Oh, February

Oh, February, you tease me with fake spring. Then you throw miserable cold, wet weather, even snow showers, my way. Fine. Time to camp out in the greenhouse, my happy place I call my halfway house. Halfway between being inside on a winter's day and outside on a dreamy, warm spring day. At least I can sow seeds and pot up rooted hebe cuttings here, so there's a win for me. Truth be told, late February into March is really just about my least favorite time of the year in the garden because it's so fickle. It should be headed towards spring but it never is and I should know this by now. But hope springs eternal, and every year I succumb to the temptation of fake spring thinking "This is the year that winter finishes early." Human nature is pretty funny that way. 

But there's stuff to do! I look at all perennials and grasses that need cutting back, a winter's worth of conifer and oak debris to be cleared from the gravel paths (well, not a whole winter's worth, I exaggerate), weeding, pruning, planting, spreading wood chips and gravel and I want to get on with it. 

So, here's what's happening in the garden in late February. There are hints of beauty out there as well as a second look at the January freeze damage (insert expletives). 

For a day or three it was in the mid to upper 50's and oh, my, the bumble bees emerged. There were many visiting this Arctostaphylos 'Austin Griffiths' as there were on any blooming manzanitas. 

FM has been dutifully monitoring the daffodil progress in the orchard, carefully marking every clump that comes up with a yellow flag so as not to mow over them. It's his hobby. Anyhow, he spotted the first of the bloomers, Narcissus Tête à Tête. 

Let's check on Oscar the Agave parryi var. truncata since his move to a sunnier spot last April. He is recovering well and has grown out of most of the rot. During the freezing rain event las month FM put a plastic tarp over him and it seemed to do the trick.

My new Agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue' got a bucket over it for the cold since it's so new in the ground. Looks okay but some lower leaf rot.

Agave parryi var neomexicana (I learned it as simply Agave neomexicana) has been in the ground some 7 years now and seems to be fully hardy.

The last of my agaves, Agave bracteosa also looks pretty good, no effort made to cover it at all. It seems all of these are pretty darned hardy for me, but the A. ovatifolia will take a few years in the ground before I am confident of its hardiness.

Osmanthus fragrans var. aurantiacus 'Beni Kin Mokusei' looking lovely. Although it has not bloomed yet for me, I am hopeful someday I'll witness its orange red flowers. I'm pleasantly surprised at its hardiness in my garden.

Arctostaphylos 'John Dourley' on the left (can you spot the bumble bee?) and Brachyglottis greyi, both looking unscathed. In fact, arctostaphylos have been so resilient in both freezing rain and heat waves, I might just convert all my garden over to them. Not really but it's nice to have that option.

Arctostaphylos 'Harmony' on the right and A. 'Pacific Mist' on the left. The latter is a prostrate, cascading form with especially blue-ish foliage and tolerates shade better than others.

Arctostaphylos 'Howard McMinn' with, yes, another bumble bee. I'm telling you that that alone is enough reason to plant these hardy evergreen shrubs. Feeding the native pollinators in February? Check.

The foliage is a bit ratty right now, but it will soon be overgrown with fresh new leaves and hide the uglies. Plus, the pom poms! They make me happy. Phlomis russelliana, another incredibly resilient plant I wouldn't do without.

This is turning into a "most resilient plants in my garden" post! Not really, but I'm just out there photographing what looks good after our rather nasty January weather. Teucrium chamaedrys, another plant I wouldn't do without. This is before their annual late winter haircut to shape them.

Juniperis conferta 'Blue Pacific' finally spilling down the edge of the retaining wall of the berm garden.

Signs of life make me smile. Potentilla atrosanguinea 'Red' just barely emerging.

Spiraea thunbergii 'Ogon' has had the faintest of leaves for a few weeks and now it's officially blooming.

Saxifraga x geum 'Dentata' always looking smart in the shade garden.

Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata' came through the winter chill with no visible damage. I planted two Daphne 'Perfume Princess' last summer and they survived, though many leaves are kind of burned from the bad weather, otherwise they look surprisingly good for being unestablished.

Shade garden foliage featuring Dryopteris sieboldii.

Polypodium glycyrrhiza, licorice fern, makes its appearance in the cooler, wetter months. Dormant in summer, it's a fun surprise every year when it emerges.

Brunnera is coming up, such a sweet shade plant.

To my absolute delight, Schefflera delavayi looks great, no winter damage some 7 years in. Also, it hangs over the north edge of our property through a deer fence and even the passing deer on the other side leave it alone.

Chiastophyllum oppositifolium 'Jim's Pride' is happy in its tiny little shady world. Not a big spreader but its charm makes it worthwhile.

