Winter Blues & Hues

In spite of the cold weather, there's been a lot going on in my gardens. I expanded the flowerbed by my mailbox area to include some evergreen euonymus shrubs so it's not just a dormant sea of brown mulch in the wintertime. Also planted were a few muscari (aka grape hyacinth) bulbs which have began sprouting, dahlia tubers and peacock orchid bulbs which have yet to emerge.

Throughout the rest of the yard, I sprinked more dahlia tubers and muscari bulbs which are doing fantastic, spider lilies which I took way too long to plant (fingers crossed here), and firepower nandina & loropetalum shrubs to the northside flower bed for the same reason as above.

Yesterday, my daughter and I braved the chilling winds to transplant a few irises. As I raked the mulch aside, I was pleasantly surprised to discover last winter's tulip bulbs poking through. Afraid to cause them damage, we left the irises alone.

So why plant in this frigid cold weather? Apparently, the soil temperature will remain in the mid seventies for a bit, which encourages root growth. Who would have thought? And the nurseries have started receiving their spring stock. No better time to select the best of the bunch. Just couldn't resist the $1.50 shrubs at Lowe's.

I'm still a little concerned about the effect of six nights in the lower 20's on my newly planted shubs. The bulbs and tubers have been in the ground for a few weeks so I'm hoping they have a little added protection.

Gotta love this roller-coaster Alabama weather. I'm totally expecting beach weather by the end of next week.