It took a while to warm up. I waited. I took a box load of condiments over to the refrigerator next door while I waited. The house next door is clean, alive and running again. I gave myself a week head start before the arrival date in case there were any issues. Last year there was an issue. The hot water did not want to come back on. This year all went well.
Spring bulbs and the hellebores fall over like they are froze or wilted when it gets well below freezing. If their cold tolerance is not gone from too much warm or if the cold snap is not too severe, they will stand back up and bloom on.
It was about two in the afternoon before they were fully erect again. Add in snow to that kind of cold and the stems can snap. Then they can't stand back up. That sucks. This is going to be a very risky spring.
It took too long to get warm enough for the Winter Aconite to open. Another has come up in a different location which was nice to see. Hopefully there will be many more and the whole sack of bulbs planted last fall survived.
The Witch Hazels are a very cold hardy lot. Below freezing cold is no problem. The flower petals just curl up tight and wait it out.
I got moving around forty two degrees. Thankfully there was no wind. I had spotted a few more dead hemlocks in the forest below the drive and above the stream that could come down. It is truly amazing how many dead hemlocks there are in there. The sooner they hit the ground, the sooner they will rot.
This tidying of the forest is part of the garden expansion. The basic plan is path building, tidying and editing. This expansion will largely be nature's garden.
The doctor visit hints that I have ample time to get this done. My input however will speed the process along, particularly in dealing with the dead hemlocks. Their death and the dramatic change in sunlight set a major transformation of the forest in motion. My job will be to guide and assist this birth of a new forest.
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