When I visit garden centers in the spring and summer I seem to have a hard time remembering to buy plants that will carry my garden through the winter. I forget all about my intention to buy a cartload of evergreens when I walk down an aisle of any other plant coming into leaf or bloom. I’m sure I’m not alone. (Or am I?) But it didn’t take a very long walk around Blithewold in this frigid weather to find that there are plenty of plants that could catch my eye at the nursery – and keep a good hold of it now.

I get sweetspire (Itea virginica) and summersweet (Clethra alnifolia) completely confused in my head, always thinking one is the other. I wish, back when I bought a clethra for my garden that I had remembered that it’s itea that colors up so beautifully in the fall and waves red flags right into December. (Of course I do love that clethra blooms almost by itself in August…) Oak leaf hydrangea is also stunningly multicolored in the cold.

Gail confuses agave and yucca, which is so funny because their differences are very obvious to me. (Of course they are in the same family and Gail’s the one who keeps clethra and itea straight for me.) And while I generally think agaves are the coolest plants, it’s yucca that can take the cold.

It never occurred to me that Toad lily (Tricyrtis hirta) could be as beautiful in seed as it is in bloom. And I think the purple moor grass (Molinia caerulea ‘Variegata’), with its curly blond tresses, is even more beautiful dormant than it ever was growing.

I have a deep appreciation for the evergrey of lavender – and have planted quite a few of those in my garden but I never noticed before today how silvery the slender deutzia (Deutzia gracilis ‘Nikko’) is.

What plants are carrying your garden into December?

The closer it gets to the holidays – and as the weather slides to the darkest, coldest time of year, the more I think about food. I know I’m not alone. Birds are hungry too. We don’t hang feeders here – there would be no way to keep up with them not to mention we’d need a separate and sizable budget to fund them. But we do offer a few natural breakfast buffets in the gardens and grounds. And after walking around looking for bird food, I have a whole new list of plants that I know need in my own starving garden.

Rather than cut everything back for the winter we leave some seedheads – like rudbeckia and echinacea – in the gardens because they are goldfinch favorites. Seed-eating birds also enjoy certain grasses like the Panicum virgatum ‘Heavy Metal’ planted at the Carriage House (matching the color of the cedar shingles exactly right now) as well as the goldenrod growing wild at the edge of the Bosquet.

Cedar waxwings love their namesake eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana). I had a hard time finding berries to photograph, perhaps because the birds have already come through, or the squirrels got there first, or maybe it just wasn’t a good year for berries with all the heat and drought. I wonder too about the bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica) because I couldn’t find a single berry on any of our plants (and I’m sure we have some females among them). The waxy fruit ripens in September (I have to admit I’ve never paid attention then) and it’s possible birds – any of dozens of different varieties – found them long before I looked. Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) and Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) berries are already stripped too.

Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) and crabapples (Malus sp. – especially ones with very small fruit like ‘Prairifire’) are into-winter favorites for a lot of different birds. The fruit has to freeze and thaw before being soft enough to gobble up, which gives us gardeners a chance to glean some (visual) sustenance too during our darkest, starved-for-color season.

I know this is a short list – I didn’t touch the viburnums… What do you have in your garden that birds love to eat this time of year and through the winter?

The Mayflower (Korean spicebush/Viburnum carlesii) is in bloom along with the tulips – which makes me think it must be May … but there’s snow in the forecast (a very slight chance) for Sunday … That can only signify that we’re still solidly in April. Whatever month it is, it’s a beauty.

It’s not often that we get to see everything blooming at once. And now that the temperatures have lowered, we should get a sustained show. Even the daffodils are still stupendous – aside from the ‘Ice Follies’ which, like me, are starting to show their age.

Here is a little preview of flowers in honor of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. I have to say that if I hadn’t visited Mr. McGregor’s Daughter‘s bloom day post, I never would have known to look for the bloom on the ginger (Asarum canadensis) in the Rock Garden. Is there anything here – or in another blogger’s bloom day post – that you would have otherwise missed seeing in your garden?

According to my calendar we’re running a little ahead of schedule in the gardens. We’ve divided and moved a few perennials; we’ve cut almost everything back that needed to be (except a climbing rose or two); and we’ve even hooped the biggest peonies, which have already set ant-covered buds. (If you see ants on your peonies, don’t worry. The ants don’t do any damage to the buds and may even help protect the plants from other critters. Contrary to popular belief though, peonies do not need the ants’ help to open the buds.)

Just because we’re ahead of schedule doesn’t mean that we’re catching up with what needs to be done – I figure we’ll be about caught up by this time next year. And just because some signs have been pointing to May lately, that doesn’t mean that any of us should put our tender houseplants outside or plant tomatoes just yet. But next week, after checking the long term forecast, we might put the sweet peas out to harden off…

And just because there’s a little rain (and snow) in the weekend forecast doesn’t mean it’s a bad time to visit Blithewold. You can always escape the weather in the greenhouse…

I have always gone to nurseries armed with a carefully researched wish list but seem to have trouble sticking to it. Nursery owners have it figured out and I know I’m not the only person who absolutely can’t resist the perfect whatever-it-might-be in full glorious bloom. Whatever I went to the nursery for in the first place is inevitably simply leafy and sort of sad in comparison and I can never remember why I even wanted it.

Well, I remember now: if only I had a witch hazel to look at from my kitchen window, or a Japanese giant pussy willow. I wouldn’t be nearly so impatient for February to end. I’m glad we’re able to stick to our guns here and plant the things that fill out the year – if only to remind me to be a little less impulsive.

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Diane’ can reach about 12′ tall and wide and I didn’t detect any fragrance – but it is a cold and windy day… It started opening around Valentine’s Day and by the looks of some of the buds, it will go on for a bit longer. I know I’ve already gone on and on in previous posts about the Tim Burton-esque flowers and clearly I can’t stop taking their picture either.

You might be sick of me raving about Salix chaenomeloides ‘Mt. Aso’ too but if it wasn’t for a comment on my last post, I’d have forgotten all about it this year. That wouldn’t happen if it lived in my garden. Ours is already about 8′ around and 4′ or so tall. In my garden I would have to coppice it (willows are perfect candidates for cutting back hard) – and probably still give it more space than I have.

Have you talked yourself out of either of these – or any other winter bloomer – by the time you’re planting in the spring?

As you all know, this past Tuesday was the Feast of the Presentation of the Prophet Phil. I celebrated and paid homage as usual but I think I might be losing faith in The Groundhog.

The sun was shining in Punxutawney, PA and Phil saw his shadow. According to tradition that means we’ll have 6 more weeks of winter weather. But here in Bristol, it was cloudy that day. If our woodchuck, a lay rodent, had been ceremoniously yanked from his burrow, it wouldn’t have been the sun sending him scurrying back to bed. Not only that, but other signs seem, to me, to be pointing directly at spring’s corner. Just this week the birds  started to sing again – I heard mourning doves this morning – and the late winter, spring-predicting flowers are showing their colors. The sun is high enough to warm the greenhouse and I could swear that the silhouette of the trees has just changed – I think they’ve filled out a little. I prefer to think that spring is right around the corner – my gut says it’s only 6 weeks away.

Do you believe (in) Punxutawney Phil or the other indicators of spring?