Pink Dogwood Winter

The cold snap is coming. The weatherman has moved the date of the most severely cold night to be tonight, after the winds have blown themselves to the east and the clouds have gone with the wind. Still cloudless nights are capable of deep descents in temps. Around here this mid April cold spell is referred to as the Dogwood Winter.
We have lots of dogwood trees. Pink ones dot the hill behind out house. Seedlings of a pink dogwood from our old house in Northeast Tennessee were planted in 1996 and are of good blooming size now along the side and front of the property. Some years their blooms seem to have some pink to the petals, this is one of those years. Several native white ones are blooming under the large pine trees at the curbside edge. More pinks have been added at the garage side and under the pines.

Same view, with the macro mode on the closest blossoms. I really like the cloud formations in both shots, and the trees in the distance showing the new green of spring on their tips. I like the hazy pink of the background trees, like pink clouds. The top of the hill offers horizon views over the roof. There is a bench in the knot garden that is perfect for appreciating those views and feeling like we are on top of the world, or at least of our neighborhood.

From the hill behind the garage looking across the big hill. Fothergilla is beginning its show to the left of the pinks. The dianthus lining the paths is budded, soon to be a sea of pink as well. The white hellebores in the fore are still holding their flowers, swollen with pollinated seed, ready to be dropped to give us even more hellebore babies.

Not a vision in pink, one of the home made hypertufa planters was filled with blue tinged tender succulents much too early and must be mummified to withstand the below freezing temps. This frost fabric has done its name proud, covering tomatoes foolishly planted out too early last year enough to protect them from the temperature drop into the teens then. It is beginning to shred, but several layers wrapped around the pot may do the trick again this time.

An upturned clay pot over a small fig tree and another giant spider web covering the newly planted lantana and sweet potato vine.

Some years the dogwoods have sparse numbers of flowers. Some say that sparseness is caused by too much rain the summer before. We had a severe drought, still do in fact, last summer. Does that explain the extraordinary number of blooms on every tree?

Not a dogwood, but just as colorful, the Japanese maples are fully leafed out in their spring high intensity shades. This is Crimson Queen. The leaves turn a more dull red as the season progresses, then give another eye popping show in the fall. Too much cold will burn these young leaves into the color of oatmeal.

One of the newer J. maples, ‘Peaches ‘N Cream’. I see a couple of leaves are reverting, while pretty, they will be removed. But every leaf is needed on this small tree, as shown in the photo below.

Before last year’s frost, this tree was three times this size. The dead parts were pruned away after that. It looks like another whole branch is dead, on the right side. That this tree was not lost is something we remain extremely thankful for, but maybe a little of the spidery cloth should go on this as well. We are running out of living stems. The weather has been cool, good for the flowers that are open. Some tulips are still looking fresh, the dogwoods are in their prime, even a few late daffodils are pristine. My treasured deciduous azaleas are in full bud. I want to show you the spectacle they present in bloom, without damage from frost. What is wanted may not be what is given by the gods of the winters. We shall see what their whims are this time, benign or malignant.

Frances

This material belongs to Faire Garden and may not be copied or used without permission.

About these ads

~ by fairegarden on April 14, 2008.