Leap Day Ice-Capades

All of Minnesota had been bracing for the storm. Timing and snow amounts varied widely, but we knew it was coming. Snowplows were out hours, even days, ahead of the storm to salt and sand the roads. Local weathermen constantly updated various warnings and advisories all across the state. Schools - most schools, anyway - were at the ready to notify parents and news stations of late starts and closings. Even the container gardening seminar I am registered to attend that was scheduled for the morning after the storm (which was today) was postponed until next week. Everyone was expecting snow, and a lot of it.

But it rained.

For hours, the rain came down just like you would expect in April or May. As the evening progressed, we watched surfaces transform from wet to crunchy and finally to ice. At least a half inch (2.5 cm) of ice covered everything.

Then the rain changed to snow.

In the morning we were greeted with a winter wonderland - or nightmare, depending on your point of view.

Everything is encased in ice, but I am going to focus on the plants, because plants covered in ice are prettier than roads covered in ice.

Our Silver Maple (Acer sacharinum) already has flower buds
ready to go thanks to our unusually mild winter.

The weight of the ice is bending tree and shrub branches.

The end of this branch is normally at head-level. It is now dragging on the ground.

'White Dome' Hydrangea that were standing straight up yesterday.

Snow and ice laden winter decorations.

 

Our hill of Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) is thoroughly flattened.

The bird feeders also didn't make it through the storm unscathed.

The birds can only eat on one side of the feeder!

I'm not sure how long the ice will stay. The temperature is hovering around 35*F / 2*C and the trees were raining on me as I was taking these pictures. I'm sure most people will be glad to see the ice disappear. But since I'm one of the lucky ones who doesn't have to go anywhere today, I will enjoy the crystalline beauty from my window while it lasts.

Fun Fact of the Week - Harry Lauder's Walking Stick

Corylus avellana 'Contorta' is a plant of many names: European Filbert, Contorted Filbert, Corkscrew Hazel, and Harry Lauder's Walking Stick. This plant is a gnarly, twisty shrub that is sure to be a conversation piece in the garden.

This shrub grows slowly, and reaches a height of 5-10 feet / 1.5-3 meters and 8-12 feet / 2.5-3.6 meters wide. This may seem like a wide range; I believe it depends on the location. For instance, here in Minnesota (Zones 2-4b) Harry Lauder's Walking Stick will be shorter, about 5-7 feet / 1.5-2.1 meters high and 8 feet / 2.5 meters wide, whereas in Washington state (Zones 7-9) it will grow to its maximum dimensions.

Corylus avellana is not picky about its growing conditions. Acidic or alkaline, loam or clay, sun or shade, this versitile shrub will grow well almost anywhere. Aside from minor twig blight and spider mites, it also is not bothered by insects or disease. All this shrub asks is that once it is planted that it not be disturbed.

The leaves of Harry Lauder's Walking Stick are a nice, vibrant green. They are thick and slightly corrugated, giving the plant a good substance. The leaves also slightly pucker and curl as they age, which adds to the contorted appeal of the plant.

In addition to interesting branches and leaves, Harry Lauder's Walking Stick also has flowers, called catkins.

 

They may not seem like much close up, but en masse at a distance they can be quite showy.

The most interesting part of this shrub is obviously the branches, which twist and contort in every direction.

The bare branches also have a wonderful architectural presence in winter.

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Harry Lauder's Walking Stick is one of three current cultivars of Corylus avellana, or Common Hazel (not to be confused with Common Witch Hazel - Hamamelis virginiana; although they are both called "hazels," they are very distantly related.) The other cultivars are:

Weeping Harry Lauder's Walking Stick (Corylus avellana 'Pendula')

This shrub is grafted on a 4 ft / 1.2 m tall standard.
Height & width: 6-8 ft / 1.8-2.4 m

and Red Corkscrew Hazelnut (Corylus avellana contorta 'Red Majestic').

A lovely purple selection. Even the catkins are purple!
Height: 8-10 ft /2.4-3.1m, Width: 6-8ft / 1.8-2.4m

There are more cultivars being made all the time, so keep an eye out for them!

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But who is this Harry Lauder? Why is it called his walking stick? Because of this man:

Sir Harry Lauder, famous singer, vaudevillian and entertainer from Scotland. His most famous trademark was his polished walking stick made from, you guessed it, Corylus avellana 'Contorta'. So famous, in fact, that the shrub was named after him.

all photos are the various results of a Google Image Search

Fun Fact of the Week - St. Francis of Assisi

My first job out of college, and the kick-start to my horticultural career, was at a local garden center. Among the flower pots, fertilizers, and bird seed was also a wide variety of garden art. Gazing globes, bird baths, springy butterflies on sticks, pinwheels, and of course, statues. Most of the statues were cute rabbits, turtles, fairies, and the like. But there was a particular type of statue that always struck me as an odd thing to automatically place in a garden: a statue of a monk holding a bird.

