Winter placed its chilly hands on the garden these last two days, including gifting a thin layer of ice in the backyard birdbaths this morning. But the weather pattern is in flux with each passing day as the march toward winter’s end and spring’s beginning commences here in Central Texas. Later this week, the forecast is for high 70s, possibly warmer. Even without that warm smooch, the plants in my garden are raring to go and ramping up for the 2024 growing season.
On a cloudy day last week, I noticed (as yet uneaten) fruit on the Possumhaw Holly, Ilex decidua, keeping company with emerging new foliage. I like this great example of seasonal transition period. Blue Jays, Northern Mockingbirds, and Grey Squirrels are feasting on the fruit, but I’m waiting for a flock of Cedar Waxwings to swoop in and render the fruit a sweet memory.
Four-nerve Daisy, Tetraneuris scaposa, never stops blooming, though some of mine were freezer-burned in January during a very cold week. Now? The sunny yellow blooms are spring-bright and open for pollinator business.
This small (maybe?) native Halictidae bee found a sweet spot for nectar sipping and pollen gathering one afternoon. I didn’t disturb its hunt for the sweet stuff as I puttered in the garden.
Four-nerve Daisies are barely damaged by most freezes, but in the above photo, on the right side, you can see a bloom stalk that would have flowered in late January, except for that one deep-frozen week. The other bloom stalks emerged post-hard freeze.
On another day, another, different native Halictidae bee, busily works a daisy bloom.
Some of the earliest blooms in my garden (and occasionally some of the latest) are Spiderworts; a handful have emerged from green foliage to grace the garden and feed hungry pollinators. A favorite early flower for many types of bees, from mid-March until mid-May, my garden will be awash in an array of purple-to-pink blooms.
Those plants whose blooms appear later in spring and summer are flushing out with verdant foliage, like this rosette of Blue Curls (also called Caterpillars), Phacelia congesta.
A couple of young Blue Curls accompany a robust rosette of American Basket-flower, Centaurea americana. Both promise plenty of flowering and pollinator action later this year. The rich green foliage is a welcome change from winter’s muted tones.
This potted American Century Plant, Agave americana, enjoys some foliage friends in the form of one European Poppy (right), a Blue Curl (left), and a front-n-center Carolina geranium, Geranium carolinianum.
I grow five Desert Globemallow shrubs, Sphaeralcea ambigua. This gorgeous plant is a cool season bloomer here in Central Texas and requires full, blasting sun and decent drainage. Ruffly, sage-green leaves pairs beautifully with Dreamsicle orange blooms.
This globemallow withstands hard freezes, but if the temperature falls in the the teens–or lower–damage will occur. My shrubs experienced some freeze damage in January’s freeze, but all are producing blooms on the healthy stems–much to a variety of bees’ delight.
Honeybees are out and about, collecting for the the hive!
I fed the honeys during that cold week, but there’s been enough flowering (I think…) during most of this winter, plus both hives had honey stores. Our first hive check is on the to-do list for this next week to assess how the ladies are and how much honey, if any, remains from last season.
I’ve been engaged with winter pruning of the garden, but I’m nearly done. I let leaves remain on the ground, further protecting and nourishing life, and eventually decaying for future growing seasons.
The garden has awakened, its inhabitants ready to live and reproduce. Plants and critters are in sync with their companion life-cycles.
It begins, anew.
My Gardener Says... 
Spiderwort and globe mallow flowers already: how nice for you.
The forecast I heard for the coming midweek high is 81° or 82°—not unusual for an occasional February day here.
There’s a possumhaw around the corner from us that had plenty of fruit on it but when we passed by a few days later there wasn’t a single spot of red. I suspect the cedar waxwings you mentioned had paid a visit.
Happy incipient spring.
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The globe mallow just about always bloom best in cool fall, winter, spring. But, if we have a really hard freeze, no blooms. Sniff. Spiderwort usually start about now, though their main time is March, April, May.
