Snowdrops behind Deer-Zink are blooming.

Some of the Anemone blanda ‘Blue Shades’ in the beds around the Sutphin Fountain are very close to blooming.

Witchhazels are blooming all over the place.

Perennials are pushing new growth.

And I saw winter aconite that will be in bloom tomorrow. Hellebores should be showing color too.

So much happening. More later.

I am not a big fan of winter as those of you who are regular readers know. But I do appreciate it. I like snow for instance, when it is not on the roads. I wouldn’t mind it on the roads if there were fewer other drivers sharing those roads. And this winter hasn’t really been all that bad. Colder than normal but not bitter. Plenty of snow but not the 50 inches my friend Avonell got in one week in Maryland. Gray days but enough sunny ones in between that you don’t forget what that heat-making yellow orb in the sky is. Not bad.

The heavy wet snow of a couple weeks back did create some problems with our junipers in front of the Lilly House. The narrow Juniperus virginiana ‘Hillspire’ just couldn’t handle that much weight on them. Two of them went pretty much flat.

What do you do? Get the snow load off, push them back up, and tie them in place. Will they recover? Hopefully. But the root ball raised up pretty high on one.

They are near the end of their landscape lifetime having grown to the point they are near the eaves of the house. The plants are getting out of scale. We need a couple years ideally for their replacements growing in the nursery to reach their proper size. If the replacements are too short they look just as ridiculous as the originals being too tall.

Switch grass ( Panicum virgatum)is one of our best native grasses for the landscape. Most years they stay upright all winter even with snow, rain, and wind. Not so much this year. Here’s some of the ‘Dallas Blues’ along 38th street.

Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ ( feather reed grass) is one of the best landscape grasses period. I like its narrow upright form demonstrated by only a few of the plants in this bed inside the 38th street entrance.

But something interesting that happened in that same snow involved the hydrangeas, in particular H. paniculata and arborescens. I thought the dried flower heads would collect so much snow they would break off. Not true. Here is H. paniculata ‘Tardiva’ followed by H. arborescens ssp. radiata ‘Samantha’, both still holding their heads high.

Hardscapes look good in snow as a rule. Here the beautiful stonework of the Overlook is accented with a layer of soft white.

And these three containers on the Overlook patio make me think of store-bought cupcakes with a heavy layer of frosting or a collection of pies with a thick layer of fluffy meringue (everything goes back to food it seems).

This bright spot in the Northeast Border Garden is my favorite twig dogwood, Cornus sanguiniea ‘Midwinter Fire. I’m not bothered by winter at all when viewing something this beautiful.

So enjoy these winter days as best you can. They don’t actually last forever. We horticulturists and gardeners know spring will return and once again we will be flat out busy with our plants from dawn to dusk.

Saw several feathered and furred creatures on the river – a great blue heron (twice), mallard and bufflehead ducks, and three beavers. One beaver was quite unperturbed by my presence as I hung back to try to get some better shots. I started taking pictures when it was far out in the river.

It kept coming closer.

And closer.

And finally ended up back on the tree we scared it from originally.

And there was one muskrat swimming in some open water in the mostly frozen lake. Like it was lookin’ for something. It’s close enough to spring, do you think…

Folks started getting out in the gardens this week to do some work. Always good to get back outside even if it is still a bit nippy. I had hoped for more sun on Tuesday to cut the chill. So I went back inside to jump-start the blog when it felt like it was still below freezing. But before I came in I did a little Horticulture Recon. Noticed the Hamamelis (witchhazel) buds were showing color with bits of red, orange, and yellow peeking through. They make me think of carrot curls made from the cultivar Purple Dragon.

The Cornus mas (cornelian cherry dogwood) buds always make me think spring will be here any day when I know damn good and well it won’t.

The super hardy and tough Helleborus x hybridus (Lenten rose) are pushing their buds up through last year’s mulch and leaves. Even the light colored ones have lots of purple pigment in the stems and buds.

Then I found these blooms, actual blooms, on the yellow primroses. Talk about spring-like.

I probably mention all these plants every year. And I probably will still do so when I am 107 (that’s pronounced “a hundred and seven” not “one hundred seven”). Every year it’s such a thrill to go out in the gardens and find new growth or new flower buds. It doesn’t matter how many Februaries before I’ve gone out and found the same plants doing the same things. Each year I get all giddy and excited again. Not that there aren’t dark moments in the time before that happens. Indeed, there are some very dark times. Some excerpts follow.

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December 22. 2009

Plant orders in. Now the wait to see if suppliers can fulfill my dreams. Holidays coming. Taking extra time off. Cold and gray but hopefully no snow for traveling.

December 25, 2009

Cooking for family Christmas dinner – three pork loins, two baking chickens, five pounds green beans, ten pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, lemon bars, lemon pound cake, two kinds of gravy, macaroni and cheese. With help of siblings fed 46. Weather was nice.

