February Ice Storm Part I: The Descent

The winter of 2020-21 had, until last week, been yet another incredibly mild one, so far even warmer in my garden than the previous year. The lowest temperature I saw over the 19-20 winter was 24F/-4.5C, and it was looking like I might make it out of 20-21 with a low of 30F/-1C! Zone 10a!

Then the weather forecasts started getting ominous. As meteorologists started talking of an impending arctic blast event, various weather apps started showing insane lows of temperatures in the teens (F), which seemed absolutely apocalyptic even though a low of something like 15 or 18 isn’t abnormal for here. But it is indeed unusual for such lows to be happening this late in the season. My dreams of having January be a colder month than February were quickly melting.

Closer to the actual onset of the storm, this weather app finally showed what turned out to be fairly accurate predictions (temps in C):

Friday, February 12, after a dusting of ice pellets, the snow commenced. Looks relatively benign at this stage; 9:30am.

Backyard view out my window. Quercus hypoleucoides on left, Eucalyptus perriniana center, in blue. We’ll be seeing these again as the storm progresses.

By about 4pm we had about 2″ of mostly fluffy snow.

I have several young hardy Agaves in the ground in various locations. They’re small enough that 2” of snow can make them look really cute with just their spines sticking up.

Agave parryi var truncata
Agava montana
Agava ovatifolia ‘Huasteca Giant’

Agave ovatifolia ‘Frosty Blue,’ a gift from a dear friend in California, is right up under Grevillea ‘Ivanhoe,’ reportedly a zone 9b plant. Also pictured here is an Asparagus fern. This spot right outside my front door is very protected (or so I think…), and gets extra heat from the house where there seems to be a leak. You can put your hand there and feel warm air flowing out.

Agave ovatifolia ‘Frosty Blue’ earning its moniker, with Grevillea ‘Ivanhoe’

I clipped a temperature gauge onto the tender Grevillea just to see how much warmer it is here. At the time this picture was taken (10pm Friday), the outdoor ambient temperature was about 25F.

16 percent humidity doesn’t seem right, but I do believe the 32F reading.

Speaking of Grevilleas, G. miqueliana var moroka has been supplying hummingbird food for a few weeks now.

I can never have enough bird food flowers on winter blooming shrubs, so here’s my spectacular Arctostaphylos ‘Myrtle Wolf’ which is also right by the front door. If you’re a manzanita fan and you don’t have this cultivar yet, change that!

Arctostaphylos ‘Myrtle Wolf’

The last thing I did before retiring my iPhone camera for the night was take some pictures of my young trees in the backyard. By this point, the precipitation had turned to freezing rain and we were in for a real ice storm. 9:30pm and icicles are long:

8:30 PM and the roof icicles are getting long – about 10-12″ here.

The next few tree pics were from around 10pm. First up is Quercus hypoleucoides. This handsome fellow has experienced getting bent to the ground once before, so I was confident it would be fine no matter what.

Quercus hypoleucoides

Now let’s check on Eucalyptus perriniana, who has only been in the ground exactly a year. I had it staked initially, but had actually removed the tie to the stake just a handful of weeks ago. So you can see the metal fencepost stake here but the tree is not connected to it.

Eucalyptus perriniana, the spinning gum

I actually staked this olive in preparation for this storm, because I realized after checking on it a couple weeks ago that it was a bit rocky in the ground – not firmly rooted. It was initially leaning more to the left, so I placed the stake off to the right and gave it a loose, low tie. Two stakes probably would have been ideal, probably.

Olive ‘Leccino’

Finally the tree I am actually, at this point, concerned about. Lyonothamnus floribundus ssp. asplenifolius, the Catalina Ironwood, is an evergreen with big ferny leaves that are going to catch and hold a tremendous amount of ice. It’s very strongly rooted, so I wasn’t worried about it falling over like with the olive; I was more concerned about it snapping branches.

Lyonothamnus

And look closely at that picture. At this point, I actually had not even noticed it, but one branch was already snapped. It’s on the left about halfway up the tree. See it? I didn’t until just now, as I am posting this! The reason I didn’t notice is because 1) it was dark and 2) the portion of the branch that broke off didn’t make it to the ground! It was stuck hanging in the tree, glued to the lower foliage by the ever-increasing load of ice.

My phone has this really pretty amazing feature of automatic long-exposure for night photos. So what I was seeing with my own eyes was significantly darker than what you see in these 3-second exposure pics. I am frankly glad I missed the snapped branch that night, or I would have worried more.

In the next post I’ll show you what I woke up to find the next morning. And I think I’ll make a third post for all the obligatory artsy ice photos that are so irresistable when this sort of thing happens.

April Flowers

Bring May… seed pods? Sure, of course. Since the world is on fire right now and we aren’t getting any showers in April, I’m just going to show you some flowers now, even though it’s a very sunny day and pics are hard!

The first California poppy flower is always a thrill to me!

Pretty much every single California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) overwintered with ease this year, so they are big strong plants right now. I’m looking forward to a very long season because there are also fifteen zillion seedlings of all ages, who germinated throughout the fall, winter, and spring.

