Winter's Arrival

Inkberry 1/29/20

Well we didn't get out of it quite that easy, winter's snowfall finally arrived the day after my last post and since that time it has snowed 4 or 5 times 2-4 inches each and a couple days were quite cold, in the single digits with lows falling to few degrees below zero. The snowdrops have been buried since which is of course a good thing when its expected to be cold. This year is reminding me of last winter in terms of snow when we had no snow until mid January until it all came at once- hoping February wont be quite as snowy as last years. Above is an Inkberry Holly I planted last summer, this is supposed to be evergreen in our area an great for part sun sites and so far that has remained nice and green. We will see how it does and winter wears on.

1/29/20

  One huge different so far from last year though is cold, it hasn't yet been nearly as extreme last year, it fell to -20 but so far the coldest it has been is -5.F. It's an easy winter for this Southern Magnolia being tested for hold hardiness in my backyard. Remarkably it still has retained all of its leaves well and they are even very green. Prolonged cold temperatures caused the leaves of this tree to turn brown- if successful ( fingers crossed ) those leaves will fall off and new growth leaves will return in May. This is the second attempt at trying this species for me. Year 1 I had significant die-back by half but the tree did survive the winter, the remaining half was killed in the winter of 2019 when we had that low of -20.F. Hoping for better luck this time around.

Little Lucky 1/29/20

The Dinos are a fan of winter- low humidity and cool temperatures kill any rust formation- Much better then the humid rainy Iowa summers.