There weren't very many statues of this humble figure in our garden center, but there were a few people each year who would buy one. I guessed he was a saint of some kind, but not having grown up in the Catholic faith, I knew little of the importance surrounding this man. I later learned that this gentle monk was St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of gardeners animals and the environment. (but gardeners have claimed him, too.)

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So, who was St. Francis of Assisi and how did he come to be the saint of gardeners? For that we need to travel all the way back to the 12th century. Giovanni di Bernardone was born in either 1181 or 1182 (did you notice that Francis wasn't even his real name? More on that in a bit.) to a wealthy cloth merchant in Assisi, Italy. As part of the upper class of society, young Giovanni enjoyed all the things life could bring him: fine clothes, rich friends, pleasures and distractions of every kind. Giovanni also developed a taste and enthusiasm for all things French. Because of this, and because he was also half-French (Pops was Italian, Mom was French) his father started calling him Francesco (which is Francis in English) - "the Frenchman." The name stuck.

In 1205, Francis left home to enlist in the army, but a strange vision instructed him to return home to Assisi. There has been much speculation as to what this vision was, but it marked a drastic lifestyle change for Francis. He gave up all his former pleasures, for which his friends mocked him. He spent more and more time alone, asking God for enlightenment. He started caring for lepers - a task that was viewed as a disgrace. On a pilgrimage to Rome, he begged at church doors on behalf of the poor. On a particular occasion while begging at a church near Assisi, Francis had another vision in which Christ told him, "Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins." Immediately Francis sold some cloth from his father's store and gave the money to the priest of that church.

Obviously, Signore di Bernardone was less than thrilled about the unauthorized charity from his store. After much heated and bitter arguing, which included bringing the case before the bishop, Francis renounced his father, relinquished his potentially large inheritance, left home, and lived as a beggar in the countryside surrounding Assisi.

Francis would go on to improve many crumbling churches, preach the Gospel, crusade for the welfare of the poor, and many other accomplishments. Arguably his most enduring legacy is the monastic order he founded: the Franciscans. This order of monks has been in existence since Francis was granted permission by the Pope in 1210. To read more about Francis's religious work, click here for the Wiki. (one more tidbit of trivia: Francis was the first to set up a three-dimensional Nativity scene, complete with live animals.)

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Now, how does all this apply to gardening? Apparently Francis had a great love for nature. He believed that nature was the "mirror of God" and called all creatures his brothers and sisters. In addition to preaching the Gospel, he also taught that man is to protect nature and enjoy it as God's stewards and because we are creatures ourselves.

Many legends about Francis sprang up after his death in 1226. Many of these stories are the inspiration for the various poses of his statues. One tells of how, when Francis and his companions were walking, they came upon a grove of trees filled with birds. Francis told his friends, "Wait for me while I go and preach to my sisters the birds." As he spoke the birds gathered around him, drawn by his voice, and did not fly away.

This next story is a little hard for me to believe actually happened, but hey, it is a legend after all. A certain town in which Francis lived for a while was being terrorized by a wolf. This wolf would take the farmers' cattle, and even kill people. Francis saw the fear of the townspeople and decided to go speak to the wolf. On the way into the woods, his companions were overcome with fear and ran back to the town. Francis forged ahead on his mission. Upon finding the wolf, Francis made the sign of the cross, commanded the wolf to come to him and to hurt no one. The wolf came and laid down at Francis's feet. Francis made a pact with his brother wolf to no longer come into the town and take food by force. Instead, he led the wolf into the town - much to the alarm of the people - and explained that the wolf did these things out of hunger, and that the townspeople were to regularly feed the wolf. He even made a pact with the town dogs to not harass the wolf when he should come.

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In my research for this post I ran across something rather interesting. Nearly all the paintings and statues (excepting garden statues) depict St. Francis with a halo and the stigmata. The stigmata didn't appear until late 1224, and the halo is a symbol associated with his sainthood. Therefore any painting etc showing Francis with both the stigmata and the halo were made after his death.

 

But there is one particular painting that is perhaps the oldest known portrait of St. Francis. It is in St. Benedict's Cave near St. Scholastica's Abbey in Subiaco, Italy. Francis stayed there in 1223-1224. While there, Francis posed for his portrait to be frescoed on the wall.