A second saxifrage this week - this one is S. 'Primuloides', another tough, evergreen spreader for shade.

Mahonia 'Soft Caress' in a pot near our front door came through the winter cold unscathed, mostly. I am grateful as so many friends in Portland who grow this had nearly total defoliation.

Hebe buxifolia, looking fine in the labyrinth garden. However, just about three feet away is this:

Hebe diosmifolia, never looked worse. This plant has been in this spot for at least 7 years and always came through winter events until now. I think it just got too cold after an up-to-that-point mild winter. There is green on it and it will likely recover, but ouch. It may come out all together. It is worth noting that only a couple hebes in my garden suffered. This, a 'Great Orme', probably 'Patty's Purple' and a second H. diosmifolia are awful.  

The rest, including the following, all look completely unscathed and have proven to be perfectly hardy for me: H. buxifolia, H. cupressoides, H. cupressoides 'Boughton Dome', H. glaucophylla, H. purpurea nana, H. 'Sutherlandii', H. 'Karo Golden Esk', H. recurva 'Boughton Silver', H. odora 'New Zealand Gold', H. 'Quicksilver', H. 'Red Edge', H. rupicola, H. 'Western Hills', H. vernicosa, H 'Wingletye', H. salicornioides, and H. 'Hinuera'. And yes, I know that they are now reclassified as Veronica. And, yes, I propagated all of them for future plant sales. Hooray!

Now for more winter damage:

More ugly bits. There are a few phygelius in this area that were completely green before the freeze. While they will certainly recover (you can't kill these things), it's unpleasant to look at them now.

Muhlenbergia rigens is normally an evergreen to semi-evergreen grass. They have never completely died like this but I am hopeful they will rebound this spring, in fact I'd bet on it.

Phormium tenax does this every year. This year it will get cut back hard to start fresh. I fully expect it to recover.

All my Diplacus aurantiacus look like this. There are green bits, especially at the base, so they will too likely regrow as they do nearly every year. It's only in a mild winter that they remain evergreen in my garden.

Baccharis pilularis has done this for the past few winters and rebounds completely. I notice a couple in the gardens at Cistus Nursery where I work that did the same thing which, to that point, they had not. 

Eucalyptus p. ssp. niphophila, snow gum, was planted in February 2020. Not the best photograph of it but you can see the leaves turned buff color, it's never done this before. It should be hardy to very low temps and has been up until now. I have hope for it, however.

Acca sellowiana (syn. Feijoa sellowiana), pineapple guava, did this early in its career here at Chickadee Gardens when it was not yet established, so this defoliation isn't a huge alarm. I'll watch it, though, crossing all fingers. It took a couple of weeks post-winter storm to do this, in other words evidence of damage was delayed.

Ending this post with something a little more cheerful, spreading of wood chips. We got tired of waiting for Chip Drop so FM had a few yards delivered and he has been faithfully spreading them to newly created garden beds and refreshing some old ones. I am so appreciative of this as I haven't been able to do much with a shoulder injury. 

Shoulder injury, what? Oh, yes. I thought my nearly two-year-old, over-use-because-of-drought-related-hand-watering injury (that I have had physical therapy for) kicked up its nasty heels. One fine day a couple of weeks ago, excruciating pain emanated from my shoulder and I could not use my right arm. At all. Visions of no longer being able to garden scared me. Urgent care, x-rays and most excellent care from The Portland Clinic last week gave me answers - turns out I have calcific tendonitis. Who knew it was even a thing? Calcium crystals form in the tendon which can cause 10 on a scale of 1 - 10 pain. The doctor said I probably have had this for a while (would explain past shoulder pain) but I did something that caused this Almond Roca-sized crystal to scrape against my clavicle whereby choice expletives spewed. But the good news is no surgery, and it will likely resolve on its own in time. It is not really known why this happens - not from diet, for example. Now I'm on the mend, shoulder has improved to almost full range of motion, so I am incredibly grateful. Now you know - crystals can form in your tendons. I only share this story because something tells me I am not the first gardener to experience this and knowledge is power. I'm just glad this happened in February; I'd be a pretty feisty complainer had it been prime spring gardening weather. Oh, February, I guess I forgive you.

And now that I'm on the mend, I guess I'd better get out there and shovel up some wood chips, rain or no. I can't let FM have all the fun! Oh, gravel, too. Maybe I'll leave that one to him this go-around.

That's a wrap for this week at Chickadee Gardens. As always, thank you so much for reading and commenting, we do love hearing from you and knowing what you are up to in your garden!