We’re horrified at the predicament of friends and family across the country as the Polar Vortex busts out of the Arctic again, flooding points south with its extremely frigid air. Holy cow! How is everyone doing? We’re nervously checking power outage maps and trying to absorb the pipe-busting capabilities of these bizarro negative temperature readings in states like Wyoming. This extreme cold and the increasing ferocity of wildfires just might be two sides of the same coin, as climate change continues to upend our perception and expectation of “normal” weather patterns. Winter is usually not a “scary” season here in coastal Long Beach, unlike the dangers posed by the hot dry months, but who knows anymore?
My little garden chugs along in February, the soil still retaining some moisture from the slight amount of rain we’ve had. The increasing amount of sunlight in the garden is what really makes February a special month, as the winter shade band diminishes more and more every day. I’m going to keep this short and limited to plants I haven’t photographed much lately.
I have high hopes for this little scilla thriving in the garden now that there’s a bit more open area for planting small things like this. Just brought this home in bud in the past weeks.
Stay warm, drive safe, and fingers crossed the ice and snow damage to your gardens is minimal!
All wonderful entrants for bloom Day! I’m enamored with Scilla natalensis, which is entirely new to me. Both the foliage and the flower are lovely. I planted another new-to-me Scilla last year (S. maderensis) – the foliage came up in late fall (and is still in place) but, sadly, no blooms as yet.
Kris, the leaves of this one are reputed to stay in good shape, no summer dormancy. I had planted previous clumps at the base of the cypresses…when they were smaller!
Oh the color on that Grevillea ‘Poorinda Blondie’ bloom is just wonderful! I realized yesterday that I left Grevillea ‘Ned Kelly’ outdoors in a container. Hmm. Not so good. Granted we did only get down to 24, but over 3 days below freezing… we’ll see. I’m not holding out much hope.
Wow that Madagascar Solanum is really well armed. You always have the coolest blooming plants.
Lovely! ‘Tango’ is a good one. Very pretty scilla, too.
The cold disaster in Texas–so much suffering, most of it completely preventable. 🙁