From Balmy to Brrrr

The first week of December in North Central Texas was a very interesting week of weather.

We started out the week quite balmy, with temperatures in the 70s.  Early Monday morning a light fog had rolled in and created a beautiful photo op as the sun was rising.

We have had a couple freezes this fall already, but only down to about 30 degrees.   Some of the most tender perennials were burned, but other perennials were not even fazed.    Some of the trees had already lost their leaves, some were at peak color, and some were just beginning to turn.

As the fog burned off later Monday morning, the Japanese maples in my garden were showing off their finest fall color.

Tuesday was a sunny and warm day, my kind of December :-)  I went with a client to my favorite Japanese maple nursery, Metro Maples, with the intention of purchasing some maples for her garden, but I just couldn't resist the urge to buy another maple for my garden, as well!

I came home with a new maple is called 'Koto No Ito,' which means "String of Old Harp."  It has an upright form with narrow strap leaves that have green spring color and yellow/orange/red fall colors.
  

I planted the new maple on Wednesday when it was sunny and 78 degrees! 

I originally had a 'Peaches & Cream' maple in this spot, but I transplanted it across the bed where I thought its highly variegated summer leaves would brighten a dark spot.

The 'Peaches & Cream' maple was added to my garden in December of 2010, and this is the first year I have seen good fall color on it.

Thursday morning the temperatures had dropped to the 40s (tolerable), but the forecast was calling for the temps to continue to drop throughout the day, with freezing rain and sleet arriving late afternoon and evening (not so tolerable).   

I knew this was probably going to be my last opportunity to get some good pictures of the fall color in my garden, so I grabbed my camera and headed outside to memorialize this beautiful season.

      In the picture below you can see the new orange 'Koto No Ito' to the right front, and the similarly fall colored 'Peaches & Cream' is behind the bench now on the other side of the bed.

 'Sango Kaku' (Coral Bark) Maple (below - center) has been more yellow in years past, but this year it is showing lots of red color.

I think this is one of the prettiest fall color seasons I have seen in the 27 years I have lived in Texas.  A little bit of rain this fall, cool nights, and sunny days have created the perfect environment for a spectacular fall show.

'Fireglow'

'Orange Dream'

'Tamukeyama' (foreground)  -  'Viridis' (background)

'Sango Kaku'

By late Thursday afternoon the temperatures had dropped into the 20s and the precipitation started falling...and freezing.  

On Friday morning my garden looked like this...brrrrr!

Thankfully I had drained and cleaned the fountain on Wednesday when it was nice and warm outside.   

The front hellstrip perennials are now under a covering of ice.  

 The Yaupon Holly tree in the front is splayed open from the weight of the ice.   Back in the winter of 2011 we lost several feet out of the top of this tree from the weight of about a foot of snow that fell in February.  

 

I am hoping once the ice melts it will be okay.

In the backyard, the arbor cover over the patio is dripping with tiny icicles.

The ornamental grasses near the pond that usually sway in the breeze are frozen stiff.

The maples that were so beautiful just one day earlier are now covered in ice and droop from the weight of the ice.

 

"He gives snow like wool;

He scatters the frost like ashes.

He casts forth His ice as fragments;

Who can stand before His cold?

He sends forth His word and melts them;

He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow."

Psalm 147:16-18

So until God sends a few warm breezes to thaw the ice that blankets our area, I guess I will just hunker down under a cozier type of blanket in my nice warm house, and treasure a few quiet days.

Take care....and stay warm!

Toni :-)