It’s warming up. It was almost pleasant on our walk this morning.
this is actually a spring photo of Arctostaphylos patula, but placed here for dramatic effect
So why, why, before it warmed up, did it have to get so cold last night? “Warming up” means “getting warmer”, not getting colder first then getting warm. Stupid, stupid weather. Stupid weather. What an affront. Most of the plants I put in last year look okay right now, but they’re probably really dead. Stupid weather.
Four below zero. That’s minus 20 Celsius, but somehow, the “below zero” sounds vastly more sinister. Below zero…… “You think things are bad right now, wait until I drag the poor plants down below zero.” I might have been able to hear them screaming last night, but the dog was snoring.
One way to warm up as nature intended.
Another way. Similar, but less work. Surprising how a large quantity of El Yucateco makes all the worries about weather go away, just like that. Weather is suddenly the last thing to think about. 
More pictures to cheer me up. Some plants have had their pictures posted here previously, but, to paraphrase Whitman, “Do I repeat myself? Very well then; I repeat myself.”
Allium platycaule
Asclepias asperula
Mertensia lanceolata, the ultimate springtime flower in Colorado
Mentzelia decapetala, taken at night
Lewisia rediviva
Lewisia tweedyi
a seedling hellebore
delosperma ….I forget which one ….
datura
calochortus venustus
viola pedatifida
peraphyllum ramosissimum
sempervivum, I forget which one. I wouldn’t even put a caption on this, but if I don’t, the picture goes to never-never land; I don’t know why.
escobaria vivipara
physoplexis comosa ….not too hard to see why Cindy took so many pictures of this plant
physaria, vitulifera I think; there were hybrids between it and P. bellii in the same garden
phlox ‘Mary Maslin’
pelargonium endlicherianum
the miserable gardener 
The soft pink escobaria vivipara is a color variant I’ve never incountered before. Very nice!! I’ve seen a couple with icy pale blue flowered indeviduals.
Oh, ice blue. Think I need that. I consistently underrate E. vivipara, maybe because it grows so agonizingly slowly here. Have maybe seven different ones, but mostly small plants from Mesa G.I’m getting more this year, though.
Some incredible gems there, Bob … and beautifully photographed of course.
I regret to say that some are no longer here. Lewisia tweedyi got pittosporum pit scale, from penstemons, and I had to remove it, and for some reason haven’t acquired another one. The viola is one I tried from seed repeatedly, and then one year, seedlings appeared in the troughs, right where I wanted them.
The physoplexis is still here, though one of the dogs wiped out the oldest plant when he stood on the trough containing them, so he could look over the fence. A well-known European rock gardener visited a while back, looked at it, and said “Is veed”.
That’s what I say to everything now. Is veed.
The Delo is Delosperma dyeri. The white Viola is to die for. More! MORE! I’m STILL not satisfied!
Thought it might be dyeri but didn’t want to commit myself.
More, of a sort, today.
This cold is killing me, but at least I’m not in NM where I think it’s at least as cold. Here I can handle it…and your promise-to-come photos warm me up.
The El Yucateco is for warming up. Endorphins and all that.
I do find that the older I get, the less my knees and other arthritic parts enjoy the cold. Tucson sounds nice. I notice they got more rain last year than I did here, though that’s not saying much.
On the other hand, if you can’t complain, what fun would gardening be? 50s here today.
Serious plant porn here. I love learning about new (to me) plants & this post had several for me to explore further! Incredible photography! I utilize a similar weather worry therapy but substitute vodka for the El Yucateco.
Maybe three fingers of El Yucateco in the vodka. They have regular (brownish) and red, too. I forget which one is the hottest, like it matters.
Do you still have the Phlox ‘Mary Maslin’? I’ve been trying to find it everywhere
I do. It doesn’t set seed. (It set one seed one time and I reached to grab it and it flew into the air.)
You can’t get any of the Mexican phlox anywhere, as far as I know.
I’m here in San Diego, I think the mexican phlox’s would thrive here. Where are you located? I see habanero sauce and snow, an interesting combination 🙂
Denver. See “About”. I think it’s safe to say that the Mexican phloxes are gone from the horticultural trade.
Do you have any rooted/unrooted cuttings/divisons available of ‘Mary Maslin’? I am a collector, willing to trade
No, sorry. You can email me at penstemon@q.com, or petuniaman@q.com, by the way. (I don’t know why that email doesn’t show up in About, but I haven’t done much with the features on the blog.)
Will do!