Winter 12 January 2024

The garden continues to mostly hibernate. Closer looks reveal some early appearance of early spring bloomers. It is still difficult to find photos for the blog.

The upper reaches of the USA are experiencing a wintery blast. This will be enough that it will probably make the newscasts of Europe and the rest of the globe. We here in the Deep South will experience some snow next week and one night when the temps will be low enough to threaten less hardy plants. I will do my best to protect the plants I am overwintering. Their protection is best called a cold frame and is not a climate controlled greenhouse.

Here are my six for this week. If you want to see more, come join the Six on Saturday group tomorrow. Our host is Jim Stephens and the link is here https://gardenruminations.co.uk.

The poinsettia has a serious bloom on it now. I have kept it now for three years.

The Hellebore should bloom soon. It is the traditional white (H. orientalist). Fortunately, it produces plenty of little seedlings which I have transplanted to other shady spots. I have no problems with snails and slugs.

The anemone is a new one for me. It is in a “moon garden” just at the front door.

I am showing you the little shed where I keep my less hardy ferns. The doors of the shed are well sealed and if I keep a light or two on, the ferns will survive.

The pansy will survive the cold which is coming next week especially if I cover the pansies with some leaves or pine straw.

The last photos are of my seed starter. I bought, for modest cost, the stainless steel cart and hung the uv lights. I bought a timer so that I can vary the light as needed. It works great. Here you can see the Cleome that is already of a reasonable size. It will be ready for spring.

I hope we don’t have serious damage to my tea olives (Osmanthus) and Camellias with the coming cold week.

Happy Gardening!


Comments

8 responses to “Winter 12 January 2024”

  1. I love your shed. You even have ferns hanging!
    Your Hellebores is looking good. Hope the snow won’t slow it down. I too get lots of seedlings as mine are surrounded by a 2″ layer of loose stone.
    By the way, 2 great Hellebore tips I came across during the week… I’ll find the link for you…

  2. The seed starter looks quite interesting to me. Do you only have one light tube? And do you use UV? For my part, I have Leds, (with blue, red and white colors, depending on what growth we want to achieve). Interested to know why UV only and if it works quickly. ( impressive cleome at this time of year )
    Good luck with the cold coming from the North, because from what I’ve heard, it looks very hard further North.

    1. The light is a full spectrum LED grow light not uv. I made an error there. The lamps are 2 feet long with 2 bulbs that are 25W.
      The weather to our north is frightful.

      1. So your LED grow light looks like mine. Mine are rather square of around 50W each

  3. Fingers crossed that the cold snap doesn’t do too much damage. The Poinsettia that I have had for several years gave up the ghost this year, perhaps it was just its time.

    1. Yes. Plants have a limited life span despite our best efforts.

  4. I hope your plants shrug off the worst of the cold. I have a feeling the Hellebore Lenten Rose I planted this time last year is no more – I’ll have to investigate tomorrow.

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