 

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St. Francis still makes it into our modern culture (more so if you live in Europe where there are many Franciscan monasteries). In the movie Ever After, the prince and Danielle travel to the local Franciscan monastery to see their "astonishing library." The city of San Francisco in California is Spanish for St. Francis. One of my local hospitals is St. Francis Regional Medical Center, and at their entrances and in their healing garden are, of course, statues of St. Francis.

So, after all of that, what does it mean to have a statue of St. Francis? Well, if you see one in a garden, it shows that that particular gardener is doing their part of caring for and enjoying nature. In the case of the hospital, it shows that they have chosen to care for the creatures known as humans.

If you happen to see a statue of a monk holding a bird and perhaps holding council with a wolf, let it serve as a reminder to always care for and enjoy nature and its creatures, great and small.

A Week of Fog and Frost

In keeping with the theme of this winter being very unusual, last week we were beset with nearly a week of fog. Normally fog hangs out in the morning and dissipates when the sun comes out, or at least by noon as it warms up. Not this fog. It was so thick that the sun had no effect on it, and it stayed all day. For days. Driving was a bit nerve-racking for a while.

(BTW, when driving in fog, TURN ON YOUR HEADLIGHTS!! This is not so you can see through the fog - because we all know that doesn't work. It is so on-coming traffic can see YOU and not be lulled into a false sense of security that it is safe to pull into your lane or cross a major highway in front of you, because they couldn't see you.)

During the night the temps apparently dipped below freezing, because in the morning we were greeted with the most amazing hoarfrost.

Regent Apple (Malus 'Regent')

Compact Winged Euonymous (Euonymous elatus 'Compacta')

Compact Winged Euonymous

Most other hoarfrost I've seen is a nice, smooth coating that melts sometime before noon. Not this frost. It was extra Spiky Frost. 

Looking straight down a twig of the Compact Winged Euonymous.

Crabapple, variety unknown

A rose? Barberry, perhaps? Nope.
Miss Kim Lilac (Syringa patula)

Flower stalk of a Coral Bells, most likely Plum Pudding.
(Heuchera 'Plum Pudding')

Astilbe flowers.
(Astilbe 'Visions in Pink' - I believe)

An artificial accent in the winter containers.

White Dome Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescans 'White Dome')

In addition to Spiky Frost, I did find some things that had a lovely Frost Halo around the edges.

Volunteer Eastern Red Cedar. (Juniperus virginiana)

White Diamonds Hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata 'White Diamonds')

Plum Pudding Coral Bells (Heuchera 'Plum Pudding')

Without a doubt the most difficult plant to photograph was the Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium). But I think I got some pretty cool pics.

Because of the immovable fog, the hoarfrost stayed all day long. The next night the fog froze again, and we had another day of hoarfrost. It was so bizarre to have the frost stay all day. In a strange way it helped to make it feel like winter - at least something was white, because the ground sure isn't.

Christmas Cactus - Update #1

I've been keeping an eye on my Christmas cactus*. As I mentioned in a previous post about the cactus, it is in desperate need of a trim.

January 3, 2012
Near the end of the first flush of flowers.

February 2, 2012

As you can see most of the flowers are gone, but if you look closely at the branches by the window you can make out the pink of some new flowers. More on that a little later....

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Although the branches are still encroaching on the sink, I have to keep the pruning snips away until it is done blooming. Which is really hard because whenever I walk past it I fixate on what branches need to go. This was quickly becoming annoying - and potentially obsessive-compulsive. If only I could mark the branches where I need to cut? String would work. No, our cat Oliver

Oliver "hiding" in the cactus jungle to watch the birds.

loves string and would either pull the string off, pull parts of the cactus off while trying to get the string off, or possibly pull the whole plant down. Can't have that. Wait, I know! Twist ties! There is a whole jar of extra twist ties in a drawer, so I chose all the green ones, cut them in two and loosely folded them over the part of the branch where I will make the cut.

Sorry this is such a jumble. It was really hard to get a
decent photo of the places where I put the twist ties.

Perfect! Now I don't have to obsessively fumble through the plant trying to remember which branches I had decided to prune out the last time I obsessively fumbled through the plant. There is another part that I couldn't mark because it so thick and can hardly see what I'm doing. That area will have to be prune after I prune the marked branches.

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Now on to the flowers. The first flush of flowers were pinched off as they wilted, but there were still multiple buds on the plant. Would they bloom too, or just wither? 

Thankfully, they decided to bloom! It's tricky to see them and to get photos of them since they're against the window. The second flush isn't quite as showy as the first and a bit more scattered, but they are still a treat. Especially in February!

This cactus is very happy this year!

*This is actually my husband's Christmas cactus. It is a cutting from his Aunt Arlene's Christmas cactus. He potted up the cutting in 2002.