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Saturday, March 07, 2009

Then and Now

On the 15th of February I went out to the garden and shot some pre-spring photos. We had a fairly mild February and I was sure spring was just around the corner.

As you can see, the buds on the Hellebores were already full of promise.




While the sempervivum were quite shriveled, I knew that a few weeks of milder temperatures would perk them up quickly. This one is 'Oddity', the only sempervivum I can readily identify without any name tag.


The trough is filled with grayish sempervivums. They will turn all kinds of lovely shades once they get a little bit more sun and warmth.


Sedums in the red wagon are lush and full, just waiting for spring. They call to me begging for an overhaul this year. It's a task I look forward to, hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can get to it later this month.


Alas, winter was not ready to let go of it's hold. Last weekend while I was up in our state capitol advocating for our schools, Long Island was walloped with a snow storm. This photo taken this morning is five days after the snow, finally we've had enough melt to see the tops of some of the plants. With temperatures forcasted to be quite mild for the next few days, I expect all the snow to disappear by late Monday.

Another thing to note here is that this spot is still in shadow. With the tall evergreens surrounding our property, the winter sun has little chance to reach the ground.

I'm sure it's only weeks from when I'll be posting photos of the most beautiful, lush sempervivum. For now though, I can only sit here at my computer and look at last years photos.

As for the Hellebore in the opening shot, it's still under snow but being ever the optomist, I know I'll be out there soon taking more photos.

5 comments:

Gail said...

Winter sure is odd this year...I hope it warms up for you...I think I heard on the weather channel talk about a front moving in from the south but I am not sure it's going to get out of the Ohio Valley.

CanadianGardenJoy said...

My goodness Melanie !
I thought you were abducted by aliens girl !! LOL
We are both in the same boat ... playing the waiting game ... BIG sigh !

Unknown said...

Do you have a lot of sempervivums? I find them hard to identify because they never do on the tags - just put hens and chicks. I'm getting quite a good variety but don't know many names.
Spring is coming even though it may not seem like it!!!

Melanie Chopay said...

Gail, it got nice and warm this weekend. Today is cold and rainy but almost all the snow is gone, hooray!

Joy, that's it! The aliens abducted me and tried to force feed me chocolate all day long. It took me forever to find the will power to break away from them ;-)

RainGardener, yup, I've got lots of Sempervivum and Sedums. Most of my semps don't have names and I don't really care. One wholesaler I buy them from does a pretty good job of labeling them so I try to keep a reminder here in the garden.

By the way, somebody recommended a great mail order location for sempervivum. It's Squaw Mountain Gardens and can be found at www.squawmountaingardens.com

I've never ordered from them but every year I say I will. I think it would be too hard to make up my mind so I'd tell them my growing conditions and get one of their collections. If anybody has tried them, let me know!

Melanie

Unknown said...

Thank you Melanie. I did keep looking around your blog and found them. You do have a lot. I also found a place to buy them today and they seem to have quite a few sedums.
http://www.lazyssfarm.com
Also, if you or anyone ever want to ID anything - not the semps you don't care about but maybe sedums this guy has I'm sure 1000's pictured at SEDUMPHOTOS.NET
Thanks again