Snow on Victoria Day in the Garden
Snow on Victoria Day in the garden, May 18, was disappointing, but it was not as much of a shock for us northerners as it would be to southern gardeners. I remember so many weekends growing up when we had sleet, hail, cold nights of heavy rain, and light snow cover on the Victoria Day weekend.
For those of you not familiar with that particular statutory holiday, Canada is a Commonwealth country and we celebrate the birthday of the reigning British monarch in May each year. Many folks head out to the lake country to open their cabins, or spend the weekend at home, where people who have houses spend time in their yards or relax from their busy lives. With good advance forecasting from our weather stations, the nurseries were only lightly stocked for the long weekend, and today, a week later, were really only starting to get in their plants and shrubs.
Not much planting gets done on the long weekend in May, other than seeds and perennials. The planting season for tender annuals comes later. Pots are okay to do, as they can go in and out of the shed or garage, or be pulled back into the apartment from the balcony. For many years now, I have checked my timing against the blooming of the common lilac. Once these shrubs open their blossoms, we seem to be safely into planting season.
We had a fairly heavy covering of snow from our “Colorado Low,” which brings a circling of Arctic air over the Canadian Prairies. Snow was widespread, and it covered farmlands, urban gardens, and the lake lands. It’s been amazing to see how well the trees did through this – flowering crabapples, apple trees, cherry trees, and the early flowering shrubs were already in blossom and got covered in snow, plus endured an overnight freeze. The snow was likely a blessing in disguise, at it may have protected against the cold temperatures.
Last week on myTwitter feed, I posted photos of three of my plants to show the snow covering. Today, I’ve posted follow-up photos on Twitter, and I’ll share them with you here as well. You can see from the images of the Three-flowered Prairie Avens, Rhubarb, and Fuschia that they recovered beautifully from their snow covering and overnight sub-zero (Celsius) temperatures of over a week ago.
I’m so grateful all of my plants survived. I’m seeing light damage on a few plants, but it’s not significant. It’s amazing to see the resilience of the perennials and flowering trees and shrubs. I know if I’d planted out petunias, or other tender annuals, they would be totally dead, but as I only had perennials that are well acclimatized, everything did okay.
I did, however, forget to bring my hanging fuschia plant into the garage and left it dangling on a branch from my Japanese Tree Lilac. It was covered with snow in the morning. I didn’t expect it to survive, but it has, and now, a week later, looks just beautiful. You can see for yourself in the photos below.
Here’s looking forward to warm summer nights ahead.