I saw that it might get that hot. Ugh. But you’re not wrong: while our warmer temperatures are becoming earlier and hotter, it’s never been that odd to have a few days of heat in February. I’m just hoping that there’s no hard freeze in March. That would be a killer.
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It’s exciting to see that your garden is reawakening, Tina, thank you for sharing its first steps into early spring. We will have to wait another month or two for our garden to awaken from its winter sleep.
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The awakening is 3-4 weeks earlier than it used to be, but I guess that kind of oddity is true for everywhere these days. I’m glad we’ve had some good, cold temperatures this winter, and I hope there are still plenty of days in the upper 30s and 40s.
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Viewing your post is like waking up in a dream world, Tina. Enjoy the unfolding! It’ll be a while yet for us, but glad to know it is coming!
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You’re still super snowy, so it must be really bizarre to see emerging green and unfolding blooms. Your turn will come. 🙂
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That it will. 🙂
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Thanks for sharing your awakening garden with us! It’s quite timely for me, as I was eyeing the many Carolina geraniums in my yard over the weekend, wondering just how many I should pull, and how many to leave. I wasn’t 100% on the id, and your helpful link gave me just the information I needed to know. Ditto on the American basketflower rosette – I planted seeds for the first time last fall (thanks in part to your inspiration), and wasn’t sure what I should be looking for. Happy spring, and thanks for all of your wonderful and informative posts!
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You’re welcome! It’s an exciting time of year in the garden, everything new and fresh.
Watch out for those basket-flowers. I love them, I really do, but they seed out in gobs. Also, you might prune them regularly, rather than letting them grow tall. They respond well to pruning and become bushy, rather than long-n-lanky. Hope you have a great growing season!
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I’ll keep that pruning tip in mind, thank you. I don’t know how one goes about uploading a photo to the Wildflower Center website, or if you’d even be interested in doing so, but I didn’t see a single photo on their website that shows the rosette (out of 153)!
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Your garden is looking good. Not so many blooms in my and most plants are just sending up blooms from the freeze. We are also heading to the 80s. When I moved here from the cold north over 40 years ago, I thought all the winter were warm. Back home high 50s and 60s was shorts weather and if it was sunny, one could sunbathe.
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We’re also heading to the 80s, though low 80s. I hope. Things will get greener and more colorful with each passing week–unless there’s a late freeze.
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I’ve never known what the early leaves of basket-flowers look like, and seeing yours, I’m tempted to think I’ve come across them and mistaken them for something else — like a thistle or common dandelion. I’ll have to pay more attention. I sure smiled at your spiderworts. I found the first of the season last weekend, but they weren’t so nicely sited as yours; they were growing in an area where feral hogs had been digging things up.
I have a strong sense that everything is going to be early this year, although ‘early’ is a relative term. Some of the wildflowers I’m seeing have shown up even earlier. Building up an archive of photos over the year is more useful than I ever realized it would be; it’s lots of fun going back and looking for patterns.
The gurus here are saying our last coldish weather of the winter/spring will probably be the end of February, and freezes are gone for the year. I’m hoping that our substantial rains will bring a good wildflower crop. I’m doing my best to figure out how to get some time off to go wandering!
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My sense is like yours, we’re mostly done with the really cold. At this point, with things emerging and budding, I hope that’s true. There’s nothing more heartbreaking in the garden than a super hard freeze in mid or late March.
Like you, I have some archival material (notes, photos) that help me observe and track changes from year-to-year. Interesting, sometimes disheartening.
Feral hogs–fortunately not something we have to deal with here. Yet. 🙂
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Wow, you are in full-swing garden mode now! Most years I would be extremely jealous, but only a little this February. We are having unseasonably warm weather (for us), and plants are starting to sprout and even bloom. Yay. Lovely to see all the blooms and pollinators in your garden. Thanks for sharing!
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I just looked at your latest post and noticed you’re greening up a bit too. It’s both thrilling and concerning when there’s not much of winter left.
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