Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary

1/17/03 - The very cold weather persists. A news item tells us that, in this area, the winter so far is thirty to forty percent colder than last year, and that the last three winters have been above normal in temperatures. This not only means that my utility bills are much higher, but also that the garden may be affected. In the last few years, some hardy annuals, such as Blue Salvia, have survived the winter to come up in the spring. I am afraid this won't happen this year, and some of the perennials may be damaged. I am anxious to see how the Daffodils that I planted in containers do. I did not protect them in any way, but I think the ones in the back of the house (the sunny, warm side) will be safe--I am less sure about the large container on the front step.
I am a bit disappointed in the results that I am getting in my plant growing in my basement garden. Just planted and on the warming pad are Dahlberg Daisies, Love-in-the-Mist, and Browallia--these should be coming up by the weekend. Under one of the shoplights on another table, I have my early plantings of Begonias--there are three kinds including a planting of the Wings Begonias. These are the seedlings that were hit by damp-off so that only a fraction of the original plantings are surviving. The second planting of Wings looks good, but some of the Impatiens that I took off the warming pad to put here also seem to be damping off. I understood the problem with the first planting of Begonias--I used some left over planting mixture--but I don't know why I am having trouble with the Impatiens, because I used a sterilized container and new planting mixture. Well, I will persevere, replant if I must, and get to the bottom of this problem.
The glass room is one of the real pleasures of my life in winter. Located as it is on the south-east side of the house, on sunny winter days such as we have been having this week, it is a delightful place to be. The room is full of sunshine when I have breakfast and lunch, although by late afternoon the sun has slipped around to the west-northwest. The Christmas cacti and Geraniums are coming into full bloom so that I enjoy my breakfast and lunch not only in sunshine but surrounded by flowers. For next week's picture I plan to show you just how lovely the Cacti and especially the Geraiumns (these are mostly the new colors that I grew from seed) are. This week's picture is of the glass window that Gertrude had put in to replace the regular kitchen window some years before the glass room was built. If you can't manage a glass room, think about a glass window. It is glass all around and projects several feet out from the house interior wall. There are three metal shelves on which I have arranged pots of flowers brought in before the frost: Impatiens, Geraniums, Begonias, Periwinkle Vinca, and some house plants that are there all year. A glass window lets additional light into the kitchen and provides a colorful window of flowers when the outside garden is sleeping.

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