Thanks, Tatyana. It’s a romantic looking flower for winter, isn’t it? —Pam
Pam, I don’t know if this will work for your bamboo, but last winter, my clumping bamboo (fargesia) was damaged, so we cut it back at the same time we cut back the ornamental grasses. It looked so fantastic all summer that I intend to cut it again in February this year. It stayed about 4+ feet high until August, then it threw out the long (8′) shoots for the birds to use a springy branches while waiting their turn at the feeder!
Cameron
That’s exactly what I am planning to do, Cameron: wait until mid-February, then cut to the ground. With luck, it’ll come back from the roots. I hope, I hope! —Pam
I wish I could be planting……maybe when the temps go above 40 degrees and I clear out the black and brown.
I hope you get a warm-up soon, CIMS. On the other hand, a winter’s rest could be a good thing for catching up on blogs, magazine, and garden books. 🙂 —Pam
Your yard is looking great. You would never know it was winter from viewing the first photo.
Good luck with the cold temps expected this later this week. It looks like you may see some temps in the low 20s. A little farther north, we are expecting the low teens for a couple of nights and about 48 consecutive hours below freezing.
I always enjoy reading your blog. It is one of the first things I do every day. I don’t know how you come up with something new to post almost every day (with the exception of the abutilon photos 🙂 ).
Thanks for the kind words, Bluestem. I’m glad to know you enjoy Digging! I guess I’m just a verbose gardener because something is always going on that I need to write about. 😉 Stay warm this week. —Pam
You certainly have been enjoying some great gardening weather. Do I see you have been busy painting chairs as well as clearing brush? You worry me talking about the freezing weather. I may be clearing out more than I anticipate.
I haven’t painted any chairs yet, Jenny, but that’s on the to-do list. Yes, the predicted lows for later this week are a bit alarming. If we really get into the teens, I expect to lose a few more plants. —Pam
I am very impressed–you took out pyracantha bushes and lived to tell about it! No easy task. I heartily approve of your choice of Beautyberry–I have had that on my want list for some time now.
Those pyracanthas were wicked, Jenny, with needle-like thorns all along the branches. Yeesh! Yes, American beautyberry is a gorgeous shrub for fall. I am eager for my baby plant to reach the mature size of the one in my former garden. —Pam
I’m a little antsy about what kind of changes this coming weekend will bring about in the garden, too. I think I still prefer temperatures in the 20s to those in the 100s, though!
All things in moderation, eh, Cindy? I’m still enjoying our cool weather, but 20 degrees is pushing it. 😉 —Pam
Despite how wonderful your garden looks this time of year I do not envy your summers and am happy where I moved. I hope your Bamboo comes back I really thought it was an awesome looking back. Just be sure to keep you and your garden warm this week and the rest of winter.
Jake
I don’t envy me our summers either, Jake. 😉 A/C, swimming holes and swimming pools, and frosty margaritas are the only way to get through them. Where did you move to, by the way? I can’t find your location on your blog. —Pam
Thank you for posting about the heart leafed skullcap sleeping through the summer. I thought I had lost mine and cut the “dead” leaves back last summer.I went and looked and sure enough there is a small rosette coming up.It’s in a confined bed so hopefully I’ll be able to control it, but your info helps so much! thanks..Now if I could only keep an abutilon alive…I’ll keep trying since yours are always so pretty…
You’re welcome, Nancy. Heartleaf skullcap acts like Texas bluebonnets and other native wildflowers that sleep through the summer and return in the fall and winter, followed by a springtime bloom. Good luck with your abutilon. Some seem hardier than others. I’ve had success with ‘Marilyn’s Choice’ and hope the new pink one will prove as hardy. —Pam
I love your pink abutilon. I know they get pretty big, but I’d like to have one. Need more research, to see if it could go outside the fence, with the deer. I have lots of room out there.
It’s been low 20s here all week, already. I’m pretty sure I’ll be starting over with a lot of my perennials. I’m sure I’ve lost at least one agave.
I guess that’s what gardening is….living and learning.
I am guessing the abutilon is not deer-resistant, Linda, but don’t know for sure. It just looks tasty. And yes, we central Texans will all be learning about cold-tolerant plants after this weekend, won’t we? —Pam
I didn’t know we could have fan palms this far north. Cool! Beautiful plants and easy on water. How big will this one get?
OK, I’m probably going to give in and go looking for an abutilon. I could resist one post, or two… But I’ll wait for you to post again after the coming hard freezes, just to be sure.
I’ll let you know how this abutilon holds up. I fear for it because I just planted it. I think the others, which are up against the house and have been in the ground for a year, will be fine. The silver Mediterranean fan palm is slow growing but gets pretty big with enough time—10 feet maybe? It’s supposed to be hardy to zone 8. We will see. —Pam
Hi Pam, I love Abutilon. It’s an annual here, but I hope to find one this year. And those retro green metal chairs (bench?) are (is?) lovely! I love the retro stuff. And, finally, is that really your garden now? I know, I know. Your reaction is probably “Uh, duh!” but it’s just unimaginable to a MI gardener!
Our winters are pretty green, Monica, and “gardenable” all year long. Yes, that was my garden a couple of days ago. But we are expecting very low temps (for us) today through the weekend, so things may be less green afterward. Glad you like the retro glider! —Pam
Beautiful pink Abutilon Pam. I can see why you keep photographing it. I would too! 🙂 Funny about the zone change. I read that in one of my local nursery newsletters too (earlier this fall) ~ they said we had switched from zone 5 to 6. Then winter hit (in early October) and it’s been brutal ever since. Minus 17 or 18 degrees F several times. It seems like we are still zone 5 after temps like those. I’m like you tho, it won’t stop me from trying. Your poppies are going to be pretty! Happy New Year to you too.