The First Tulip of the Year

When I got home yesterday I found the first of my tulips blooming. It's not that big or showy but it is a tulip, and it has color, so I think it should count as the first of the season.

Yesterday wasn't the first day I came home to find the Sweet Violets in full bloom but it is nevertheless an amazing display in a small space on either side of the path. On a warm day they fill the air with their sweet odor. That will come.

And the Hellebore Snow Bunting has lived up to its name and is in full bloom a couple of weeks now despite the long tedious climb towards spring we have experienced this year. Many times named varieties of "catalogue perennials" are more hype and salesmanship than reality, but in this case Snow Bunting lived up to its sales pitch. I put it in the bed two years ago, it bloomed lightly last year and now look at it.

The Prologue

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour

Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heth

The tender croppes, and the yonge sonne

Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,

And smale foweles maken melodye,

That slepen al the nyght with open eye

(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);

Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages...

Chaucer, Prologue to The Canterbury Tales

Perhaps England's spring is more advanced than our own because again we are confronted with the hesitancy of spring and its reluctance to arrive in all its potential glory. Yet bit by bit it is coming with a clump of crocus here and there, the Winter Aconite finally peeking through the duff left as winter retreated, and the tiny dark blue iris coming forward to keep the crocus company, and hungry bees seek the sweet liquor found in the depths of the flower, much as the pilgrims sought the saint.

SPRING!

Well, it hasn't always felt like it, or seemed like it, but I'm told that spring officially began yesterday, Sunday March 20th, at 11:00 a.m. There is a bit of evidence, still limited, that it is coming if not really here. The surrounding mountains, these are the Missions seen from the top of Evaro Hill, are still heavily covered in snow if the valley floor is fairly clean. The weathermen promised more tonight.

Nevertheless, last week I found these in my friend Debbie's garden.

And east of Arlee, Mary's garden has her crocus in nearly full bloom.

Even her daffodils promise that later there will be more flowers. Look closely for the bud deep in the newly emerging daffodil foliage. (On the right edge of the larger clump.)

There is a white Hellebore flower trying to get through the mulch, the dead leaves and the cold tht might raise its head soon if we have a few more warm days.

Have a good spring.

Pruning

Now is the time for all good men and women to get out their pruning tools and come to the aid of their trees and shrubs. Some of them at least. If you have lots of shrubbery you may want to do only a few of them each year.

In western Montana the best time of the year to prune is early February and until you get the job done. Any earlier, even though the warmish week or so we often have in mid-January beckons us to come outside, can result in the loss of trees. It is better to wait until the likelihood of severe weather is less likely. Pruning stimulates trees to try and heal and the rising sap in a sub-zero spell can severely damage the conductive tissue.

Pruning has a few basic rules. First, make sure your pruners are sharp. Two, always cut back to the end of the branch. Don’t leave stubs! These entice numerous shoots to grow around and from them and soon you have your own little twig broom. Eventually this can lead to rot and the loss of large sections of the tree, or even the entire tree.

Then, pruning begins in earnest. Prune out branches that are growing straight up (called water sprouts) or across and through the tree. After that look for branches that are too close together and are rubbing, or that form a tight crotch that can collect debris and cause disease in the branch. This is frequently a judgment call so go with what looks or feels right. Remember it is always easiest to leave it and cut it off later than to hope it re-grows.
For large branches arborists use a technique involving three cuts. The first is made on the underside of the branch about 6-8 inches out from the trunk and ½ inch deep or so. This cut keeps the bark from peeling back into the trunk if the second cut doesn’t go smoothly. The second cut is made a foot or more beyond the first cut and simply removes the branch along with its weight so the stub is easier to handle. Then make the final cut about ¼ to ½ an inch beyond the collar of the branch. The collar is easily identified by the change in texture and series of folds where the branch leaves the main trunk. Make the final cut as vertical and smooth as possible. It can be evened off with a pruning knife, a wood rasp or even with the blade side of the pruners.

All of your pruning except perhaps the odd branch that escaped earlier should be finished by the end of August if possible. By then light levels are dropping, air temperatures are cooler and plants are preparing to go dormant. Pruning extensively in the fall can cause the plant to delay dormancy as it tries to heal the cuts. If we have an early hard freeze like the one in mid-October 2009 then the trees may not survive. Many had a difficult time coming through that winter even when they were healthy.

Don’t throw out the prunings. All the branches or evergreen leaves can now be composted. Large branches will compost faster if they are chipped first. Everything else just goes into the pile, and with time, moisture and air you have your very own homemade compost.

And there you have it. Pruning made simple. And it gets simpler with practice. If you make a mistake, don’t worry. It will grow back. Maybe even in the right place.

