We have had another freeze and some raw blustery days. The second freeze killed plants that skimped by the first time with a light burn on the outer foliage. 

My two Japanese magnolia trees are ugly; the one in full bloom was damaged all over and is covered with burned and crumpled brown dead flowers. The other one was only flowering lightly so many are still in bud form and were unharmed. The tender perennial “Chinese rain bells” were killed to the soil line but a few long stems were cut off before the cold and maybe they will yield plants in case the parents don’t return.

Early spring-flowering bulbs are opening more blooms daily and they didn’t seem to even notice the icy mornings. Leucojum, jonquils and a few daffodils are showing their bright happy flowers as harbingers that spring is coming. Camellia bushes are opening more flowers each day. 

Last weekend was the Quitman Garden Club’s Camellia Show. Quitman is “The Camellia  City,” the bushes are planted through the town and especially along Court Street. The Betty Sheffield Monument and Garden is on the south side of the Historical Museum. Sheffield discovered the original “Betty Sheffield” and hybridized several more, all named after the first one and each different in color, petals, stamen arrangement or another trait.

The Whitehead Camellia Trail on VSU’s campus is also beautiful. They have an interactive trail guide and names of camellias and some trees along with general information that is heard through your phone. Parking is the only problem, the garden is located on the north side of the campus along Georgia Avenue a long way from the main parking area.

After a freeze is almost like a new beginning. All tender foliage from last growing season is dead, many gardeners leave dead foliage where it melts, usually on top of the plant’s root mass. The reason being, the dead leaf material will provide mulch for the roots. It can be removed after the soil warms and plants begin to grow. 

Some plants you know will not return from the roots, may surprise you if they are in a microclimate that stays a few degrees warmer than the medium air temperature. Plants grouped in a yard out in the open will freeze quicker than plants given some protection by house or building foundations, evergreen bushes, berm of soil and others.

My beautiful, rare ornamental Taiwan cherry tree fell to the grinding jaws of a bulldozer with metal tracks that chewed up anything the jaws missed. The birds that are predators are upset, a portion of their hunting habitat has been removed, where diverse canopied trees grew along the roads, providing food for prey, which the raptors and owls ate, now it is a ravaged and torn border along the roadsides. 

My neighbor’s three 35-feet-tall “Cedars of Lebanon” structural trees that were 40 years old. Scraped bare of life but Mother Nature always wins in the end and it will heal and grow grass, trees and weeds again some future day.

The fall crop of wild green onions are appearing by the thousands with their distinctive smell. They enjoy cold weather and the plentiful rain has them growing fast, they will bloom in spring, each pollinated flower produces a little tiny baby onion (onion sets a.k.a. onion seed}, during summer the onion sets grow, ripen and fall off the scape they were grown on. A wild onion can produce from 10 to 20 new little onions each spring. Onion sets or seed onions can be bought at farmers supply stores, mail order and some big box stores have them with their bulbs.

If your fingers are itching to dig in the dirt, there is still time to plant cabbage plants, greens (lettuce, mustard, turnips, radishes, carrots) from seed that is sown and not planted in rows. If we have a low freeze right after you plant cabbage plants that have not been hardened off, they will be damaged and possibly killed. Chives and parsley grow best during chilly days, they can be started from seed and will be ready to thin out or transplant by mid-April.

If you are wanting to clean up after the freeze, do not prune or trim back any spring-flowering bush, tree or shrub until after they have completed their bloom cycle or you will cut off the flowers they have prepared for spring bloom.

Hopefully these gray days with cold winds and dripping rain will give way to sunny and slightly warmer days.

I will see you in two weeks.

Susan Grooms lives and gardens in Lowndes County.