Eranthus (top), Crocus tommasinianus (bottom)
Last week, or the week before that, or the week before that, the warm weather of yesterday, today, and tomorrow would just be prelude to another recurring appearance by the Polar Vortex. We'd be expecting more snow followed by more single digit temperatures...... I think we're making progress: it is supposed to rain Wednesday and get colder through Thursday night but no accumulating snow and only two nights of subfreezing temperatures and no single digits! Wednesday night is cold and Thursday barely creeps above freezing. Thursday night temps in the lower-mid-20's and by Friday we're over 50F again. Hooray.
Today was the most pleasant day I've spent in the Collection for a long time. I weed whipped Epimediums. Like so many evergreens, they are showing signs of the winter. Foliage damage varies from total death to mild burns on many of the larger Chinese species. All of last year's foliage on Hellebores is destroyed, but the cold has prevented the flowering shoots from getting too tall so I was able to selectively whip old foliage from many of them without damaging the flowers. There may have been a little collateral damage but they'll recover quickly.
