These days it’s dark when we wake up in the morning and dark when we sit down for dinner. Alas….winter weather has arrived and we’ve had a few nights of very cold temperatures. It seems too early for freezing weather but, yes, it’s here. Overnight last week I lost my annuals. I don’t plant many but ‘Hawaii Blue’ ageratum is a must. It’s a dependable plant that flowers all summer and carries the color of my lavender through other areas of the garden. I always buy two flats of seedlings at a local nursery.
This was a couple of weeks ago:
This is after the first hard freeze:
Oh well. It’s all in the life of an annual. The cleome or spider flower that was glorious and fed the monarchs and bees not long ago melted into a heap of green and brown slime overnight.
Not all is lost. In with the cold weather arrived our delightful winter birds! Juncos and white-throated sparrows blew down from the northern climes with one of the coastal storms. Flocks of bluebirds have stopped for a visit for the last two weeks. Some might venture south. Some might stay with us for the winter.
Grasses in the garden are giving us a show… especially my favorite native switchgrass, ‘Northwind,’ upright and 5′ tall in full bloom right now. Soon the blades will turn a golden shade and be glorious in the winter garden.
I added some ‘Shenandoah’ switchgrass to another area of the garden this fall and anticipate the winter foliage will turn a lovely burgundy as promised. It’s not as tall and not as upright as ‘Northwind’ but just as hardy. Let’s hope it does not disappoint.
And so we seem to have more overcast days, more wet weather, snow in parts of the state but we are ready. The furnace is working. The fireplace is clean. Wood is stacked…. and our new addition is finished and furnished. Life is good.
GCG 90th birthday in Marianne Banks’ party barn today. It was beautiful. Sandy put together a great slide show during lunch. Wonderful photos of you which made us miss you more! Arrangements amazing. Shannah had goldfish swimming on each table. Wish you could have seen arrangement Sarah and Vivian did at Fine Arts and Flowers. It was an unbelievable interpretation of a contemporary painting. Think they had to do something funny to get in the mood!
Love, Daisy
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Oh sweet Daisy. I knew it would be a gala celebration in that beautiful party barn on the water. I know Sandy worked very hard on her slideshow. She is a wonder! Goldfish? Leave it to Shannah! Viv and Sarah are quite a pair, aren’t they? I hope they share a photo for the club newsletter. 🤞
Miss you!!!
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If there is one thing we New Englanders know how to do is plan for and hunker down when winter arrives. It is kind of sad to watch all the perennials die off, but they’ll be back in the spring and we’ll get to buy those colorful annuals again too. 🙂
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You are right. I am thinking spring a lot. When I walk through my fall yard I look at the borders and consider what I need to add and what I need to move and what I need to divide for the spring season.
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I went to a MG meeting last evening, and the speaker was Robbi Woodburn, Landscape Architect. She had just returned from a national convention where they were talking about climate change. She looked to be around 50, and made the comment that in her lifetime our growing zone would move from 5 to 7 or 8. That tends to make my head spin balancing all the positives and negatives.
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Well… It is sobering information. If that happens here, just think of what will be happening to life south of us. Caravans are in the news but predicted here are caravans of all life moving from the southern part of this country to north for survival in the future.
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Awwww 😦 It’s always sad to lose the flowers but there will always be Spring 🙂 Glad the birds are coming in to make up for it!
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Yes, I am thinking spring. I just added 90 more tulip bulbs to the garden. 🌷
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Tulips are one of my favorites 🙂 I will be looking forward to pictures!
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Ouch! Winter already! I happen to like winter, but that is only because we do not get much of it. It is barely autumn here. Outsiders think that we get only summer, with a few days of not-summer.
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You do have subtle changes that locals enjoy. I could see subtle changes when I lived in Florida for a while. But tourists thought we had summer year-round.
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We do know how to enjoy what we get. Sweetgum is a popular (exotic) tree here, just because so many Californians like foliar color in autumn. Sweetgum does not need much chill at all.
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We are starting to catch up with NH weather here in the Old Dominion! Great read, your blog, BTW!
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The weatherman and the Farmers’ Almanac say that New England will be COLD and WHITE this winter. BRRRRRR….
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