Garden Diary: January 18, 2016

More plant rescues! There is a pile of leaves beside one of the dumpsters. I don't know why it's there, it just has been there since I've been here. Anyway, I was walking by it today and saw something that looked familiar, and realized it was
baby gladiolus bulbs. Somebody had tossed a pot of them out, probably thought they were dead. I pulled them all up and planted them outside the wall. I'll do better by them in the spring, but I needed to put them somewhere and I didn't have any potting soil.

I'm torn as to what to do about my plants tonight. Last night, they said it was going to be 35F and it only went down to 41F. Tonight, they say 29F, and they keep dropping the temps for tomorrow night. It was 27F this morning, and it's down to 25F now. I guess I might as well bring everything in. Accuweather is calling for temps below freezing for 5 hours tomorrow night, so better safe than sorry.

I actually picked my two tomatoes that were turning today and set them in the window. I probably should have left them but these are my first, and probably my ONLY tomatoes this winter, so I wanted to make sure they didn't freeze. The tropical hibiscus are showing the stress. The flowers are very small now, not those gorgeous huge things I've had all summer and fall. One aggravating thing; the pigeon peas are finally getting buds and now they'll probably freeze. I guess I'll just try to keep them alive until next year, or just replant them. The Amaryllis seem like they are never going to go dormant.

This is such a weird winter, and they are calling for February to be unseasonably warm too. Not that I want it to get colder, but I was hoping that the confederate rose would go dormant. I don't know if that's going to happen, but it's pretty sad, so if not, I'll definitely be cutting it all the way down and planting it outside the wall next month. 

Must go bring in plants now.