Gardening Challenge Coming
A gardening challenge in the way of a very late and possibly hard freeze this weekend is headed to the Albuquerque area. The “average frost free date” for much of the time I have been here has hovered around April 15. Late freezes are not entirely unknown, however. We had a hard freeze in May of 2005. An Arrangement School was held at the same time as the Albuquerque Rose Show at the end of May. I still smile at the number of “Betty Boop” roses featured in rose arrangements that year, as well as in the show itself. That happened before we had rose photography in our rose shows. Floral photography does allow shows to thrive even with all the challenges of gardening.
This year, many of my roses have bloomed earlier than usual. However, I have a couple that I have babied that will be damaged by a hard freeze now. I’m also a little worried about the developing peaches and pears in my yard. I’ll keep an eye on the forecast and see what I can do to protect some of the plants.
Tim and Laurie, whom many of you know, face more difficult and frequent challenges in their gardening in Corrales, along the banks of the Rio Grande. However, once the freezes end in the spring, their property is full of lush floral growth.
These following images are from their yard in mid-May of 2016.
Beautiful Climbing Roses
Iris
More Iris
Even More Iris
Even More Beautiful Iris
For those in the Albuquerque area, watch the weather forecasts. Good luck with your tender plants if the late hard freeze really happens.
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The iris are blooming but only Lady Banks and Austrian Copper of our roses have bloomed. There are many roses thinking about blooming.
Hi, Tim. I’ve had a lot of roses blooming, some almost bloomed out. Gemini had a lot of blooms already, but has new ones coming on. St Patrick has buds at all stages. Veterans’ Honor will be hurt if we hae a hard freeze. Mermaid is just getting to bloom, and a hard freeze would ruin those, although they would come back pretty quickly. (I have more weeds than anything, at the moment! 🙁 )
Such beautiful photos! Our roses haven’t thought about blooming yet. The irises are forming buds now. Still cool and wet up here in Oregon.
Hi, Lavinia. Thank you! I went out and tried to take some pics in the yard this morning, knowing what is coming. The wind has been bad, and it is blowing now, but there was a calm spell early this morning.
Tim and Laurie have beautiful property, and there is *always* something to photograph there, no matter the time of year. The irises were spectacular last year. Thanks for stopping by today. 🙂