From our beloved Ozark Hillbilly:
Seeing as everyone is complaining about a lack of winter, I thought I would share some of what little winter we got.
Also Immanentize was bemoaning the lack of frost flower pics this year, so here’s three more just for him. Not that everybody else can’t enjoy them too.
And somebody was rueing the lack of dogs in my recent submissions so [at top] here is one of BillieJean. I’ll put Percy in the next lineup.
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What’s going on in your gardens (planning / memories / indoor), this week?
WereBear
Dogs do like winter, in my experience. But then, I had a malamute mix who adored it.
If snow was in the forecast, I would wake up with his nose an inch from mine, and I would not move. The moment I got up I had to open the door for him, or he would make those anguished “want it” noises until I did.
Baud
@WereBear:
Do you see a dog?
ETA: never mind. I missed the at top.
HinTN
Sunrise on the orange leaves with snow is spectacular. Winter can be exquisite and dogs do love snow.
JPL
It’s going to be 83 on Thursday. No signs of winter.
Ozark, Love the pics.
Pete Downunder
Back in the Jurassic I went to HS in northwestern CT and we had snow from October to May some years. If I never see another flake I’ll be fine. Winters downunder are brutal, some days it doesn’t even get up to 75F. Nights seldom below 45F. There are places that do have snow in parts of New South Wales and Victoria, but I don’t go there in winter. In Queensland today the low was 70 and high of 83.
OzarkHillbilly
Send in pics folks, I’m running out of ideas.
@HinTN: Actually, that is a sunset. I’m a little surprised you can’t tell. ;-) ;-) ;-)
CCL
Ozark, beautiful photos, wonderful how you capture the light. All of the frost flowers are lovely, but the first one is specially evocative.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Always beautiful OH.
satby
Also, morning shout out to infrequent commenter Chumly, who visited the market yesterday with his lovely mom.
prostratedragon
“Our Place,” Charlie Mole
raven
Awesome Dawg! We went to the Grower’s Outlet and the girl loaded up!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: I’ll bet she did, it’s planting season for you guys.
Gvg
Shiver. People have to be trained to like cold. But Florida is too crowded so OK. It was chilly yesterday. Didn’t get out of the 60’s. Today we are gathering at St. Augustine beach to celebrate my nephews adoption day anniversary. First time since the pandemic. Beaches in winter have such soothing wind sounds. I am hoping for a few tidal pools. His favorite of barbecue ribs are being provided. Afterwards I hope to sneak in a stop at a local big nursery since this is not my town and therefore new to me. I am hunting shrubs for privacy this year. Thinking gardenias and hollies. Trying to have multiple seasons of interest and evergreen but not boring normal hedges that just get trimmed. Earlier in winter, acquired several camellias. Still want strawberry limeade camellia but it’s sold out before I heard of it. Probably have to wait till mid summer to find it in stock again. Became aware that my favorite camellia growers sell their stock to big retailers around October and I should actually buy sooner. I had assumed winter was when the selection was best but it turns out to be not the case and also prices go up. So more planning for next year.
My banana bush Michelia figo is blooming and my tea olive. Lovely winter fragrance. The banana bush is a long blooming cultivar. I will root more of it, it makes a lovely hedge and has grown fast. 7 feet in only 3 years.
Gin & Tonic
@Pete Downunder: Some years back I went skiing (on snow) in Australia. It wasn’t the Rockies, but I was with friends so we had a good time.
delphinium
Beautiful photos as always OH! And thanks for the wonderful frost flower pics-just lovely. It’s been an incredibly mild winter here in central NY with well below average snowfall. Hopefully nature doesn’t decide to make it all up in late Feb or March.
