Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here today to talk about willows, snowdrops, and me. You may remember me from such posts as “The Dog Star”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
This is me investigating something. I forget what it was. Maybe I saw a mouse; we have a lot of those in the garden.
Here I am again under the purple-leaved Prunus andersonii, looking at something again.
So tomorrow we have another “fire weather” warning.
The last few times we had wind it did dry out a lot of stuff, and the guy I live with says using a lot of native warm-season grasses can make the garden look pretty dry at this time of year, but he also pointed out that we had half again as much water from snow as the average precipitation for last month; on my evening walk he scratched the surface of the canal road and said it was damp an inch down.
This past December was the second-warmest in recorded history, which doesn’t really go back all that far. It’s not unusual to have temperatures of 64F (17.7C) at this time of year, but so many in a row is weird, and the fact that it’s only snowed three times is even weirder. He says “they” say we might get some snow at the end of next week.
The snowdrops certainly haven’t minded the warm temperatures.
The ones in the shade garden are flowering, though there are many more to come. The “header” shows how they’ll look in a few weeks.
These are some he dug up from the path in the shade garden; he said he needs to dig up more, because he keeps stepping on them.
These are extremely vigorous snowdrops and even though they don’t have a name maybe he likes these better because they grow like crazy.
This is Galanthus plicatus subsp. byzantinus again.
Plicatus because you can see that the outer edges of the leaves are folded inwards (the guy I live with said it should really be “explicatus” to make it clearer); byzantinus because it grows near Istanbul (ancient Byzantium).
These would normally be flowering at this time of year anyway, even with a little snow on the ground.
And those are the snowdrops. Now I’m going to post three pictures of the willow at the end of the path that the guy I live with took over the last two weeks or so. Two were posted on Facebook but the last one wasn’t.
There’s a streetlight off to the right that illuminates the green belt, but in different ways, as you can see.
This is the same species of willow I saw on my walk in the park, but the guy I live with says this one is especially photogenic.
That’s all I have for today. I’ll leave you with a picture of me under the arbor.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
If the willow were a Rorschach test, one might see a giant bird swooping down…not to be scary or anything. It’s pretty spectacular.
It is kind of scary, the way it hangs out over the path.
That is quite the contrast. The willow pictures look so spooky while the snowdrops are so cheerful.
Thanks. The willow is pretty spooky, or it can be.
Hmmm. I wouldn’t trust that willow at all. Be careful.
Well there was a time when that one branch hung out farther over the path, but it wass broken by snow. There was a big willow behind it that was completely knocked down at the same time.
Besides the windfall threat I think it just looks sinister as well!
The guy I live with totally agrees.
Snow, if it can destroy willows, is pretty scary in its own right.
The guy I live with says these willows are especially prone to being broken by wet, heavy snow, just like the ones in the park.
They do grow back quickly, but of course the original shape will be lost.
The willow in the pictures is shaped like that because of the snow.The blurry part of the pictures, in the lower right quarter, is new growth from another willow.
Great to see the snowdrops doing so well despite the presence of the scary willow!
The willow is super scary. The guy I live with says the snowdrops are kind of out of control but that snowdrops that proliferate may be better than ones that just sit there.
Without doubt…snowdrops in number, growing vigorously, are always better than pinches of precious gems.
January is typically one of the coldest, driest months. At least the forecast has the driest part right. Sigh. Sure hope we get some moisture. I moved last month to Jefco and the builder installed landscaping at the new house about 10 days ago (I have no idea why now when it’s hard to water by hose until the chance of frost is over and doing it by bucket is the pits). Let’s hope we get some snow by the end of the week. Great pics of that photogenic willow and the snowdrops look fantastic.
Thanks. The guy I live with says it’s kind of weird to plant things now, though he’s seen it done more than once, and that watering will probably have no effect at all since the plants are dormant. (The guy I live with does not water plants in the winter, except for those in active growth, like snowdrops. He’s never lost any plants in winter because of not watering.)
It would be very nice to get some snow, so we don’t have to hear about “fire weather” warnings, like for tomorrow. This seems endless.
The Snowdropss are so lovelee…it msut e grate to see them so much. Wee only see ourss inn April or May up heer. THE TREE!!!!! THE TREE!!!!! It is speck-taculur….absolottely stunnin! Guy took amazin fotoss! An meowin about amazin so are you Mani!!! Wee hope nothin happenss with f-i-r-e warninss’. **nose bopss** BelalDharma an ((hugss)) BellaSita Mum
Thanks; we have “fire weather” warnings again tomorrow.
The willow is very cool and kind of scary; that branch that sticks out was much longer a few years ago and was ever scarier to walk under, though we don’t do that any more because the path to the very end of the green belt was wrecked by too much mowing.
The picturesque willow photos deserve a display in a Denver gallery.
Thanks; the guy I live with says if his wife had taken these pictures then maybe so. Otherwise, they’ll just appear on the blog instead of Facebook.