January-February 2018 Garden Scrapbook

The indoor plants showed color in January – the garden was green and brown.

I’m glad I took this photo of the violas on the windowsill. That green bowl planter was a favorite and it’s gone now. After it went out in spring, some critter (cat? squirrel? raccoon?)  pushed it off the table to shatter on the concrete patio.

Can we still call it a Christmas cactus if it blooms in mid-January?

By the end of the month the self-seeded bluebonnets were growing. This one spouted in the joint of a wooden step where it would be both noticed and trod upon

We had some very cold days in January – down to 15°F early one morning. The Meyer’s Improved Lemon was not improved by this freeze. Looks like another year without lemons.

But a hardy little self-seeded violet bloomed at the end of the month.

A few days later the February camellia gave a preview of coming glory.

By mid-February the Loropetalum frills were out.

By the end of February what was left of the Carolina Jessamine showed buds. Poor thing was once gorgeous, but its corner of the garden is now too shady.

Also by the end of February the earliest camellia flower were falling apart while new buds kept opening.

The Spring show is just a few weeks ahead!

This post “January-February 2018 Garden Scrapbook” was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose blog.

Lose Some, Win Some

This post, "Lose Some, Win Some ", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.


ED Jan 29: Looking into the back garden at house #3 Illinois - mid-1990's

Winter in Illinois meant -15°F/-26°C, shoveling snow, chopping ice and growing a garden full of dormant plants. Eleven winters in Austin have taught me to expect occasional snow, some spectacular ice storms, occasional dips to the 20's and have taught me that many marginal plants will make it through with a little help from a gardener. It's unlearning time when January 2010 brings the coldest temperatures in decades.

Some of the effects of the 13°F/10.5°C measured in my garden won't show up for months - some of the editing was sudden, but the garden will change and this blog will help me remember what happens.

Although the loss of perennials also means the opportunity to try new ones, I'm grateful that the deep cold barely touched the Green Bones of the garden. So far the evergreen yaupon hollies and Burford hollies, the loquats and sweet olives, live oaks and Southern wax myrtles and 'Little Gem' magnolia, the boxwoods and Mexican oreganos, the camellias and roses and abelias, the Pineapple guavas, Magnolia figo/Banana shrub, Dwarf Myrtles, Buddhist Pine/Podocarpus, Bay laurels, Gregg's salvias, cast iron plants and sturdy evergreen vines of Star Jasmine seem fine. The Carolina Jessamine vine didn't even lose its buds.
Another cold front is on the way now, poised to banish the balmy 63°/17°C of the last weeks so the 25°F/3.8°C can return. It's time to once again cover tender plants and move others from the patio back inside the garage. But there are fewer plants to worry about this time - any lingering annuals and most of the marginal plants have bailed!

After that hard weekend some plants died immediately. A warm house wall and layers of covering couldn't save the African aloes - their gel-filled leaves felt like water balloons, collapsing when temperatures rose. This Aloe vera and skullcap huddled side-by-side under the layers against the wall - that was enough protection to keep the pot of Scutellaria indica 'Dorota Blue' looking fresh and green but the Aloe has collapsed.

Obviously dead was the Zone 9 Mexican flame vine, an iffy choice when it was planted on the new trellis last fall. After 15-seconds of mourning it was replaced by the Ramona clematis blooming in its holding container since 2007.

Many plants died to the ground - there's no sign that the Duranta erecta, the cupheas, the Mexican honeysuckle, the Blue butterfly clerodendron, the tall yellow Brugmansia/Angel Trumpet or the Milkweeds/Asclepias curassavica will have enough strength to resprout from the base. I don't know how far the chill entered the ground - if it went down a few inches even normally hardy salvias and the southern bulbs like canna, calla, amaryllis, rainlilies, agapanthus or the Butterfly Gingers in the open borders may be dead. If the Amarcrinums don't live I won't be one bit philosophical about the loss!


Many plants, especially the Texas plants, have dropped leaves but the stems are flexible so they'll probably survive - defoliating now are the Texas sage/Cenizo, native wisteria and all three Barbados cherries (largest one seen above). Semi-evergreen non-natives like roses and dwarf pomegranates have dropped leaves, too and the native Silver Ponyfoot/Dichondra argentea has died back in large sheets to a few places where the silver grey leaves are alive.

The larger Meyer's Lemon tree also had special covering and and lights. It didn't look too bad at first, then the leaves started curling. Last weekend the lemon leaves turned brown and started falling. I'll cover it again tonight and turn on the lights, hoping that green stems mean the tree can recover.