Jeffg166
Looking at the long range forecast for Philadelphia there is a snow icon on the 28th. I still expect a two foot snow storm before winter is officially over. April snow until mid month is not unheard of either.
cmoren
In Raleigh, NC, we haven’t had even the barest hint of snow or any kind of frozen precipitation this winter. Only a couple dozen nights at or below the freezing mark, and most of those just barely; only maybe six really cold ones in teens. We’ve had long stretches of mild weather with 60-ish to even 70-ish highs. Not that Raleigh winters were ever anything remotely like upper Michigan penensula, but even for here, this winter has been ridiculously un-winterish.
O. Felix Culpa
Lovely pics, OH. We actually got some snow that stuck around for a while in Albuquerque this week. My pampered pup is not a fan, but he coped. We’re in the throes of prepping our new house for move-in at the end of the month. I spent yesterday restoring the wood floors and have the shoulder and back aches to prove it.
On another note, any recommendations for winter beach places that are not in Florida? Don’t need to be able to swim; nice walks and good seafood restaurants would suffice. With apologies to our stalwart B-J contingent from Florida, but I can’t support the state financially while DeFascist reigns.
Back on topic, I will be doing mostly container planting in our new place. There are people who do lovely arrangements in containers; I’m not one of them. Growing veggies in containers I understand, but beautiful decorative arrangements of living flowers and plants not so much. Anyone here with knowledge to share on the topic?
MagdaInBlack
Chicago-land had several inches of sno-cone texture snow Thursday, which made the drive home from work Thursday and the Friday morning drive….interesting. BUT, it was 40 something yesterday and supposed to be 50+ today, so I think/hope it was the last gasp before spring.
O. Felix Culpa
@MagdaInBlack: I remember such interesting drives. Glad you made it home safely! My worst experience was driving home from Oak Brook to Chicago in a blizzard because my benighted employer wouldn’t let us leave early. A normally max 45-minute drive took over three hours. Thankfully I had filled the tank the day before. Would not have been good to run out of gas as we crept homeward in that storm.
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: The heavy snow in the above pics was about 5″ when it finally stopped coming down. By the end of the day it was about 2″ from compaction and above freezing temps, but not before it had broken a ton of limbs on the old homestead.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh, I hope not too much damage was done to the trees. You have such a lovely homestead.
MagdaInBlack
@O. Felix Culpa: This was something that could have/should have been plowed and salted, but I’ll spare you my rant on our “low salt, no plow” snow removal diet in SOME nw suburbs.
Skepticat
From a 55° day to a forecast of a named winter storm and predictions of almost two feet of snow. Dayum. In my many winters in The Bahamas, I’d tell people I missed the drama and beauty of snowstorms. Now I miss only The Bahamas.
O. Felix Culpa
@MagdaInBlack: Heh. Is that a new policy? What I remember from Chicago is snowplows hitting the roads en masse with the first snowflake, presumably thanks to the negative example of Mayor Bilandic.
SW
Here in CO it has been the “worst” winter in a long time. That is, it has been very much like the winters we used to have ten or fifteen years ago.
MelissaM
Lovely photos. I am fascinating with “upskirt” tree limb shots, yours are nice. And the frost flowers are an amazing thing to see. We once had “freezing fog” where the fog froze on the dead prairie plants (and trees, etc.) and it was fascinating.
WaterGirl
@Skepticat: Your email address says “ail.com” so I suspect that’s why you went into moderation.
I fixed it for this one and released you, but you’ll need to fix it before you post again, if you haven’t already.
MagdaInBlack
@O. Felix Culpa: I cannot speak for the city, but I’m pretty sure Schaumburg and Arlington Heights do not own snowplows. Or “we plow when it’s over for a few days” is the policy. See, ya got me started.
On the other hand, it keeps me living indoors, I work for a multi-shop collision repair company. 😉
TaMara
Well, as sick as I am snow this season, these are beautiful.
@WereBear: My three love the snow and cold weather. The last time we had sub-zero, it was sunny out and trying to convince them to come in before their toesies froze was a challenge.
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: I spent about 1/2 hr knocking the snow off my favorite ornamental trees and shrubs but unfortunately I forgot the lilac bush and it lost a major branch. I has a big ol’ sad.
