Too Much Sun, Wind, and Shade
March and April, normally the windy months in northern New Mexico, weren't bad. Now, in early May we are getting our spring winds and the new dwarf Arctic Fire redtwig dogwood I just planted in the blue pot is getting viciously battered.
It looked green and fresh when I got it, but the day I planted it the wind started up and it's out in full sun and now the leaves are thin and tattered and several have been torn off. There is browning at the margins.
I may have killed it.
I finally put an open-bottomed upturned pot around it, anchored with a wire ring, but it's pretty damaged already, and the black pot may overheat it.
The blue container is too big and heavy to move inside, so it is out there in the open on the corner of the deck. So windy and sunny. Ack.
The opposite problem concerned me about the 'Major Wheeler' honeysuckle vine on the side fence. It gets too much shade. It gets at most 90 minutes of sun at noontime. That's considered full shade, although at this elevation even sun lovers want shady protection at times. But not that much.
I feared it would not flower without more sun. It's a young vine, just two years planted in my garden, still rangy and open, but a red breasted thrush was pleased to let me know it is in fact starting to bloom.
On her invitation, I went over to the shady side of the house and checked it out. Yes indeed, red and yellow tubes are scattered all over it. Not profusely, but noticeably.
Now that I know it will grow and set blooms in this much shade, the question for the future is -- will it produce enough flowers to be showy or will it flower sparsely because of too much shade?
And will the redtwig dogwood, battered and blown about in too much sun and wind, survive and grow to be something?
If only there wasn't too much of everything -- excessive wind, undue shade, overly abundant sun -- in all the wrong places.
The opposite problem concerned me about the 'Major Wheeler' honeysuckle vine on the side fence. It gets too much shade. It gets at most 90 minutes of sun at noontime. That's considered full shade, although at this elevation even sun lovers want shady protection at times. But not that much.
I feared it would not flower without more sun. It's a young vine, just two years planted in my garden, still rangy and open, but a red breasted thrush was pleased to let me know it is in fact starting to bloom.
On her invitation, I went over to the shady side of the house and checked it out. Yes indeed, red and yellow tubes are scattered all over it. Not profusely, but noticeably.
Now that I know it will grow and set blooms in this much shade, the question for the future is -- will it produce enough flowers to be showy or will it flower sparsely because of too much shade?
And will the redtwig dogwood, battered and blown about in too much sun and wind, survive and grow to be something?
If only there wasn't too much of everything -- excessive wind, undue shade, overly abundant sun -- in all the wrong places.
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