Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary

12/29/00 - As I did last year, this Christmas I bought two tiny Alberta spruce (Picea glauca 'Conica') to decorate for the holiday season. One is in the living room and the other in the glass-room. I like these living trees both because they are more beautiful, and because I can plant them in the garden after the holiday. I did this last year but made the mistake of putting them out during January with the result that only one survived. This year I am going to keep them in a corner of the glass-room until spring. The growers describe these trees as follows: "Very compact pyramidal evergreen. New soft green foliage has a grayish tinge with maturity. Slow growing to 8-10 feet." I highly recommend these trees when you reach the "down-sizing" stage in your Christmas decoration. Not only are they easier to care for (no dropping needles, for instance), but they are also more attractive, and you can plant them in your garden to enjoy long after the holidays are over. I wish that I had done this years ago--think of all the lovely trees that I would have growing outside!
So far this winter we have had only one light snow that coated the garden just in time to celebrate the day winter officially began. Actually, snow is the gardener's friend--some even call snow the poor man's fertilizer. I am not so sure about that, but snow does protect and retain moisture for the bulbs and roots beneath the ground. Ice is much more to be worried about than snow. My land is on a very slight down-slope that ends in a small stream a few blocks away; consequently, water from a heavy rain often tends to temporarily flood Gertrude's garden. In warmer weather--spring, summer, or autumn-- this is not too important, since the excess water soon drains away, but in winter, if a heavy rain is followed by a sudden cold snap, we have trouble. I remember a winter when, for many months, we had a skating rink for a garden , and the perennials and bulbs suffered. We had such a downpour this month, but luckily the water had drained away before the temperature dropped below freezing.
Over the next few weeks I am going to show you pictures of my home decorated for Christmas. Just as I have tried to keep Gertrude's garden looking at least as beautiful as it was when she was caring for it, I have tried to keep our home looking as nice as Gertrude used to keep it. Christmas was a very special time for her: she sang Christmas carols and even recited Christmas stories in German at church functions. This picture was taken in the glass-room and shows one of the little Alberta spruce decorated for Christmas--it is surrounded by Christmas cactus and the orange tree.

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