December 27, 2009

Cold. But hey, it’s still the holiday period.

December 31, 2009

Happy New Year! Made Pioneer Woman’s Holiday Bacon Appetizers – both kinds. Cold but no precip.

January 04, 2010

First day back to work after Holidays. Low of 1 last night. High of 18 today. Normal is 35 and 19. Welcome back! Winter will never end.

Janyary 07, 2010

Nearly 4 inches of snow. More cold. Began sticking pins in Chad voodoo doll. It’s only right because he is in Panama not suffering from Indiana winter.

January 08, 2010

Colder. Low of 9 last night. Shoved pins deeper into Chad voodoo doll. Looked at new seed and plant catalogues to get some relief from cold and gray.

January 11, 2010

First day of furlough. Very cold. Low of 5. Began baking – Lemon Bars, then Brownies. Must build up thicker fat layer.

January 13, 2010

Low temps barely make it out of single digits. Highs barely make it above freezing. Put Chad voodoo doll in oven. Turned oven up to broil.

January 15, 2010

Woke up this morning on the kitchen floor. Three empty butter boxes strewn across the floor and butter wrappers stuck in my hair. Don’t remember anything. Later found an empty half and half carton next to computer. Last log-in was to Land-O-Lakes site. Towards evening an odd text message from someone called “The Milkman”.

January 18

Chad back from vacation (he can’t figure out what the ring of ash-like stuff is around his chair). Temperatures moderate. Soil frozen solid. Search for sun continues. More catalogues arrive to distract from gray skies.

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But now the days are so much longer and we had sun a few times this week. Makes you almost forget the bad times. Of course there are several weeks of winter left. Butter was on sale…

The truth is, I really haven’t traveled that much in my life. Part of that has to do with the fact that I’m afraid of flying (like really really afraid.) But, for the sake of ArtBabble, I had the amazing opportunity to visit Los Angeles last May. Fellow Nugget Danny and I documented the whole experience with photos and video. On our trip we met a lot of interesting people and dogs and enjoyed the sunshine, the warm weather, and (Danny especially) fresh tacos.

The reason we traveled was to film on location the construction of Andrea Zittel’s project, a large floating island to be installed in the lake of 100 Acres back in Indy. The island was fabricated by Barnacle Bros studio in East L.A. where upon arrival, we were greeted by a cast of characters led by a heavily tattooed man known as Smilee Barnacle. They brought us up to speed on the project and led us around the work shop,  which looked more like a carnival parade storage room than any kind of studio! The interview we did with Smilee turned out to be pretty hilarious:

And here are some pictures I snapped throughout the day. You can find more here.

That's Danny filming Smilee and crew

Shop dog

From the desk of Mr. Barnacle...

The colorful alley behind Barnacle Bros

Danny filming Smilee as he explains what materials were used for the island

There in the middle of the shop sat a snow-white igloo, which on closer inspection was not made of snow, but foam. And even better, it really looked like it would float! Smilee and his team used homemade tools to claw, shave, and mold the foam into a smooth, round shape. I can only imagine the spraying bits of foam as they hacked away at the towering mound of white.

It's snowing in L.A.! (standing in a pile of foam bits)

Here’s an interview we did there with Andrea to get a little more background info on the whole project.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when the Barnacle crew brought the island to Indianapolis… only to be greeted by chilly temps and mud in the Art and Nature Park… Indiana at its finest! There was a lot of activity in 100 acres lake that week. Both the island and Eden II are now floating in the lake for all to see.

I felt kind of sorry for Andrea and the Barnacle Bros, wading around in the frigid lake, because their visit to Indy was a cold and damp one. Then again, they get to experience the beautiful California weather all year ‘round. (Special thanks to Smilee, Theresia and the whole Barnacle Bros. crew, Andrea, and the cool cats at The Getty for their kind hospitality.)

It sure was sunny in California but I think I’ll stick with Indiana. I’m kind of partial to the sunsets.

I snapped this photo outside my house a couple months ago

The Pharmacy prescribes the following links to combat Monday online anemia.

sketchysantas.com

Blog: Sketchy Santas

In honor of the holiday season, please enjoy a blog devoted to creepy Claus encounters. You can even customize and send your own sketchy Santa greeting card.

ArtBabble Video: The Mummification Process

IMA Work of Art:

Winter by L. Clarence Ball

Tweet:

MuseumNext: Robert Stein from Indianapolis Museum of Art will be joining us for MuseumNext to talk about Artbabble – http://www.museumnext.org

As Irvin so beautifully illustrated last week, winter has arrived. I have had to break out my heavy coat and glove liners for working in the gardens.  At home, I’ve had to light the furnace and there have been “three-cat-nights.”  But if I see one more Snuggie or Dreamie commercial , I’ll scream.

