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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Beautiful. Is it your garden?

I am so not ready for snow.

We put in a wintersweet, Chimonanthus praecox, in front of the porch as we come in from the driveway. A week or so before Christmas it starts flowering, the most beautiful cloud of scent when the air is still and above freezing, and there are always some flowers for the Christmas vase. It keeps blooming until we get a night below around 18 degrees or so, went all the way through January last year.

Siting is a bit tricky...we put it by the porch so that we would be able to smell it every day without trudging through mud, snow and bad weather, and for the few degrees of frost protection that the house gives. It was supposed to be 8 feet tall.but it pushes 15, overhangs on the roof, has coarse ungainly leaves and branches. I keep pruning it back. What it needs is a very strong growing, shade tolerant clematis to justify its summer existence.

There’s a woody Abutilon megapotamicum in a pot on the porch still blooming, has survived several nights at 25 deg. How low will it go?

Zone pushing...fun and folly...


15 posted on 11/25/2022 8:27:15 PM PST by heartwood (Someone has to play devil's advocate.)
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To: heartwood

What growing Zone are you in? Sounds like you’re doing a good job of growing things that you shouldn’t be able to! :)


31 posted on 11/26/2022 6:55:13 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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