I just returned from spending two deliciously warm and sunny weeks in Mexico while the rest of you endured Snowmageddon, along with some nasty freezes, that pretty much put the skids on any productive work in the garden.
With that kind of weather I would have expected my garden to look about the same as when I left it 14 days prior, but I discovered some surprising changes.
While I was gone, my winter aconites woke up, blooming their bright and sunny yellow flowers. They aren’t much more than 2 inches tall, but they sure can illuminate a shady bed. The snow drops were starting to emerge before I left and are now 6 inches tall. Their sweet, small blooms are scattered throughout the garden under trees and shrubs, where it will stay cool and shady for them during the summer.
I have patches of daffodils that were nonexistent two weeks ago that are now 8 inches tall and could easily be in bloom in another 10 to 14 days. I also saw a few clusters of tulips that have been in the same place for several years that are already 4 to 6 inches tall. And of course my wife’s scillas are all over the place — despite my aggressive culling after they bloom every spring.
Bulbs as a whole seem to be indifferent to winter temperatures and will proceed with their growth regardless of how cold it is. The same is mostly true for perennials. Case in point are my oriental hellebores: Over the last two weeks, they have gone from just barely showing any sign of potential blooms to vigorous clusters of 10- to 12-inch flower stems, which will continue to elongate over the next couple of weeks until they are in their full glory at around 16 to 18 inches tall.
When one is gone for two weeks, these transformations in the garden become quite evident.
While bloom times for spring bulbs can vary by a couple of weeks, they are mostly predictable. My theory is bulbs (and perennials) are more responsive to soil temperature rather than air temperatures. Air temperatures can fluctuate wildly but soil temps (especially in the Northwest where the ground rarely freezes) remain fairly constant.
In the winter they seem to run about 10 degrees warmer than the air and in the summer 10 degrees cooler. The deeper you go, the less variation there is. At around 5 feet deep, the soil temperature is basically constant. For an interesting read on soil temperatures, check out “Soil Temperatures and Gardening” posted May 6, 2012, on the Cliff Mass Weather Blog (www.cliffmass.blogspot.com).
To further reinforce my hypothesis, I offer two more examples from my garden:
I have a sarcococca ruscifolia shrub that is growing in my front drive surrounded by asphalt and underneath a deciduous birch tree. It is only 2 to 3 feet tall and is in full fragrant bloom. The protection of the birch tree and the additional heat from the asphalt have countered the cooler air temps, so it is blooming when it normally does.
On the other hand, my cornelian cherry has yet to bloom (three to four weeks behind schedule and counting) due to the fact that the blooms are 10 to 12 feet above the ground where the cool air is able to slow everything down.
Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville. Send your gardening questions to him at info@sunnysidenursery.net.
The Beauty Of Hellebores
Enjoy a free class all about Hellebores 10 a.m. Feb. 18 at Sunnyside Nursery, 3915 Sunnyside Blvd., Marysville. For more information visit www.sunnysidenursery.net.
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