January 7 , 2010
Dwarf fruit trees, persimmons, personal chilling out
“ How gloomy can they go ? ” is the doubtfulness on our minds tonight . Like you , I have plants that have never experienced a long , punishing halt . The last time I went through this , I ’d never planted an century plant , a citrus , an genus Abutilon , or many of the recent recurrent additions to the local craft . Rather than receive out how low they can really go , I ’ve overlay my prizedAgave celsiis . doubly - report the Satsuma . But I ca n’t cover everything , just as I could n’t give them rain or an umbrella last summer . The best we can do is to find out from the last several months : what withstands extended drought , rain all at once that flushed out later ontogeny , and extended minute below 25º.
I did refer to my book by Mary Irish : Agaves , Yuccas , and Related Plants .
She describes the cold reception oncelsiis : pallid leaves , lines , and pitch-black spots that disappear when lovesome weather condition arrives . It has withstood temperature to 12 level in east Texas , but “ certainly gain from overhead protection during icing . ” Her book has extensive detail on some of the agave that we are trying for the first prison term . Of course , our information this weekend will be worthful , since many of these agaves are very novel to backyards in our surface area .
For the first time I can remember , this Christmas prisonbreak I did n’t make a prospicient list of chores . I trust it was n’t a presentiment that we were about to get a fresh band of “ job . ” I clean up a little , but with at hand freezes , I was wary to do the super sweep . For once , I just let it go . In the lag , I can get my pruners sharpen atKnife Sharpest !
Instead of my common critiques and lists and frenzy , I watched a bird feather float in the stream of the birdbath ’s sonant solar spring .
By the elbow room , I ’m fill it tonight , along with the bird and squirrel self-feeder , since the wildlife will be desperate for extra kilogram calorie .
I told the mums how proud I was of them , and thanked them for a tiny bouquet on Christmas day .
Rumpled , most of them , a few begged me not to cut back all their stalk to clean undercoat - bosom rosettes .
So I did n’t . I enjoyed the flowers that will be gone by tomorrow night . Then , I ’ll trend them back , too , and savour the Modern look of a broken ( circularise ) visibility until they spirt back up in a few month .
Poppies are so hit and miss with me ( and the weather ) . This sentence , rather of being depressed about what did n’t number up , I rejoiced in the teemingness that privilege me .
“ So , ” I told myself , “ They like crush granite near the lavender in the computerized tomography cove . set out it . ” I can hardly wait to see their sweet pink against the silvery lavender .
As always with a hard freeze , some industrial plant do n’t show the damage until a few Clarence Shepard Day Jr. by and by when their burst cells realize what happened . Thus was the casing with the variegatedDianella tasmanicain our last little event . For now , I ’m leave the browned leaves to protect the verdure hiding under the front line ’s shield .
I ’d planned to catch up on all my reading , great deal and heap of it . or else , little Gaby caught up with an oldTexas Gardenermagazine .
She and Harvey care to throw it off the couch every night , but Gaby wants to literally devour its garden tips . as luck would have it , I can consecrate a back issue , since now it ’s gainsay as future reference for me .
Yahoosers , this week , CTG is back with unexampled programs!Last year , doubt about homegrown yield rivaled worries about brown spell . So , we get going off withDrew Demler ’s tip on fruit Tree , include single for smaller spaces ( look at the rootstock ) . Also , he notes that now is the time to apply neem rock oil or other dormant vegetable oil to asphyxiate plum tree curculios or other louse that hassle your fruit trees . you could also do this to other trees that have insect problem or are prostrate to powdery mildew .
Not a buff of oral cavity - puckering persimmons?Trisha Shirey demonstrates how to tell when a persimmon is advanced enough to eat , along with other point to take out the acerbic bite . Get her pet varieties , include ones for smaller gardens . Check out hertasty recipe and how to stash away fresh persimmonsuntil you ’re quick to use them . For more persimmon information , flick Persimmon in the Search loge and you ’ll see everything CTG has ever done on persimmons . ( Same for fruit tree or anything else you ’re hunting )
For those mushy agaves , Daphne has an answer . At least , for the I that get damaged and not totally destroyed . Also , check out her agave - dauntless tilt and more information atRenee ’s Roots . I hope that we can all compare note in a pair of week , since this will be worthful information for a hard halt 10 years from now !
To start the New Year with some inspiration instead of apprehension , we repeat our sojourn to the Lady Bird Johnson Adopt - a - Gardens on Town Lake Trail . mighty now , it look like all the adoptive parent are keeping their gardens this year , but check theTrail Foundationfor updates on adoption .
No matter what happens in the next few days , gardener will still keep on raise . I do it that new nurseryman are really apprehensive right now . But I promise you , Central Texas is a lot pretty and more diverse , thanks to you . Make notes in your best-loved style , count it up to experience , and dig right back in !
Until next workweek , Linda
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