Dear Lovely Reader,
I thought I would take a break on this third day of Christmas to record a few comings and goings in and around the garden this week.
This week!
It’s that odd time between Christmas and New Years Day when people walk around in a bit of a daze, often unaware of what day of the week it actually is because of the holiday, time off, whatever.
It’s Wednesday as I write this, but let me back up to Christmas Eve and Christmas—Sunday and Monday, if you are even attempting to keep track of the days of the week!
It was so warm here, with daytime temperatures kissing the lower 60s that I took a walk around to look for flowers. Out in front, some little ‘Frizzle Sizzle’ violas were blooming in a container in spite of me not watering them for at least two months. Nearby, there were pansies blooming, plus a lone snowdrop.
Out in back, there was a much larger group of snowdrops in bloom, plus loads of Christmas roses.
I posted a reel on Instagram with pictures of all of them.
In other garden-related news, one of my nieces and her husband discovered an aphid invasion two days before Christmas, not outside in the warm climate where they live, but inside on their live Christmas tree. Apparently, this resulted in a mad scramble to undecorate the tree, toss it out, and clean up any aphids that didn’t go out with the tree, followed by a mad rush to buy another Christmas tree and redecorate it. The new tree is artificial. This will become one of those stories of family Christmases that we’ll repeat for years!
We did all marvel about how warm it was here on Christmas Day, as I mentioned. Coats? Not needed! Not like last year when it was -8F on Christmas morning. It did rain a bit but I’m a gardener so I was happy to see that because we haven’t gotten as much rain as I’d like. No, I didn’t check the annual rainfall total to know that. I’m getting to be of an age as a gardener that I like to think I can just tell by what I see, feel, and remember.
Anyway, in other news, my Christmas tree arrangements of vegetables for our family Christmas lunch buffet was a big hit. I’m tempted to save this picture for the upcoming podcast newsletter, but here it is.
Thank you if you are still reading this letter. If you’d like to read one more thing, I wrote an article about Adelma Grenier Simmons for my Lost Ladies of Garden Writing Series. She’s quite interesting.
Oh, oh, oh, two more plant-related items. I can’t remember if I mentioned in a previous blog post that I did finally find Christmas roses as potted blooming plants and bought two of them (at Home Depot!). They were each in a container with a small spruce and winterberry. I’m not sure where I’ll put the two spruces outside, but I’m going to attempt to plant the Christmas roses and the winterberry (a groundcover) out front somewhere. I have plenty of Christmas roses in the back.
I also bought a poinsettia two days before Christmas simply because I want to attempt to get it to rebloom, following the advice Daisy Thompson Abbott wrote in a newspaper article in 1938. Trust me when I tell you two days before Christmas there aren’t loads of poinsettias for sale at least not in the few stores where I looked. I finally found one at a smaller grocery store. It looked a little Charlie Brownish with a few dried leaves, but I bought it anyway and took it home. After I removed the dead leaves and gave it a good watering, it looked pretty good on my kitchen table.
Finally, last night, I re-watched The Bishop’s Wife (1947) with Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Nivens. I do love a movie that includes a haggle over live Christmas trees in which they use the botanical names…
I hope you are having a good week in and out of your garden. And yes, it is Wednesday, and I’m done with this letter!
Happy Gardening,
Carol
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