Winterthur Garden Blog

Walking in the garden this week you would not know that we were snow covered for a full 4 weeks prior. Snowdrops, winter aconite, adonis, crocus and spring snowflake are in flower in the Glade Garden, March Bank, Azalea Woods, Quarry Garden, Icewell and East Terrace. Amongst some of the last remnants of snow, hellebores are awakening in the Winterhazel Walk.
All things considered, the garden faired well. Evergreens throughout the property saw the most damage with the hardest hit areas being the Pinetum and the white pine grove in the Visitors Parking Lot. Our greatest loss however was to a Japanese Umbrella Pine, Sciadopitys verticillata, in the Pinetum as a portion of another tree fell into it, completely sheering the umbrella pine of its branches. Cleanup of storm damage occurred while some snow pack was still on the ground as it made it a “less mucky” way of traipsing back in forth as we fetched brush.
Now that the snow—for the most part—is gone we have been busily raking some of the finer debris in preparation for spring. Lawns and woodland bulb display areas have seen an accumulation of twigs, branches, pine cones, and seed pods as well as pockets of leaves. Raking not only gives an instantly neater appearance but also, in the case of lawns, helps to “fluff up” the grass that was been weighed down under heavy snows. Late winter pruning has continued especially on our summer flowering shrubs and “haircuts” have been given to many of our Liriope beds.
The wonderful break in weather has allowed us to gain much headway in our accumulated gardening chores. The longevity of the snow cover however has changed some of our planned tasks—either by a few weeks or delaying it for a whole year but such is the nature of gardening. To complain about it is futile—nature always has the final word and try as you may, you can not argue with that!