OzarkHillbilly
@MelissaM: Somewhere in my photo archives are some hoarfrost pics I took a few years ago, but try as I might I could not find them for this spread. :-(
Skepticat
@WaterGirl:
Fat fingers; sorry, and thanks.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: Understandably. Fingers crossed your lilac makes a comeback.
Tazj
Like TaMara, I’ve had more than my fair share of snow this winter. Still, these pictures are beautiful, very cool.
munira
Beautiful. I also enjoy the frost flowers. Thanks.
laura
@O. Felix Culpa: High thee to Asilomar! Stay in one of the Julia Morgan buildings. See Monarch Butterflies! Drive the 17 mile drive, the Aquarium, visit Carmel. Go hang out at Napenthe. Stroll the lonely beaches- maybe a whale watch or sunset sailing. DO IT! https://www.visitasilomar.com/
Immanentize
Thank you OH! I am so glad I dropped by.
And I swear your pupster is smiling ear to ear bounding through the snow.
O. Felix Culpa
@laura: Thanks! Asilomar sounds and looks delightful.
WereBear
@TaMara: It’s true and we don’t expect it because they are shorthaired.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: lilacs can be cut to the ground and they will come back. Very resilient perfume producers.
Miss Bianca
@O. Felix Culpa: Southern California? San Diego area, Coronado particularly. Lovely weather!
(I’m nostalgic because my grandmother lived on Coronado, and we used to go to the beach by the fabulous Coronado Hotel, which stood in for a Florida resort in Some Like It Hot. The Stuntman was filmed there too, as I recall.)
WaterGirl
Frost flowers are magical. I have never seen one in real life, only here on BJ.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: If it’s 1/3 or less of the whole lilac, no problem. But you surely know that rule of thumb.
When the huge silver maple hit my house, it took out nearly all of the trees and bushes on the complete other side of the house from where the tree fell. It was that big. That was May 31.
My burning bush was broken off just about at ground level, and it came back the next spring, and the following year it took off with a vengeance, bigger and stronger than it was before.
jnfr
In the middle of Colorado still being cold and snowy, I was thrilled yesterday to find one of my perennials (a white centranthus) pushing up green shoots. The only thing growing in my yard at the moment, but I’ll take it.
Love your pics. The frost flowers in particular…
raven
@Miss Bianca: My old man graduating from Amphib School in Coronado, 1961!
StringOnAStick
@O. Felix Culpa: At our prior home in CO, the only way I could grow veggies was in self watering pots in the front yard; no soil and deer/elk would get everything in the backyard. I have 4 large rectangle pots that I got from Gardeners Supply; they aren’t cheap but I’ve used them for nearly 20 years and they are great still. Another common one is Earthbox, but I find those to be too narrow and unappealing looking so I sold the ones I had before we moved to central OR.
I used them to grow bush beans, cucumbers, tomatoes (1 per pot); ‘put the cucumbers on a grow rack and then set up shade cloth on a bamboo structure over them if it was getting too hot for them. Now I use them to grow lettuce and a greens mix since the constant regular watering they supply works perfect for those veggies, and I grow the rest in the ground now that I have that again.
In your hot climate, very similar to where we were and are (not as hot for as long here), it is critical to get large versions of these pots or else the plant roots will get too hot and you’ll be filling the water reservoir more than once a day. Use a container soil mix but only for about two years because it gets heavy and can get soggy and go anoxic as it breaks down. If the soil seems too wet at the surface, use a bamboo cane to punch holes into the soil so it can dry out, and tip out the pot to empty the water reservoir while letting the soil dry a bit,and definitely replace that potting soil next season.
I love my self watering pots, they are a worthy investment! If you need more discussion, I am hereby officially giving Watergirl my permission to give you my email address.
