After the Freeze of 2021

 

Hands up all of you who cut back all your dead plant material at the beginning of April!  Oh, it was so tempting, but this year after the unprecedented freeze which left all our yards looking like a graveyard, I resisted. 

I’m so glad I did, because in the past ten days or so I have discovered new growth coming from the roots of my Cassaliva Olive Tree, a Justicia spigata (Mexican Honeysuckle)  in a container, a “Kitchen Lemon” which I grew from a seed and planted in the ground several years ago, a Bay Laurel tree in a container, and my prized Texas Everbearing Fig Tree planted probably almost 30 years ago!  

The fig tree is the true miracle though; in the process of clearing as much of the dreaded Mexican Petunia out from under it as I could without disturbing the tree roots, I discovered that where branches had touched the ground during the summer/fall, those branches had rooted!  As I was celebrating eight new fig trees, I discovered that the mother tree has new sprouts coming up from the roots and the base of the trunk!  I was never expecting olives from the olive tree, but those delicious figs are a part of my life in jams, with various meat dishes, and straight off the tree!  I don’t suppose I’ll have figs this year, but who knows?

 

On the casualty list (but still waiting and hoping) are my lovely old Mora Blood Orange tree (in the ground), and Improved Meyer Lemon (in a large container).  I hope they don’t have to join my entire cactus/succulent collection in the designated “graveyard”.  Several herbs in containers didn’t make it, but most have been replaced. 

Yes, I have a little greenhouse for the container plants, but it was so cold that I needed the heater in my house, so the plants had to suffer!  I figured my need was greater than theirs, which was undeniably selfish!  Already making plans for the next big freeze in this age of Global Warming!!!!