December 2022 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Robert]

     Much later, our neighbor across the street came by to visit and see the garden.  Toward evening, he brought over a bounteous feast from their Thanksgiving Day Meal—So we had abundant dinners and leftovers to enjoy.
     The autumn colors have been superb.  These chilling hours were once the norm until the 1990s.  Robert’s records say 1990, but I remember things seemed fairly normal until December 1997.  Memory versus actual written records, and I think we are both correct.
     This Japanese Maple is now bare, and has a beautiful structure to enjoy, but the earlier colors were a delight.





     “Changing the Channel” in the mind is extremely helpful in dissipating intrusive, negative thinking.  It is important to combine this practice with exercises in compassion toward those whom we have ill feelings.  This is done by thinking of what hurt they must carry to need to numb out and avoid this pain so much to lead to these consequences.  We can never know what another person has endured, and given how deep and old some hurts are, we often do not realize the layers of events that lead us to behave in certain ways.  It is automatic:  So much after all is learned behavior—no one is born this way.  Hurt stems from so many causes, and our interpretation of those causes and events.  As one person told me:  “Hurt people hurt people”.  The goal always has to be the finished compost, where we transform all our pain into something useful and beautiful.



     Although we must continually turn the compost pile, these episodes do metamorphose:  We can indeed nurture and cultivate more inner harmony, which gives us energy and health to pursue a life of meaning and joy.
     Soon, we will be adding yet more to the front strip.  I am so excited about the whole reconfiguration, and I anticipate an even more phenomenal succession of blooming in the seasons ahead once it is established.

[Gabriela]

It is that time of year to send holidays good wishes for all forumists. May you all have gorgeous gardens in 2023!
A winter storm is upon large parts of Canada, so pictures with snow may follow later.

[Akke]

Merry christmas and best wishes for 2023.

To all US forumnists;
The wheather news on the other side of the ocean sounds terrible, best luck to you all.

Robert

News is mainly about the eastern part of the US, I hope things over there aren’t so bad,
it’s just so lovely to see how your season , already growing young plants, doesn’t seem to stop. Here you have to look better and know which places to borrow, to enjoy a little bit of this. While the frost of last week started winter, last trees and flowering plants gave up, in the old hortus Helleborus has buds and Arum leaves look fresh and ready for spring.


The containers look good, some Crocus, Colchicum, Narcissus and Ornithogalum are on the way, Ipheion sessile/Tristagma recurvifolium actually opened up beginning of the week with the raising temperature (8C/10C).


Your collection of fresh vegetables and fruit lookes delicious. Maybe not much here, but eating from my own containers at this time of year is really nice.

On the subject of asking questions on the Crocus section, I think I understand and probably I would feel the same way if it was me asking. Looking at it from another point of view, this is a forum, not a marketplace and they’re not obliged to answer. Hey, that’s just easy to say because I’m not the one asking.

My experience of collecting (Crocus) seed is just of two (very different) seasons, still might be useful some way. During the 2020 season my interest was raised in growing from seed but by that time the ants were also around, still I found seedpods with some seeds left on the locally obtained Crocus species. Picked  up a few Crocus ‘Tommassianus ‘ in the park as well, there were lots of them. Precipitation was near normal and we had some real winter, even skating on natural ice. This year no seedpods on these species, so I checked Crocus Tommassianus in the park and found next to nothing.  We had an exceptionally dry early spring and a very mild winter last season.

[Akke]

Robert

Gave it a try and asked a question on the crocus section. My uncertainty is caused by lack of experience, having just a bit of knowledge from books.



In the containers Colchicum asterantum is suffering a bit from the wheather, strong winds and rain usually come together with mild (10C now, 13-14C expected this weekend) temperatures.



Galanthus elwisii is starting in the park, together with Eranthis hyemalis, the first spring flowering species there.
A visit to the old churchyard, known for early flowering species, will have to wait a bit. At the moment there’s too much firework outside and Spot (the dog) doesn’t like that. Jasmin, at least I know she’ll be fine later, still her misery makes me unhappy.

[Robert]

Hi Akke,

I enjoyed your photograph of Crocus hittiticus in the Crocus thread. The open flowers are striking with the dark anthers contrasting dramatically against the yellow pigments at the base of each petal. Crocuses are such ideal container plants as the complexities of the plants and flowers can be appreciated in greater detail when grown in a container.

Here in our part of California we are finally having winter. The garden is a mess from all the stormy weather – not much to show right now. Our part of California was not impacted by the recent cold weather that affected the rest of North America. Currently, an AR (Atmospheric River) is bringing much needed rain to our area. Snow levels are extremely high, so we are currently under a flood watch. Heavy rain is falling on and melting the snow. I will share some of the climatic details later, but all this does not end our ongoing drought.

Despite the extremes in weather this past season I am pleased with some successes. I may finally have a form of Veratrum californicum var. californicum that will hopefully survive in our hot, low elevation garden. In addition, I also have a whole batch of seedlings of Viola macloskeyi that, too, survived the 115 F (46.1 C) heat during September. In the past, other forms of this species have generally died during periods of extreme heat. Not only did the plants survive, but they also bloomed for many months before temperatures became extreme. Another success was the first batch of Monardella breweri ssp. laceolata grown from seed I gathered in the wild. I was able to build up some seed stock of this annual species and now have crop of domestically produced seedlings coming along. We shall see what this coming season brings. New Erythranthe and Diplacus seedlings are coming along and hopefully will grow well and bloom this spring. Not everything works the first time around, but I keep trying and the range of plants species that thrive in our garden continues to increase.