Some Tidy

In a garden that covers this much ground with so many chores that could be done, I find that tending to what annoys me the most makes for the greatest amount of satisfaction.

A bit of chop and drop was done at the far south end of the ridge top garden. It's just the beginning. But that wasn't what was annoying me. It was just in the near vicinity.

Every time I walked by this group of conifers, the several years worth of accumulated leaves sitting on top of them made me crazy. They needed a good combing desperately.

I feel much better now. All those dead brown leaves are gone and their evergreen goodness is free at last.

Then I got ruthless.

There was a nasty, thorny, hideous hairball of a multiflora rose entangled with clematis and blackberry sprawled all over the barbed wire fence. It was impossible to weed and half full of dead stems. Now it is gone, cut to the nub.

The clematis and blackberry can now be eliminated since I can get in there and the excess rose that was encroaching on the path can be root pruned. A new rose of fresh growth can be regrown over the fence. Maybe. I was seeing possible signs of the lethal rose rosette disease. If so, it is a goner.

It was a short day of chores. I got a late start because the morning started off poorly with a mix of snow, rain and freezing rain before the sun decided to come out. A wicked wind chill lasted all day.

When I was done I went looking for snowdrops.

I stopped to have a closer look at the finished blooms of the native Hamamelis virginiana. The native Witch Hazel blooms in late October to November. The sepals remain before the seed capsule is formed.

Yes Lisa, I think your Witch Hazel has gone native. If you can't find the grafted 'Jelena' in there some where you now have a fall blooming native. As you can see it tends to hold its leaves a bit too long for optimum display, some years more so than others.

When everything is just right, it drops most of the leaves and has a full bloom, it can be quite showy. Most years you have to search out the bloom.

I won't be having that problem with 'Jelena' as long as they keep up this level of performance. I cut off any root stock suckers I saw before planting and have been keeping an eye on them for more. Even at this tiny stage I have removed a few from two of them on just this season's growth.