The wind is roaring around the desiccated shrubbery in my front yard, while several robins, their feathers fully puffed, scout the few areas of bare ground for whatever they can find.\u00a0 I am sure they are regretting the irresistible impulse that compelled them to come north so far in advance of spring.\u00a0 I am regretting the fact that winter is refusing to end.\u00a0 It is hard to imagine that in a few weeks the garden centers will have the spring pansies out on the pallets.<\/p>\n
Still, the gardening impulse has begun to reassert itself, and not just in the evenings when I page through the day\u2019s haul of catalogs.\u00a0 Last weekend, when the temperatures took flight and ratcheted up into the low fifties, I gathered a number of the houseplants and gave them haircuts, deep watering and new fertilizer spikes.\u00a0 The geraniums were most in need of attention.\u00a0 Every year I overwinter the pots that bedeck the back porch in summer.\u00a0 We have an array of brightly colored varieties, plus a few scented-leaf types.\u00a0 They always look sad and attenuated by this time, even though they get much more supplemental light than I do.\u00a0 Now, thanks to my efforts they look neat and tidy, though not abundant.<\/p>\n
I took all of the viable geranium trimmings and put them in glasses and small vases of water.\u00a0 Many will root without any further exertion on my part, enabling me to replace the plants that succumbed over the winter or enlarge the supply of geraniums.\u00a0 Sometimes I use extra geranium pots to brighten things up in the mid-summer garden beds as well, so they come in handy.<\/p>\n
I have been thinking of herbs, each time I use my diminishing supply of home-grown, dried basil from last summer\u2019s vigorous plants.\u00a0 The garden centers already have the spring seed displays out, so I bought seeds for chives, lemon balm and parsley.\u00a0 They are now beginning to sprout on the sunniest windowsills.\u00a0 Everyone knows that once you install chives in the garden, they will increase prolifically until the end of time.\u00a0 Next fall, I\u2019ll simply dig a clump from the batch that I have just sown and bring it indoors.<\/p>\n
I am dreaming of other things that I can start inside, now that the geraniums have been trimmed back to reasonable sizes.\u00a0 Every year I start a few tuberous begonias in the house, because they need such a long lead time to produce their luscious summer blooms.\u00a0 Tuberous begonias are more properly known as Begonia x tuberhybrida or Begonia tuberosa group.\u00a0 Either way, they are show horses for shade, with big, assertive blooms in a wide array of bright and pastel colors.\u00a0 I love them and recommend them often, even though they require staking, just the right amount of moisture and protection from harsh elements.\u00a0 When properly grown and appropriately cosseted, they are magnificent and well worth the trouble.\u00a0 Today I will brave the wintry winds and trek to the garden center on a begonia safari.<\/p>\n
If you are considering major garden changes, start putting together a \u201clook book,\u201d of ideas by using magazine or newspaper pictures and clippings.\u00a0 When dinosaurs walked the earth, I used to do this in scrapbook form.\u00a0 Now it is much easier to store the information on the computer.\u00a0 Some people that I know use Pinterest for this.\u00a0 The ideas are the important part; the media you use to store them is a matter of personal preference.<\/p>\n
If weather permits, it is nice to get out and actually do some outdoor work.\u00a0 I am guilty of not cutting back enough in the fall, because I simply ran out of time.\u00a0 Last weekend I trimmed some of the more egregiously wayward shrub branches and tall aster remnants that have long since lost their charms as \u201cwinter interest.\u201d\u00a0 The seed heads that provided late fall and early winter sustenance for birds are also long gone.\u00a0 Outdoor work at this time of the year exposes you to at least a bit of sunshine and provides the satisfaction of tangible results.\u00a0 I recommend it, if you can do it without risking frostbite.<\/p>\n
And finally, trips to botanical institutions, garden shows and garden centers are a great way to rejuvenate.\u00a0 The Philadelphia Flower Show, mother of all American horticultural exhibitions, is on now.\u00a0 I go every year and would walk from northern New Jersey to Philadelphia, if I had to.\u00a0 This is also the season of orchid shows at botanical institutions all over the country. \u00a0Visiting one is like a short-term tropical vacation.\u00a0 The high humidity that we curse in the summer seems life-giving when it comes from a climate controlled glass house in the winter. The garden centers are starting to gear up for spring and their greenhouses are refreshing.\u00a0 Make the trip and consider picking up some seeds or begonia tubers.\u00a0 Even if all you bring home is an African violet, it will probably provide more color than you have at the moment.\u00a0 A little inspiration means a lot in this year of perpetual snow cover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The wind is roaring around the desiccated shrubbery in my front yard, while several robins, their feathers fully puffed, scout the few areas of bare ground for whatever they can find.\u00a0 I am sure they are regretting the irresistible impulse that compelled them to come north so far in advance of spring.\u00a0 I am regretting … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[773,774,64,222,65,775,501],"class_list":["post-1020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-winter","tag-end-of-winter","tag-garden-catalogs","tag-geraniums","tag-herbs","tag-pelargoniums","tag-starting-seeds-indoors","tag-winter-gardening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1021,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions\/1021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}