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Cottage Gardens

First rain! Let the season begin

17 years ago

Our first rain is here!

In my garden today the foliage colors are bright and clean. All the fall dust is washed away. Oakleaf hydrangea, snowball viburnum, barberry, and strawberries are beautifully red. The white seed heads on the tallow trees glisten with raindrops. All that and roses still blooming.

Winter brings so many hopes that this year will be one with plenty of rain. And bareroot time is just a few weeks away!

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Comments (7)

gldno1
17 years ago
I am happy for you! We have been dry for over two years now. We got a wonderful 3 inches before it froze and the snow fell. We are just now beginning to see ground again. I think we are still behind about 3 inches for the year.

Yes, let's hope for a wonderful wet spring.
PattiOH
17 years ago
How nice that your rain has arrived! I have fond memories of my crazy Californian cousins dancing bareheaded in the rain every time they visited us in the East.

Enjoy!

PattiOh
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Interesting, promethean. My seedin onions are already growing out in the cold. Lastyear (Jan 09) I planted these very small seed onions. Obviously they wintered. In the spring time some of them flowered(mostly red ones) but most did not. I actually collected some seeds from those. I think seed onions were bigger than 3/16", maybe good 1/4". So that tells me that biggers seed onions might get confused. Nice to know. I have planted some seed onions this past December, some two weeks ago and I will plant some more next week. This way I will have a rough experiment to find out which timing does better. ALL I CAN SAY IS THIS; INTERNET IS GREAT. I WONDER HOW AND WHAT DID THE GARDENERS DO BEFORE INTERNET!!!
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Congrats to you Jeff!! It is so exciting to see the butterflies coming back and laying eggs. I am watching my fennel, but no eggs or cats yet. I am currently overrun though with Monarch cats which is very odd for me at this time of year. I counted 28 chrysalides and 8 cats inside my little tent today, and my Common MW in the yard is covered with cats. Had a raggedy pale female up there today laying her eggs all over what is left of the CMW plants. WOW. I do have some Butterfly Weed that is in pretty good shape. I tried to convince her to go down and lay on it! :o)
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Kool Knight really looks great! Better than I've seen in other pics. We're due for more rain too. Amazing. We've gone from something like 12 inches last year to 34 inches. Both my rain barrels are full. and with tadpoles. But I see mosquito wigglers in there. I thought the tadpoles would eat them. Anybody know?
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Comments (17)
Thank you all for looking and commenting! Joanna, that's a NOID dyckia in the foreground. I love how the bright orange blooms set off the gray leaves. Your're correct about that being a Euphorbia next to it, a 'gopher plant' in this case. Susan, I'll send you a message through Howzz. Marti, the tree in the 3rd photo was labeled Texas smoke tree . I love this little multi trunked tree for it bright lime green spring foliage which turns bright yellow in the fall. Texasgin, the tall blue flower plants are the rediculously-easy-to-grow Larkspur. Just plant a six pack, let them go to seed and you'll have them for evermore. They bloom until early to mid summer. With the rain this year some of them are 6 ft. tall! I start pulling them when they are done blooming, waiting until some go to seed which I shake around. The seed sprouts in the fall and spends the winter as a rosette. They bloom in white and pink also, but I pull them as I only want the blue. Now I hardly ever get anything but the blue ones. If you're not talking about either of the two dyckia plants which are blooming the other orange flowered plant is Gray globemallow, another easy to grow plant. Pam Penick features them in this blog. Oh happy day -- we're getting some rain in San Antonio this morning.
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todancewithwolves
17 years ago
We also had good rain, not the first, but the hardest so far. It was like a Winnie the Pooh kinda blustery day. Blew the leaves off the trees that refused to let go of foliage. The air smells so fresh and new.

Can hardly wait for bareroots. Can't get any, have no room, but I can look :-)

Edna
BecR
17 years ago
Yup, we had a nice rain here as well. Just as Edna described-- a Winnie the Pooh blustery kind of day. I love the smell of rain...

I've got one bareroot on the way, not sure about having room though:-0

Becky
fammsimm
17 years ago
We're still waiting for a good rain. I live near a lake that is 14 feet below normal. Due to safety concerns, all the boat ramps ( but one) have been closed for months and the one remaining open is scheduled to be closed in a week.

I'd love to have a week of nothing but a slow, soaking rain. Send some our way. :-)

Marilyn
homenovice
17 years ago
So nice to turn off the sprinkler system! Rain substantial enough to wash off the dust from previous weeks of dry Santa Ana winds. Everything is sparkling this morning. We're supposed to get rain next weekend, too.
FlowerLady6
17 years ago
Happy to hear that so many of you have gotten some much needed rain. We could use some here too as we've just gotten some sprinkles and that's not near enough needed these days. Enjoy those indoor days as the rains soak your gardens and wash the dust away.

FlowerLady

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