Where the Hades did winter go...did it ever happen?

This is about the only real verification that there is something even close to a concept of winter in San Diego! I would like to re-phrase a common expression to this statement: "The summer is not over in San Diego until the fat frog sings!" Now, if I were a logical person which ultimately I am not; I would assume that as long as the Fat Frog sings it must be winter or at the latest maybe spring? I don't know, I still keep getting confused. I've got tiny apples on my trees and most of the flowers are done. The Pineapple quava is pumping up to bloom soon. Some of the weeds are chest-high due to El Nino's gratuitous nature!

OK, I am sorry, but I am from the northern part of the midwest. Bulbs and bulb-like things hold a special place in my gardening heart! Please forgive me if I become more specific than a more general gardening audience might like...still if you are willing to hang on I am sure you will find something of interest to you.

What I have learned from bulbs is a very important lesson about plants in general. This is, I would assume, the most appropriate time to open this discussion! We still have winter on our minds even though some of us Southern Folk may not have even felt it! Plants adapt to the presence of water and light. For the most part these two things determine their adaptations to survival. If we suffer ourselves this over-simplification of adaptation of species of plants some things become very simple to understand the needs of the plants in our own garden.

Given #1: The day is either short or long if you live in a "temperate" zone. Shorter day length simply means less heat available to air, water and soil. This provides clues to many plants and animals.

Given #2: The rains naturally fall at different times of the year, where there are recurrent dry and wet cycles each year. Many areas have a period of drought each year. (Not necessarily attached to temperature considerations.) What are the mechanisms in plants to conserve water and prevent unnecessary loss? Rainfall is a complex mechanism that is governed by many things like mountains, oceans, forests, and prairies...but that is a very big 'other' story to go into especially because so many of those natural features have been changed to suit our modern technological needs!

Given #3: Temperature...more specifically temperature below freezing (32 degrees Farenheit). Water (H2O) is an unusual molecule that really should be a solid when it is a liquid as we know it. I am not a chemist so don't ask me to back this up! All that I know is that if it were not for the incredible design within nature that Darwin touched upon plantlife and perhaps all of life would not exist as it is today! For the sake of argument let us leave out most of the lower and higher organisms. Let's just deal with plants. Take a plant growing in the tropics and put it outside during a Canadian winter blizzard. What happens? Have you ever put a soda or a beer in the freezer...need I say more? This is what happens to the cells of plants that are not "prepared" for the cold! Tell you what...If you were a tree and you struck it really rich this year and you had such a tremendous growth...if you knew winter was coming what would you do? You would withdraw as much as you could from that growth and let the rest fall. Most of the moisture would be drawn deep into the trunk and roots of the tree where there is no ill effect from the freezing cold! (Please note that as I write this I DO attribute much of this to the movie "Being There" , starring Peter Sellers and Shirley Maclaine; where Chauncey Gardner, alias a sensitive but intellectually challenged estate caretaker left to fend on his own when his master dies....ok get the story somewhere else but you will find it a remarkable one!!!)

Water-filled cells burst and then implode when frozen. Anything that remains within that frozen environment is essentially living in a DESERT!!! Any plant or embryo of a plant must be able to withstand this period of extreme drought. Since all of the water is frozen there is no available moisture (as long as the water remains frozen). Extreme cold is nothing more than extreme drought! A bulb or a seed in 12" of frozen soil is no different than the same in the soil of an absolutely dry desert!

What if we coat those seed embryos with nearly moisture-proof covering. What if we move aggregates of plant cells underground away from points #3 freezing (absence of fluid water) and #2 dehydration (total absence of water) due to lack of rain? Voila! Thus became the humble potato, the exalted lily and the curn of wheat!

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Now for some common garden sense:

Ask yourself...where do my plants come from? Climate is a primary consideration. Climate that is defined by light, rainfall, and temperature. A plant that thrives during a very hot moist summer but goes dormant when the days grow shorter and the ground begins to freeze is not going to like it when the cold time of the year is wet and the hot summer is a desert!!! In the same manner the survival of a lush tropical plant is just as much in jeopardy when left out during an early northern frost as during an extremely windy, hot and dry "Santa Anna" condition in So. CA. (This is where the winds shift from prevailing moisture laden off-shore ocean to hot dry winds from the NE desert.)

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The Narcissus (Daffodils etc.) are done. The earliest tulip species the pure rich yellow T. sylvestris and the wide opening violet/deep-yellow centered T. bakeri are finished. Just as T. bakeri finishes the showy T. saxatilis is beginning with very simililar lavender flowers with deep yellow centers, held higher up than T. saxatilis and with attractively cupped petals. Tulipa saxatilis also produces several flowers per stem which extends the bloom time! T. clusiana which has multiple cvs. is just beginning to bloom. Ipheion uniflorum which should be a standard in all So. CA gardens is blooming profusely in white, and different shades of blue and purple.

Oh my gosh! How could I forget the Gladiola tristis! This could easily be the harbinger of all things good for So. Californians along with the Pacific Treefrog (Fat Frog). This naturalizing import from So. Africa is perfectly suited to many of our So. CA gardens.  It is in my opinion the most exquisite of winter bulbs for us here. The flower is lily-like in appearance, small, pale with subtle markings on cream petals of purple and chartreause. It's almost orchid like manner is furthur enhanced by an evening fragrance that would be hard to match among flowers! This gladiola earned its name G. tristis, because it is commonly used in funerals for indiginous peoples. tristis comes from the latin word trist which means sad.

I dare to take a moment to say that there is nothing morbid about this plant...in fact it expresses a kind of joy that you have when you see a good friend away knowing that they will return with much adventure to share! For us here and for those where this beautiful plant was exported we have something that comes when the hills are green even if for a moment...when the flora and fauna seem to appear as magic from the desert! This is the plant that could rival the CA poppy, the Mariposa tulips, and the miriad of other wildflowers that come with winter rains of our desert climate! If anything this "trist" gladiola merely entices us to give pause...it is not the death that we feared, but is in the silence that we recall who we are...therefor it is necessary that we die in that we give life to all else by our pause.

I can't help but note that it seems that when Fat Frog sings at dusk is when our Trist Glad-iola releases her soft perfume! How fortunate am I to have both!