Frosty is the word that pretty much sums up the morning on Roundtop Mountain. Last night was cold enough for snow but as nothing fell from the sky, it didn’t. The past few weeks I‘ve spent a lot of time hauling summer plants in and out the front door of the cabin. The plants are sun-deprived if I keep them inside, but the nights are too cold for them. So they are trundled in and out on most days. This morning was even too cold to put them outside for the day, but they can stand a lack of sun for one day.
This year the redbud have been pretty nice, the dogwood not so much. I don’t know if the dogwood are suffering from the fungus I keep hearing about or if they don’t like this season’s odd weather. The quality and quantity of both redbud and dogwood vary from year to year anyway, so it can be hard to tell. One year the redbud is prettiest, the next it’s the dogwood. In a really good year both redbud and dogwood are lush and budding at the same time. That doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does the result is worth the wait.
What scares me a little about the dogwood fungus, named anthracnose, is that it’s supposed to thrive in rainy, cool spring weather. The cool part has been much in abundance this April. I’m hoping the limited rainfall this spring helps to keep that away from here. The fungus is hardest on trees that are stressed, and as far as I can tell, the native dogwood around the cabin are healthy—but I keep checking the leaves whenever I see one of the trees.
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6 comments:
That Redbud is so beautiful! We don't see it growing wild much up here in NE New York, except in people's gardens. But we do get some Flowering Dogwood, which is just coming into bloom. Heaven!
I love redbud, and sometimes my woods looks like redbud soup there are so many of them.
Carolyn H
The redbud is so romantic and frilly:)
Carolyn!
Oh, I can identify with you perfectly! As of this moment, right now, I am ferrying little plants back outside for sun. Last night I took in all my hanging baskets, plus two flats of onions..plus the cole crops, tomatoes, peppers...thankfully we'd not planted them out! It was 32 and crisp here this a.m. I, too, worry about the varying quality of the dogwoods...Thanks for sharing your world with us!
Elora
Jeanette: People often talk about the dogwood not getting large and not looking like a sturdy tree, but to me redbud is the one that's the most spindly-looking. But in spring, that's a gorgeous effect when they are budding!!
Carolyn H
Elora: I'm up to two days without the plants going outside. Today was frosty again, though this is supposed to be the last day for that!
Carolyn H
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