Dreamie (via buydreamie.com)

Particularly as I am a traditionalist when it comes to warmth, sticking with moth-eaten wool blankets, like the all purpose flannel of one of my childhood heroes, Linus van Pelt.

Linus, by Charles M. Schulz (via fanpop)

"It just needs a little love!" (via JKönig)

He is of course correct, our gardens just want to be shown a little loving care.

There are several versions of horticultural “blankets” in the vegetable garden of the Tanner Orchard this winter.  The one I am most pleased with is our “cover crop” or “green manure.”  In mid September, after all the squash, carrots, beets, and onions were harvested, I spaded over those areas to more deeply incorporate the horse manure and compost applied in autumn 2008.  Then spread and lightly tilled a thin layer of new compost and did a dense broadcast seeding a mix of Austrian field peas and barley (Pisum sativum and Hordeum vulgare).  The pea will add nitrogen to the soil, and both help smother fall and spring sprouting weeds. Neither plant is hardy below 20F and will die down and be easy to till under  in spring, adding organic matter.

Green manure cover crop

The strawberries get about two inches of straw as a blanket against damage to buds and crowns by drying winds and temps below 20F.  The straw will be raked off in March, when nighttime temps are consistently out of the mid-20s.

To help the asparagus and rhubarb beds get pumped up during 2010, so that they will be ready for cuttings to eat – finally – in 2011, I’m following a recommendation form the ag extension office at Texas A&M University and applying 2 inches of rotted horse manure.  Rain and snowmelt will carry nutrients into the soil, and act as an insulating mulch protecting the shallow crowns of the rhubarb.

Rotted horse manure on asparagus and rhubarb

Finally, the remainder of the beds have been deeply spaded, to bury crop and weed debris.  Then 3 to 4 inches of leaf compost are being added, too be incorporated in the spring of 2010.

aaaaaaah! mmmm! all snug and comfy.

For more on green manure, check out Johnny’s Selected Seeds. No endorsement by the IMA Environmental and Historic Preservation Dept is implied.

Icy roads. Short days. Bitter winds. Freezing temperatures. The bloody freaking temperatures absolutely scream winter. It’s especially a slap in the face after the extremely long beautiful autumn. But that was then and this is now and winter will be what it wants to be.

On December 2nd this is what some Echinacea ‘Sundown’ and a Campanula ‘Viking’ looked like.

On December 7th this is what my ‘Rocket Lemon’ snapdragons looked like. A lot can change in 5 days.

Now ideally you want some snow cover for the plants when it gets down in the low teens and below. Most plants are fine though. But what of my slightly more tender stuff where I’m pushing the zone envelope? Makes me a bit antsy to say the least. I should have got mulch around the other set of Colocasia ‘Tea Cups’ in my backyard. At least I got one group mulched. Maybe it’s a good experiment. See who makes it. Or doesn’t. The perennials and small shrubs that went in the ground late are a concern. I would have liked them to have a month or so of “normal” winter temperatures before the deep-freeze hit. Here again may be a good experiment.
Of course the cold weather does tend to make the Christmas decorations around the Lilly House just a little brighter. Whether it’s the trees indoors or the ones outdoors.

And it makes the 750 or so luminaria we put out for the Open House and Winter Solstice all the more beautiful. If you missed Open House you can redeem yourself by being sure to attend the Solstice events on the evening of the 17th. Just the thought of all of you coming warms my frozen candle lighting fingers right back up to blood flowing temperatures. The luminaria are truly magical.

With the snow that fell Monday morning came a reminder of why I do like winter at the same time I hate it. Hard to beat snow with evergreen foliage.

And if you can add some holly berries, well, all the better.

These shots may clue some folks in on why we don’t cut every dormant plant to the ground in late fall. All those seed heads make the best little presentation platters for the snow. They’re just beautiful.

Astilbe.

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’.

Clematis tangutica ‘Aureola’.

Echinacea ‘Milkshake’. The seeds in there will feed the birds too.

So Winter, bring it on. Just like with people, I can’t make you do what is best so I’ll survive your spastic attentions as best I can and wait for Spring – which of course will come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. Whatever.

I get to the point that I’m either begging for frost to come and take out the garden or begging for one more day above freezing so there won’t be any damage. Gardening schizophrenia. It doesn’t happen so much with things here at the IMA, but at home ….. well, that’s another story.
As if the gardening I normally do at my quaint little domicile isn’t sufficient to fill many of my waking hours, this year I decided to plant the entire backyard. Down went cardboard, paperboard, and paper feed bags followed by my special rabbit and chicken manure mulch.

