In the past few weeks we have had incredible ups and downs in temperature. Since about the 8th of November it’s been mostly down, way down. The week before it was in the 60s and 70s and then January came out of nowhere. Nights have been down in the 20s and our heating system in the house has been running overtime.
Even with these extremes in weather I’ve witnessed something amazing happen. The iris corms that I planted earlier in the fall actually started to sprout. They’ve been rained on, snowed on, frozen and thawed and they are still green and growing. For instance on Tuesday it snowed, then it warmed up and the little green leaves were still as bright and perky as can be.
The other plant that has me completely flabbergasted is the Nippon Montauk Daisy that is planted in a container on my back patio. My tremendous pregnant belly has precluded me from bringing in all my potted plants by myself so this plant and others have braved the cold, snow and freezing. Every time it warms up even a little – like into the upper 30s – the leaves bounce back and it doesn’t look wilty anymore.
I’ve only got a few more weeks before the baby comes. With what little energy I have left I’ve been trying without much success to get my winter sowing started. Last year I think I started too late and left too few “breathing” holes in the containers to be successful. Just seeing how resilient these plants have been makes me want to try again.