Imperial white currant

I cannot get over my white currant’s flower show this year. I featured this plant in a recent post about the genus Ribes but I posted a photo of it in fruit, because when I was writing that post, it didn’t look like much yet. But now…

Ribes rubrum ‘Imperial’
Cerinthe major overwintered

The problem with daytime full-sun photography with a phone is that the glare from the screen can make it impossible to tell if the lens is focusing on what you want. Oh well. Cerinthe made it through the winter in various stages of floppiness. This a plant that has a very hard time with dog pee, I’ll just say that.

This mustard has naturalized

Three years ago I tossed around some red mustard seed and it’s just an unstoppable force now and I love how it comes up wherever. I might be done with it soon, but for now, it’s bright and cheery and delicious.

Ribes sanguineum ‘Xera’s Lime Punch’ still going

R. sanguineum ‘Xera’s Lime Punch’ is one of my very favorite plants this time of year. It is an absolute beacon of brightness in both flower and leaf, and it seems to fit anywhere in the garden – an eye-catcher from near or far.

Eccremocarpus scaber

My Eccremocarpus vines seem to bloom earlier with each year, as they age. All of them are basically in 100% full bloom right now and it is glorious.

Naturalized violas escaped from a planter years ago
Viola, probably labradorica, too pretty to pull right now
Rosemary ‘Gorizia’ – from Xera

‘Gorizia’ is a great rosemary with a very tall, upright habit and I’m only just figuring out how to tame it and shape it a bit. It’s a very heavy bloomer – in fact it seems to always have some flowers (I could be making that up). It is the ‘it’ plant for the bees right now – you can hear it buzz.

Ok not a flower *yet*

Despite it not being a flower I have to show my Hydrangea quercifolia which is now in its 4th solid year of being variegated, which started in 2017. Working on propagation – it has resisted efforts at cuttings so far, so next attempt will be layering.

Ribes speciosum continues unabated
Various Euphorbias – the dark one is ‘Blackbird’ or similar
Meyer lemon on the patio
Sarracenias are making buds!
Iris x pacifica ‘Simply Wild’
Native Dicentra spectabilis over on the north side of the house
Another native, Oxalis oregana, doing really well after being planted just last year
Rhododendron serpyllifolium var. albiflorum

My friend Dan gave me this charming Rhododendron with the tiniest leaves – in fact it’s also called Thyme-leaved Azalea. It seems to like this spot and is currently blooming profusely.

Dan also gave me the next one…

Rhododendron stenopetalum ‘Linearifolium’

This is a *stunning* plant which is at the same time unassuming. The stunning bit comes from the profusion of spidery flowers in a most unusual form for a Rhododendron. The unassuming bit is that it has a really pleasing, tiered-branching form, like it could easily be seen in a formal Japanese garden. I have both of the above Rhododendrons under a Hamamelis ‘Jelena’ where I’m hoping they will offset the tree’s texture of big, broad leaves with theirs both tiny and lanceolate.

Geranium macrorrhizum

I don’t even remember where I got this Geranium macrorrhizum, but it’s turned out to be a spectacular performer in mostly dry shade under this dogwood tree. It did get some irrigation last summer so I’m sure that helped it a lot to start blooming about a month ago!

It was too much for one photo.
Speaking of the dogwood…
Grevillea ‘Neil Bell’

Also more or less under the dogwood is a newly-planted (ok last summer?) Grevillea ‘Neil Bell’ and I only *just* noticed it has one solitary flower down near the ground! It proved absolutely impossible to achieve focus, so you get an art school photo.

One more:

Armeria maritima ‘Victor Reiter’ in crevice garden

I have started experimenting with the crevice garden concept and I recently completed a second installation of rocks and grit. It’s more or less a continuation of the first, but it’s a sunnier spot and I think I did a better job organizing the rocks. In my next post, I will feature these, so this is your sneak peek.

Thanks for checking in. Stay safe and keep gardening!

Welcome, Spring, and thank you

My friend in a Facebook plant group posted yesterday, saying, “Show us your buds” and while I didn’t manage to post on her thread, I did go out and take some pictures on that beautiful, if frightening, first day of spring. Without further ado:

Ribes sanguineum ‘Xera’s Lime Punch’
Do not not grow this plant, mkay?
Ceanothus ‘Italian Skies’ buds about to burst. I can’t wait!
Oh how beautuful is this. Citrus trifoliata ‘Flying Dragon’ seedling. It’s in a pot.
Phygelius ‘Magenta’ from Annie’s Annuals – I can’t wait for it and neither can the hummingbirds.
On a warm day (above say 55F) it smells like honey and it wafts. Grevillea australis.
Euphorbia something and I just love it. These are immune to dog pee, by the way.
There are many flower buds coming up on this Aquilegia longississima. Beautiful leaf color, too. This blue/purple coloration just happened this past week.
Grevillea ‘Ivanhoe’ looking like he might give me some flowers this year!

That’s all, just a little record of what’s looking particularly interesting today, March 19, 2020.

Stay sanitized, stay physically distanced, and keep gardening, my friends.