The wind seems to be from the northwest and the front yard confirms that.
The drifting side of the house
Insulating blanket of FUN
We woke up to a snowy world! Briar has seen snow before and enjoyed it but was hesitant at first this morning. She got over that soon enough and subsequently went insane with happy bouncing.
More Missouri fluttermill primroses sprouting!!
I checked in my little tupperware and pretty much all the seeds I had taken out of the fridge have now sent out a root. So now I have 11 seedlings or shoots and three unsprouted seeds. All are now in potting soil.
Standing cypress babies
Having seen the two wilty front yard seedlings of standing cypress, I went to check on the backyard ones. Those two seem a little better, maybe, possibly, so maybe some will live? I think of them as a more southerly plant, so fingers crossed.
Snow and melting even at 18°F in the sun
Standing cypress seedlings look pretty wilty in the front yard but I have not checked the backyard ones yet. Lettuce, cilantro, and cabbages I’m unsure how they look (sort of like the sugar snap peas, they could go either way once it warms up).
A single stratification success!!
I checked on some native flower seeds I tried stratifying in the fridge in January. A single Missouri fluttermill primrose was sprouting!!
The big freeze: an outdoor stratification event?
Supposed to be really cold (with highs not above freezing) later this week, so I figured I should get my lately acquired native and wildflower seeds in the ground. These included desert globemallow, blue flax, Liatris mucronata, and mystery Aster sp. (the latter two from Mom, thanks Mom!!). The first three I also put some seeds in the fridge for manual stratification and the first two I saved a bit to try planting in the fall if the spring planting doesn’t take.
I also had a few indoor seedings to catch up on. Judy kindly sent me some Chimayo chile pepper seeds, my Jimmy Nardello peppers never sprouted, my ground cherries only had two sprouts, and the poor Tommy Toe tomatoes died of cat and damping off.
Last book report for tonight I promise: “Gardening with Prairie Plants” by Sally Wasowski
Gardening with Prairie Plants was SO BEAUTIFUL. Mom gave it to me a few weeks ago and it was just filled with magnificent pictures of prairies and prairie gardens throughout the Great Plains. I really also liked how it paid attention to the different regions (wetter and drier, north and south), so it has lots of good info on plants native to each region. It mentioned some medicinal and edible uses of native plants too though it refers to other more complete sources. Did I mention the prairie photos? Definitely added to the favorite references spreadsheet.
Window rearranging
Some guest plants are departing, so the Salvia greggii cuttings are moving into the plant window where it’s safer from the cat.
Rooting Salvia greggii from cuttings in late winter
One of my front yard Salvia greggii got dug up or knocked over by something last year so I took a few cuttings on Jan. 9. As of Jan. 21 I saw some new growth. Today you can see which ones appear to be surviving. I did multiple because I am not always successful, even though I only need one.
