Our figs lived through this long and very cold winter.
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We’ve been watching the fig trees daily for signs of life. Yes, along with the joy and excitement of spring, there is a fair degree of anxiety, for some of us, about what survived the winter and what did not. As I chat with gardening friends, the topic of what has survived and what is not in leaf comes up again and again, these days.
That anxiety and expectation has been preoccupying me this week as I tour the garden expectantly between attempts at unpacking our basement and garage. What am I unpacking, you might wonder?
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Athyrium niponicum ‘Applecourt’ has leafed out this month, and the hardy Begonias have begun to emerge and grow. It is always a relief to see their small red leaves appear each spring. Newly planted Caladiums will soon open their first leaves, too.
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In those last warmish weeks of late October and early November, we moved as many of our tender perennials as we could into the basement and the garage. It has been a horticultural Noah’s Ark these past months as the survivors have huddled together in the relative security of these all too dim spaces, waiting for spring.
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Colacasia ‘Mojito’s’ tubers were stored over winter in the basement, and have come back to the garden today.
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And now that it is clearly spring, we have been bringing them back out into the light, watering and grooming each pot and basket, and allowing them to rest a while in the shade on the way to their summer homes. There is an urgency about bringing these brave survivor plants back out into the life-giving warmth and light of early summer, and looking for signs of life.
Dormancy, for a plant, can fool you. The plant may look completely dead; bare branches, bare soil, brown slimy leaves. The whole ugly mess… may still harbor life in the roots and branches. Pitch it too soon, and you have lost a beautiful plant. Wait too long, and the plant’s life force may expire.
Sad to admit, but I have erred a few times on the side of impatience when I should have just waited a bit longer for a plant to awaken into new growth.
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There is the matter of the Colocasias and Alocasias I stuffed into grocery bags last autumn and stowed in the basement. To be honest with you, I didn’t want to lift and carry their generous pots to the basement. And so I followed the odd advice I found somewhere on the internet to store their root balls in paper bags. Given the choice between further hurting my back, losing my beautiful plants, or trusting the anonymous but reasonable advice…. I took the chance with the grocery bags.
Miraculously, there was a vivid green leaf of Colocasia ‘Tea Cups’ bravely waving at me from above the crusty brown rim of the bag in February. But it was still too cold to repot them, then, and I’ve procrastinated on this task since things warmed up in late April. When I went to retrieve them this afternoon there was nothing green or promising about the mess waiting for me in the bags.
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But I soldiered on and lugged them up from the basement and out to my work area, where I managed to beat and coax and squeeze their rigid root balls of the two largest plants into 5 gallon plastic pots. After a thorough watering, I’ve set the pots aside in a warm bright spot to see whether my plants will resurrect themselves from their dormant tubers.
There were a dozen smaller tubers, still attached to the desiccated leaves of other plants rescued last autumn. I’ve trimmed and planted them into waiting pots and I will hope to see their leaves emerge by June.
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The Afghan fig F. ‘Silver Lyre’ returns from its roots each May. Rarely, leaves will emerge from buds on last year’s stems.
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And my beautiful reward for all of the effort today came on my last tour of the garden this afternoon: fig leaves! Our figs are finally awakening, trusting that the summer weather is settling in at last. Their buds are opening up and leaves unfurling on the branches even as new sprouts emerge from the soil.
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One by one, our winter dormant plants are springing back to life and growth. We’re still waiting for a few woodies, like those olive trees that overwintered on the patio because I couldn’t lug their huge pots indoors. There is still green wood just beneath their thin bark, and so I’ve not yet given up.
Hope fuels us gardeners. And the smallest green leaf emerging from a brown and wrinkled stem can make all of that patience and effort worthwhile.
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Woodland Gnome 2018
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Iris ‘Strange Rites’
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Forest Garden 