The New Warm

We busted out of negative territory and rose above single digits today. An opportunity like that couldn't be wasted, particularly when there was no wind. It got up to 30 whole degrees and felt kind of warm.

Mind you I was wearing long underwear and several layers, but it felt nice out there, for a short while.

It was perfect for a stroll through the garden to see how things were handling all the negative temperatures.

To my continuing surprise, 'Diane's blooms look unfazed. Both 'Jelena's are looking a little piqued and a bit fried, but they were much further along and had been in bloom for a good month if not longer. Nothing lasts forever.

The cold hardy, evergreen, clumping, Fargesia bamboo is having another rough winter. It is looking a bit freeze dried. Last winter is shed all its leaves. It leafed back out, though not robustly. Worse was the new canes for the season were severely stunted and only grew a foot high.

I had envisioned more from this plant.

Two others growing in more shade are having an even harder time. They are half the size and almost completely defoliated again. Forty feet apart on the same slope below the scenic byway and that is the difference a micro-climate can make.

'Arnold's Promise' is also unfazed by the negative numbers.

My garden is experimental for a number of plants. The elevation has an undue influence on plant hardiness. Some things handle it. Some things struggle. The listed hardiness for a plant can become meaningless. I have lost zone 3 plants to the cold.

One critical factor even for plants rated to my zone and lower seems to be when a plant breaks dormancy in the spring. At this elevation we are prone to late freezes that can be deadly. Unseasonably warm, dormancy breaking weather is my enemy up here.

But this is how the Witch Hazels roll. They bloom before every thing else when there is no competition for pollinators. What pollinators? You might be surprised by how many bugs are already about.

I would be concerned about the Witch Hazels if they broke leaf dormancy too early.

There are constant surprises in my experimentation. Plants I thought were probably marginal have proven incredibly resilient. The Yucca filamentosa have done very well for me up here, even being generous with bloom at a young age.

Japanese Maples on the other hand are an exercise in futility. I have even had repeated troubles with Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum getting zapped in late freezes.

But the garden is made up of more than just plants. There is room for failure.

My garden is a place to be, an environment, a play ground, a space to be inhabited, an experience of the senses and the natural. It is many things.

It is a place where warm can be re-imagined on a sunny windless day.

For a little while anyway, while we wait for the next round of snow massing at the border at this very moment. Tomorrow will be more of that same old cold.