Next time I'll talk about shrubs and evergreens.

Winter has been truly with us for some time now. The seed catalogues have been arriving on schedule. Since the new year opened my mailbox it seems that there is another catalogue or two or three nearly every day. (Along with the envelopes with windows, of course.) While this usually signals the advent of spring I’m not sure it is ever coming, especially after Monday’s snowstorm.

A reminiscence from last fall might be in order since not much has happened since the snow began in November. The Burning Bush was as red as it would ever get as I was working at John and Carol’s. I heard what I thought were some ravens playing next door, or somewhere close anyway. If you haven’t noticed ravens sound like small children talking and giggling when they get together. That is what I thought the sound was until I realized that it was circling around the hill. Where it had been coming from the west it was now farther north. Ravens don’t “talk” as the fly so this was something new.

I finally located the sound as it got farther east, and as I looked up I say a large flock of white birds, rather than the black I had been looking for. Snow geese! But not even a black wingtip. It was a flock of about 15-16 swans circling before they headed south down the Bitterroot. Unfortunately, by the time I got back to the pickup and my camera they had become such tiny dots that they didn’t photograph well at all. Rather a disappointment since it was the first time I had EVER seen a flock of flying swans. Look very, very closely at the blue picture and you can see them just below the center on the right hand side of the picture. Use you imagination and you can see them anywhere in the picture, but I swear they’re there.

As fall progressed it became black earlier and earlier, but a couple of weeks ago I could finally tell that it is now becoming lighter. At 6:00 p.m. it is almost still light. As opposed to the black picture taken about 5:00 at Christmas. Only an early afternoon picture can show the texture of the white that has been on the ground since early in November.

The prediction for next week is warmer so perhaps I can finally get out and do the early spring pruning.

Late autumn signals winter

Winter is definitely in the air, and it is falling out of the sky even as I write. Not a good day to garden but I have many household chores that have been put off all season so that will occupy my time today.

I took a trip to Great Falls last week as a few of you know and here are a couple of things I ran across. The Bighorns attacted attention just above the Blackfoot Tavern, now another business, and a number of cars pulled over to watch. I was third in line and two more pulled up as I snapped this picture. I know this is the time for ewes and rams to be together but I wasn't aware that several rams might accompany a couple of ewes as happened here. And BIG! I don't think I have ever been that close to Bighorn sheep or realized just how massive they are.

If not now or earlier, or if you missed them, the first signs of winter were evident across the mountains and prairies of western Montana as the first dusting of snow highlighted the curves and peaks of the mountain ranges that surround us.

The picture above is near Ovando, the one below is looking to the Front Range far in the distance off Highway 200.

Autumn 2010: Part 2

There are so many specatcular views around western Montana right now it would be impossible to visit them all, let alone present them here. That might be a great future project however.

But here are a few "before and after" views of some of the gardens I care for around the Missoula valley. Perhaps earlier and later would be a better phrase. The "before" pictures are from late May or early June and the "after" photos were taken last month, in October.

Mary's garden east of Arlee merits three photos, mostly because I had them. The first picture is early in May when the garden is filled with cushion spurge and dwarf red tulips. The grey Stachys, lamb's ears, is just beginning to emerge.

Mid-June found the iris, lupine and flax in full bloom, preparing the way for......the spurge and spirea on fire with golds, reds, and rusts punctuated with the blue-grey remains of the Stachys, Salvias and some of the grasses.

The Smith's garden is at the top of Linda Vista. It began three years ago as a xeriscape project, removing 25oo square feet of turf. Three years into the project it will no longer need much more than an occasional supplemental watering if a prolonged drought passes through. This fall we removed an additional 17oo square feet that will be planted next spring and mature in another couple of years. The first picture was taken mid-June of this year as the various Salvias and catmint were blooming.

Three weeks ago the Salvia was long gone but the Great Basin Wild Rye grass has taken over the panorama of the garden and combines with the extravagantly colored cushion spurge, spireas and Lo-gro Sumac to form a fall pallette with the background provided by crabapple, chokecherries and cottonwood trees.

The last two pictures are of a commercial xeric landscape on the westside of Missoula. It is intended to represent what the environmental consulting firm that occupies the building does -- restore wetlands, grasslands and forests. In June daisies, Erigeron, Yucca and tender green leaves fill the picture.

Returning for a closer view of the same area this Ocotober brings out the Rubber Rabbit Brush, native Liatris, Silver Sage and cushion spurge, now rust colored after a summer in the sun.

The contrasting views are very different, the bounty of new life and color in spring and the glorious outburst before the decline and deep sleep of winter. Both are exciting and gloriously beauful and gardeners shouldn't shy away from designing for all year round.