StringOnAStick
@O. Felix Culpa: Or maybe you meant decorative pots? I’ve read with choose the plants for that as “a spike, a spiller,a thriller, and a filler” from the annuals in offer at the nursery. Usually the spike is grass of some kind or one of the smaller agastaches (hummingbirds love those), an ornamental sweet potato or similar vining plant to drape over the sides, and something to fill in around the base of the tall stuff, like sweet allysum. A long season bloomer like an agastache is both a spike and a thriller; thriller being the consistent bloomer with some height to it.
StringOnAStick
@Miss Bianca: Wow, my grandparents lived in Coronado in the early ’70’s; I loved going there. He was a retired Captain so we got to use the officers beach. So pretty, shockingly cold water!
J R in WV
So Friday AM both Wife and I had regularly scheduled Dr appointments (fasting for blood work!), which took us until about 1 pm, after which we went to a fav Mexican place for a big lunch. Decided to go straight home ans I was really tired.
It was a wet day Friday, drizzle mostly. As we were headed south out of town I noticed that the car was telling me it was exactly 32 degrees out! But the ground wasn’t cold, so nothing turned to ice while we were on the road. Coulda been nasty out driving if the ground had frozen the night before.
I have a love/hate relationship with winter weather. Now as an old person, winter is fine if we’re at home.
Miss Bianca
@raven: Whoa! Which one is your old man?
(My grand-dad was a Marine one-star general, he and Grandma retired out to Coronado to be around other retired military, I would imagine. Seems like it was the thing to do!)
oldgold
The Norwegians have a lifestyle philosophy – friluftsliv. It loosely translates to “the free air life.” It reflects the Norwegian notion that life is best lived outside — no matter the temperature. Regardless of how brutal the winter weather is, Norwegians embracing this philosophy spend as much time as possible outside. In their opinion there is no bad winter weather, only bad winter clothing.
Living in the frozen hell, known as the Outer Rim of the Twilight Hardy Zone, I know friluftsliv, as it applies to winter, is nonsense. Who developed this philosophy, Ole and Lena? This is the worst Norse idea since lutefisk. Uff da!
In my cozy den, with no aberrant thoughts of going outside, I patiently wait for Spring and the delivery of my order of 500 pounds of Glechoma hederacea seed.
raven
@Miss Bianca: Hand on the knee, he and I have the same dislocated pinky ! He was a “mustang”, enlisted destroyer swab in the Pacific and took a commission after he graduated from Illinois. There are several WW2 vets in the picture, you can tell by their racks. I always wondered what they taught those guys about amphibious warfare after what they experienced in the war.
raven
@oldgold: My peeps were from Stavanger.
StringOnAStick
Is anyone in a zone 5-6 area starting tomato seeds yet? Is it too early?
Immanentize
@StringOnAStick: Too early for outdoor starts, a bit late for indoor starts. Plant now indoors!
Mimi haha
@MagdaInBlack: I’m in the city and the main streets get parked cars towed then the streets plowed. If the snow sticks around long enough the side streets get the same treatment, but it’s been years since it’s snowed enough here, close to the lake, for them to do that.
MagdaInBlack
@Mimi haha: It’s almost over, and I will be able put away that rant for another year 😊
Next up! Potholes, yay! 🤗
JaneE
Here in the valley we had very little snow. Lots of rain. And flash floods.
StringOnAStick
@Immanentize: thank you!
L&DinSLT
@Miss Bianca:Love the DEL.Won a contest at work and the prize was a week at any hotel in the world, we just had to get there. It was a pretty easy decision as Dave had lived and started a successful restaurant in Del Mar and he used to fly his hang glider off Torrey Pines. Then we met a guy who was new to Lake Tahoe who was in Coast Guard school for having a licensed boat for charters and we got to know him and his family and found the Hyatt on PCH at Beach Blvd. on Huntington Beach and it was a 2 hours closer drive. Beautiful landscaping, as close to Hawaii flower smells and visual appeal as I’ve seen. As it is, here now at lake level we have three feet of snow in the yard. We’ve gotten 12 feet so far this year on our upper deck. Over it!