Garden Thoughts: January 5th

I spent some time in the garden today. In the summer I spend a lot of time sitting in the garden, but in the spring, fall, and winter I spend a lot of active time in the garden, checking on plants, walking around, standing, making a cup of tea and walking around again. It’s a geriatric hobby, walking in a circle (okay many circles) around the garden, but I did this as a child in my grandma’s garden and it seems a hard habit to break. It was unseasonably sunny, which I was happy about. Still too cold to go out and work without my fleece and hat, but I could actually feel the warmth on my back and I worked today. We’ve still been getting our annual rains but have luckily gotten more sun to break it up.

It is a lot warmer than it should be for this time of year, though. Still cold, but less cold than I’m used to. Almost all my roses still have their leaves, and some are even starting to send off shoots. My salvia, which was supposed to stop blooming with the first frost still has a couple flowers that refuse to let go. And the California poppy didn’t die back as much as it normally does. It’s January, so that means we get the beauty of winter flowering plants! I have some white hellebores and purple hellebores that are starting to bloom. The purple hellebores are on these deep green, nearly black stalks that look very moody. I picked them in contrast to the few white hellebores that I have in the garden, but honestly I don’t know that I made a great color choice. They’re pretty but not great together. The daphne will be out in full by end of week, and it will make the whole backyard smell of jasmine. I love when the daphne blooms. It’s situated to get the most out of the afternoon sun, so on days when it’s sunny here you walk into the backyard and the smell just washes over you. It’s one of the things I look forward to every January.

The Mexican orange bush has started flowering again. Each year I hate it a little less, but it’s still one of my least favorite plants. Last year, for the first time, it smelled of vanilla and orange. I swear the summer before it smelled terrible, so I’m not sure if the growing conditions changed or what was different that made it smell so good last year. Hopefully it still smells good this year, too. And one of them may have saved itself from my wrath because I think there is a hummingbird nest in one of them! I was working in my office and twice saw one hummingbird go up into the bush, followed by another. Each time they went to the same spot and I didn’t see them come back out. And today I saw something really wonderful! A male and female Anna’s hummingbird were flying about a foot off the ground facing each other. Then they started to fly in a circle with one another. Imagine you were dancing with a partner but you weren’t touching. Just facing one another and quickly spinning without losing eye contact. They did this in a few spots in the garden and then flew off together. It was really beautiful and something I’ve never seen before. Hopefully I spot these two again!