Hello there to all my frozen fellow flower freaks! Don’t know about y’all, but I am so over winter and am ready for warm weather. Tonight is back down to 23 and tomorrow night 30, which means we will have suffered through six nights of below, and WAY below, freezing temps by the time Wednesday rolls around with warmer temps of 60s/40s. ~sigh~ That’s six nights too many for me.
How are your plants doing? Don’t forget to give them some water cause that cold and lots of wind dries them out quickly. And plants that are dry will get cold damage quicker than hydrated ones. I know by the weekend everyone is gonna be out in our gardens inspecting for that cold damage on the plants. I highly recommend not doing any pruning for a couple of reasons: 1. Pruning causes a plant to try to put out new growth, 2. Even cold damaged plant parts help protect the rest of the plant from future cold snaps. Remember that we still have January and February to go through, with March 18th being our last frost date. But we all know from experience that Mother Nature doesn’t always respect that last frost date. lol So the plants don’t need any tender new growth sprouting. I like to think we got all of our really cold days over with, but I doubt it. So, remember … just step away from the pruners. We’ll have plenty of time coming up very soon to do pruning.
The only plants from Bella’s area that I took inside for the winter are the tender perennials: Aloe, Firebush, Variegated Crinum Lilies, and Dwarf Powderpuff trees. All the others are either native or extremely hardy non-natives that do fine in our winters. In my daily walkabouts, it looks like a lot of plants did pretty good handling the cold. Please know that I will not sell a plant unless I’m positive it survived the extreme cold. I won’t know about the perennials until spring, so I’ll reduce their in stock numbers on the website.
The good news is I’ll start getting new plant orders in the first week of January! It’s been a little while since I did a “New To The Boutique” post, so I’m excited to be starting them again. The biggest change for 2023 will be adding plants in larger container sizes, i.e., 7-, 10-, and 15-gallon, and I can do 30-gallon size by special orders. I concentrated mostly on getting native perennials in this year, but next year you’ll see lots more native tree and shrub selections available. Trust me, I have only scratched the surface of what plants Bella will have in stock for your gardens. As always, let me know if you’re looking for a plant not listed on Bella’s website and I’ll check with my suppliers to see if they grow it.
Keep in mind that, even with the cold we just went through, October through March is the best time in our area to plant hardy trees, shrubs, and perennials. Spring and Fall are the second best times, with summer being the third best.
The plant pics are all ones that start blooming anywhere from late winter to spring. That, my friends, is what we have to look forward to very soon. All are in stock with the exception of the Carolina Jasmine, I’ll have that one available soon. Click on the name under the pics to go their website pages. The pic at the top of the page is Phlox Pink Native Azalea.
Happy diggin’ in the dirt!
Happy diggin’ in the dirt!
Jeanni and Ziva
Bella Jardins Boutique
Beautiful Gardens Begin Here