Covering won't help several dead-looking palm trees or the bicolor iris or the bulbines. Just in case they're not dead I'm crossing my fingers and leaving most of those plants alone for now. The clump of bulbines above were dug out for another reason - they'd taken over a space earmarked for a pomegranate tree.


Some fall-planted cilantro didn't care about the cold but I was surprised to see that smaller bluebonnet and larkspur seedlings were missing after the freeze.

Apparently some seeds were still underground - a few bluebonnets, the larkspur above and more cilantro germinated and popped up after the freeze.

Every border, front and back, has a sprinkling of Verbena bonariensis seedlings eager to fill in blank spots.

Birds eat berries from the Wax-leafed Ligustrum in my neighbors' yards and drop the seeds here. This Asian invader wasn't bothered by a mere 13F so I've pulled hundreds of these seedlings.

The new white camellia 'Morning Glow' lost a few buds, then opened others with brown edges. The rose pink Camellia japonica never opened its buds but hasn't dropped them.


All three Sweet Olive shrubs have pushed off the frozen brown buds and popped a new set of fragrant flowers.




The Loropetalum AKA Chinese Witch Hazel AKA "Razzle Dazzle" is defying whatever weather comes next.


Ranunculus bulbs are pushing up leaves all over the garden. I grow a few every year and they look much more robust with rain and cooler temperatures than in the last couple of years.



Inside the house a Smith & Hawken Amaryllis blooms on the windowsill. This doesn't look one bit like the picture of 'Apple Blossom' on the label but it's a winner.

This post, "Lose Some, Win Some ", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, January 2009

Blooms? A few. But evergreens are what make the winter landscape pleasant. Four years ago this was a garden of bare branches. Now it has some green bones.

The first freeze hit my part of Austin on December 5th, followed by weeks of wildly swinging temperatures: lows of 28 F/2.2 C to highs of 80 F/26.6 C.


When my friend Carole shared divisions of her yellow bulbine last March I never imagined it would still be making buds and blooms in JanuaryWhite oxalis still blooms in the hanging baskets along the veranda
Who could resist bringing home a little viola called 'Tiger Eye'?
The two Champagne mini-roses had a couple of flowers - the leaves have dropped but the red stems are ready to unfold a fresh set
The minute blossoms of Sweet Olive don't make a show but you know they're open when the fragrance wafts your way

The vines couldn't resist the recent warm days so there are almost-open buds on Carolina Jessamine
And several clusters of open flowers on the Coral Honeysuckle.
The Loropetalum/Chinese Witch Hazel is in full bloom for the first time since we planted it in May 2005.
These patriotic primroses are ringers - bought this week and brought inside each night.
This not-yet-planted Passalong daylily from Good & Evil Gardener Lori, is just plain confused!

And so is this fragrant peachy iris
Mexican honeysuckle joined the garden team nearly a year ago but sat on the bench without playing until a few weeks ago.

A few rag-tag blossoms hang on the Salvia greggii near the mailbox. I took their photo then got out the clippers and pruned the twiggy plant back severely, following advice from Linda, the producer of KLRU television's Central Texas Gardener. She writes the CTG garden blog.

The pink rose from the last post had expanded and faded but was still recognizably a rose.


Gift paperwhites that once bloomed inside now flower in the back yard. These small daffodils, labeled as 'Grand Primo', were planted to greet visitors near the veranda steps. .
The also unplanted Dwarf Pomegranate has retained leaves, buds and flowers because it's huddles against the house wall.
A self-seeded Mother of Thousands soared and flowered outside the breakfast room where indoor plants lean toward the panes. On the other side of the wall a smaller, potted Mother-of-Thousands blooms with a cyclamen and the salmon pelargonium on the breakfast room windowshelf.


My grab-bag prize from the Divas of the Dirt Christmas party was a double-budded double-flowered Smith & Hawken amaryllis. One bud is opening 6 individual flowers on a stalk, with the second stalk not yet emerged. The box-store amaryllis at right is developing smaller, single flowers on two stalks at once. We've had frost warnings the last couple of nights so the Mexican Lime and Meyer's Lemon wore their Citrus Ghost costumes - sacks sewn of horticultural thermal fabric with mini-lights aglow within.

Another bloom day, another photo of the Yellow snapdragons, rebudded and undaunted every month since Christmas 2007.A list of what is in bloom today with botanical names is at Annie's Addendum.
Carol of MayDreams Gardens is the inventor of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, held on the 15th of each month. Last weekend, Carol and Bloom Day were featured in an article by Renee Studebaker for the Austin American Statesman. Go to Carol's blog to see what's blooming in other garden today.