Cold Climate Gardening

It seems here in the U.P. it can’t get warm. Had a couple of days in the 60’s, but it looks like next week will be in the 50’s again with 40’s at night. Well, it is a nice long season for the tulips which are just beginning to blossom, and the daffodils are still doing their thing. The lilacs are just beginning to show flower buds. We’re about 2 weeks later than normal. And it looks like it will be mostly cloudy for the next week with some showers. My tomato plants are tucked into their wals o’ water, and a lot of other things in my new little greenhouse. One way to …

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Well, I did get my walls o’ water up, 6 of them, but haven’t put the tomato plants in yet. Still down to the 30’s here at night in the U.P. We put up a small collapsible greenhouse, and I’ve started putting my geraniums out, as well as the peonies on the front porch. I hope to put in a number of pots of other perennials that haven’t started to grow yet due to the cold weather. We’re actually getting some daffodills starting to bloom, and some early tulips are in bud. The chiondoxa and crocuses are still in bloom. And the grass has finally turned green - where it isn’t damaged by plowed …

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Here we go again. It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas - about an inch of snow, not much by U.P. standards, but more than we like in April. It won’t hurt the bulbs that are on their way up (about 2-3 inches). Got my seedlings that I planted in vermiculite pricked out into better soil - have to go on an emergency trip to California, and the vermiculite dries out too fast. Someone will water for me. Geraniums doing fine on the glassed in porch even though one night it was in the single digits. They do pretty well if they don’t get wet as with rain or dew. At least we …

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Actually found some crocuses in bloom in the lawn, which is still brown. And , a sure sign of spring in the UP, a flock of Canadien geese went over, headed north. Guess we’re going to have apring up here, even if it is going to be in the
thirtys the next few days!

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I noticed some inquires about “Walls o’ Water. These are adverised in many seed catalogs, Park and Jung included. Don’t know if the inquiry about an unheated porch was in reference to mine, but mine is galssed in and warm enough right now to put the potted peony roots, which have already sprouted in the package, out there, though it still can get down in the teens at night. Our present temps get to the 40’s during the day, and the snow is going slowly enough to drain into the ground. Spring is coming to the U.P.

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The snow banks are coming down; we can actually see grass in a few places. The Park’s Whopper and Gardener’s Delight tomatoes are just popping up, and can be put in a sunny window shortly, as are the Nagoya Flowering Kale seedlings. However, I’ve found an infestation of white fly on my large geranium plants ( I have quite a few) and am rinsing the plants off and then treating them with Hi-Yield DySyston, a systemic insecticide. I’ll probably need to treat all of them in that room, even though some aren’t affected yet, and also will wipe all the shelves with a Chorox solution, ans well as soaking the saucers.
I don’t really need this right now. …

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In all fairness to Burpee, I received those seeds from them the day after I said I hadn’t but still several days after Park. They are all (the tomatoes) planted now with the Early Girl up and growing. About roses: in Mich.U.P. I am pretty leery about planting hybrid teas, too, going for shrub roses or climbers that are hardy at least to zone 4. Jung’s has a number of zone 3 and 4 roses listed. John Cabot and William Baffin are zone3 climbers that are hardy left on the trellis. They list some teas that are on their own rootstock. I wonder how those would work up here? I have a zone 3 client who wants to grow …

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