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Personally, I think enough is enough.
Enough cold rain, already. Enough frozen over puddles and stuck car doors when we get up and out in the early mornings. Enough chill and windy afternoons that just can’t warm up despite the clear and sunny skies. And certainly, enough winter damage to our marginal evergreens.
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After a long and frosty January, I’m ready to see a little action. Horticultural action, that is.
I want to see healthy, green growth and vividly bright flowers. I want to see unfolding leaves and creeping, snaking rhizomes claiming fresh real estate for a wildly healthy fern.
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My patience with winter weather has grown a bit brittle and threadbare. It was 18F when I arose this morning, and only a meager 28 when I pulled out of the driveway, wrapped in sweaters and a wool jacket and scarves and hat, for my journey through the countryside to my mother’s estate South of the James today.
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It was only 5 degrees warmer when I arrived, a little before 11 this morning; but she was game to head out adventuring with me while my car was still a little warm. After wrapping her up warmly, I hoisted her rolling chair into the back end and we set off for Richmond’s treasure: The Great Big Greenhouse.
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She was a little stir-crazy too, perhaps. After a week indoors, she was ready for big sky and a change of scenery.
She was happy to ride around in the balmy warmth and brightness of the greenhouse while I examined every Begonia, Philodendron, orchid, Cyclamen and fern. We chatted about cultivars we’ve grown over the years, examined the bonsai on offer, admired the bright and unusual pots, and watched all the special goings on to kick off Houseplant Month at the greenhouse today.
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There is no happier place for me to spend time, especially this first Saturday of February, than in a gorgeous, bright greenhouse. The happiness was freely shared among customers, vendors, and the GBGH staff as we all basked in the exuberant energy of happy tropical plants.
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Mother found a gorgeous purple Oxalis regnellii var. triangularis ‘Mijke’ already in bloom. She loves Oxalis, and I brought it home for her.
One of the staff gave me a tiny, seedling Tradescantia zebrina that he had just plucked out of the gravel under the fern benches. I’ve potted that up tonight, and look forward to planting it out in a basket once the weather settles in spring.
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What wonderful ‘weeds’ the guys were plucking out of the gravel this morning. The Tradescantia I was gifted with was a miniature version of this one.
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If you need a little respite from winter, as much as I do, you may find it here. Assuming a trip to warmer climes isn’t already in your diary, you might just stop in at a nearby greenhouse for a breath of spring.
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The ground was still hard frozen when mother and I got back to her place this afternoon, the grass a sickly shade of beige. At least her evergreens don’t look quite as burned and harried as ours. She has a good crop of bright green moss covering bald patches in her lawn. Her Mahonias are covered in buds and the first green tips of daffy leaves have emerged in the barrel by her door.
A happy red Cyclamen grows in the middle of her kitchen table, now joined by a purple leafed Oxalis.
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I drove home admiring bare branches against a sunset sky, dreaming of bud-break and the first breaths of spring.
We find ourselves in full-on winter mode again tonight. We expect a cold rain to begin overnight, and tiny snowflakes still turn up in our AccuWeather forecast app.
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But I found the wild things, today; growing happily despite winter’s worst. It was just the fix I needed to remain calm through the weeks of winter yet ahead. There is a little ‘wild’ in all of us, perhaps. We just need to know where to find our kindred spirits…
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Woodland Gnome 2018
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Forest Garden 