The Weekly Gardener 1

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Very Warm

The Year Started With Rain

Winter Aconite

Following a short cold snap in late December, the year began with temperatures twenty to thirty degrees warmer than usual.

A few days ago we had a summer downpour, which felt strange in the company the baren trees and dormant landscape.

However much I dislike winter, the cold season plants must have their rest, and I worry exceedingly warm weather will wake them up before their time.

Spring bulbs need to chill in order to bloom, as do flowering and fruit trees.

Worrying about that now is probably premature, as our frozen dreary is sure to arrive eventually, probably in March.

Did you know that, according to lore, the first week of January was supposed to bring the coldest days of winter?

It's sixty degrees outside, and I believe we slid into an even warmer climate zone again. Perhaps I could attempt to plant crinum lilies, corkscrew vine, or bougainvillea now. I always wanted to try them.

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Lavender in Winter

Blooming Lavender

The seasons have been shifting for a while now, pushing the start of winter farther and farther into the beginning of the year, which means fall now lasts long into the winter holidays, but I still can't figure out how one gets lavender to bloom in Boston at the end of November.

Before you ask, it was definitely growing outdoors; it didn't look like it had spent any time in a greenhouse in its recent past, and it braved a cool rain happier than I've ever seen it in my garden in May.

As a jilted gardener who tried and failed to keep lavender alive through the winter in a warmer climate, and who never experienced this enthusiastic bloom on its best days, I'm jealous.

I also saw blooming hellebores, and roses on that trip.

Hellebores bloom in February, lavender blooms in May, and roses bloom in June; lavender shouldn't even make it through the winter in the northeast; it's a tender perennial hardy to zone six.

I'm thinking magic.