TN Gardens in Winter

At 08:05 AM 12/19/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello,
>    Personally, I can not imagine a day without my garden to take a walk
to and
>through, not matter the weather. If it rains you take an umbrella, if it
snows you
>bundle up a bit more. The garden, to me, it that wonderful elixir promised
by all
>snakeoil salesmen at the turn of the century... except that this one
works. Good
>for the body, good for the mind and the soul in just one short walk.
>
Gene et al.,
I never miss a daily stroll around the garden, accompanied by cat and coffe
in the morning and cat and glass of wine in the evening. This goes on
summer and winter, rain, snow or shine. My husband calls it "Walking the
Back 40," and knows the time is inviolate. In a minute or two I'll get off
here and go do the morning stroll through a rain/snow/sleet mix.

What do I see? Well, this morning the juncoes are on the ground around the
bird feeder, bad news, since they only show up here in the valley when it
snows. Color is everywhere, though not much in the way of flowers. Viburnum
burkwoodii x 'Mohawk' is still cloaked in deep burgundy foliage, as is
Virginia sweetspire (Itex virginiana?). They are both late to shed their
leaves, but this year seem to be even later. Helleborus orientalis putting
up light green bloom stalks, will be in full bloom in a few weeks..My two
winter prizes, Daphne odora alba and D. odora variegata look lovely..Deep
green shiny leaves, flower buds swelling, and at least in the case of
variegata, starting to show touches of pink in the bud. They will both be
in bloom, perfuming the whole garden, in late January.

I do have a few flowers hanging on. This year I put in a raised bed
dedicated to my collection of half hardy Salvias. A lot of the greggii's
are still putting out the occasional flower in red or pink, wasted now
since the hummers have long gone. They all have tufts of new growth around
their woody bases, nicely hardened off, so I have hope that they will all
survive. I have cuttings of all of them in the greenhouse just in case. So
when Spring comes I may have some Salvias to give away if anyone is
interested. And the Cetranthus ruber still has blossoms on it...Rosemary
'Arp' is blooming, as it always seems to do at the worst possible time of
the year...lovely sky-blue flowers. Likewise the creeping Rosemary, whose
tips will be killed back eventually, but will resprout from the base and be
all over the place come this time next year.

Part of the reason I love walking this time of year is because I can see
the layout of the garden without being distracted by plants. I can se that
the proportion of the island bed in the front yard is all wrong and needs
the help of a spade and edger to fatten it here, lengthen it there, so it
will be more in scale next year.

Lots more, but I can hear the snores from here.

Gerry
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