Poof! The grass was gone. Unfortunately the dandelions, violets, and bind weed were not as cooperative and they accounted for at least half of my “turf”. But really the only serious weeding I had to do in these new areas was the bindweed. Next year there will be plenty of glyphosate sprayed on the beast. Because I’m going to have so much more free time? Who the hell am I kidding? Whatever. Hopefully I will manage to get a good spray program going because pulling the damn things does not work.
Perhaps the truly scary part of all this is the fact I was able to fill nearly all that space.

It’s hard to believe I once thought it was too much area. Not true. Not true at all. By the end of August, I was searching for more open ground. By early September I finally kind of gave up, though I am sure I will put a few more things in the ground about ten minutes before frost hits. I really am crazy! Why didn’t you people tell me?

Overall, I have been pretty-well pleased with the results. My new dahlias grew and bloomed beautifully.

My tomatoes went in late, but got huge.

My favorite is the variegated one that Gwyn gave me. That’s a feral petunia with it. They just show up every so often.

Even the fruit is variegated.

The Colocasia ‘Thai Giant Strain’ got fairly gigantic, almost six feet tall, but I know I can get it bigger.

And it has a lovely bloom.

I didn’t feel there was quite enough color, so I enhanced some Paulownia stems with paint (Mango Madness).

Then to give everything a little sparkle, a scattering of wine bottles, blue mostly.

Anyway, soon I will be having to answer the question that we all must face this time of year when the all-knowing weather forecasters say temperatures are dropping near freezing – Do I cover everything with sheets?
“The forecast says 34.”
“That’s not actually freezing.”
“But it’s only 2 degrees off.”
“Is it cloudy?”
“Any wind? Wind helps.”
“Unless it blows the sheets off and it drops to 31!”
“Aw crap! Because you know, you just know. After this one frost it’s going to be 70 for the next three weeks. “
“But I just want to get it over with. Let it die.”
“But if I cover it this one night I might have dahlias til Thanksgiving.”
If you haven’t lived it, well then, you just can’t understand it.
And if all that isn’t enough, when one finally decides it is time to give the garden over to Jack Frost and his evil sister Wanda Winter, one then must decide whom to save whom to leave to die. Gardening is not for the weak or the meek. But bi-polars do very well.

Crocus pushing itself up through the mulch

The main plants I want to talk about are the witchhazels, Hamamelis. We have several in the IMA gardens in full bloom right now. Or they were. When it gets real cold the petals curl back up in a ball and wait for a slightly warmer day. Witchhazels do best in full sun or part shade and do like good soil. They make great cuts for a vase too.

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Pallida’ and H. mollis ‘Wisley Supreme’ can both be found in the Garden for Everyone. Most witchhazels are somewhat fragrant but these two are especially so. You can catch their scent from a long way off. Both are a bright yellow that really shows on a cloudy February afternoon. This is ‘Pallida’ on the top and ‘Wisley Supreme’ on the bottom.

Pallida

Wisley Supreme

A third yellow cultivar is blooming in the Tennis Court area of Oldfields, H. x intermedia ‘Primavera’.

Primavera

Yet to bloom is another yellow cultivar, ‘Arnold Promise’, selected by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University located in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston. The oldest public arboretum in America, the Arnold is one of the meccas of horticulture for those who love woody plants.

Diane

Just so you don’t get the idea witchhazels only come in yellow I want to show you two others we have. From the red group we have H. x intermedia ‘Diane’ behind the Lilly house at the start of the Ravine garden.  Notice how the flowers are not fully open? That is due in part because this particular plant is somewhat shaded. ‘Diane’ is one of the best reds.

Of course a garden isn’t really a garden without some orange in it so we have the beautiful ‘Jelena’, another H. x intermedia located in the Southwest Border Garden.

Jelena

A close inspection of the flowers reveals they are really made up of at least three colors – red, orange, and yellow.

Jelena close-up

The overall effect is very, very tropical – mango, papaya, and passion fruit. In February tropical is very, very good if not actually needed. Witchhazels tend to have good fall color too. An interesting tidbit, the red and orange flowering ones tend to have red and orange fall color and the yellow flowering ones tend to have yellow fall color.

Some witchhazels get quite large and I think they could make nice small multi-trunked trees over time. I’m thinking in smaller gardens or near patios, that sort of thing.

And the snowdrops have stated blooming! These antique bulbs are located several places but these images were from between the Formal Garden and the Ravine Garden.

Snowdrops

I’ve been trying to look at other horticulture/gardening blogs. I came across one by Margaret Roach (15 years with THE Martha) called A Way to Garden. There I stumbled upon an entry about using cardboard as a weed suppressant and a way to prep an area to be planted. I had read about and used newspaper but this cardboard use was new. These materials are used in conjunction with some sort of mulch. I’m trying it at home this year. Look out ground ivy.

In these continuing wintry days and uncertain economical times I long for warmer weather and comforting affection, some sweet summer lovin’.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Dolly Parton.