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ltcollins1949

It's Great to Live in Texas

ltcollins1949
14 years ago

I've been checking out the different forums here on GardenWeb, and there are many questions about getting plants ready to overwinter. Gosh! That would drive me crazy! I guess I'm just a lazy gardener. I plant and they either grow or die.

Like Tally and I were discussing on the Plumeria Forum, pulling up all those plumerias to overwinter them is just way too much work for me!

Comments (30)

  • carrie751
    14 years ago

    Ah, but there are parts of Texas where this is necessary unless they are grown in containers. I am now limiting any NEW plant to one that will be able to handle the winters without help from me......just a few container ones so I can have early blooms.

  • holleygarden Zone 8, East Texas
    14 years ago

    I'm lazy, too. Last year I purchased my first brug and put it in the ground. Wasn't sure it would survive, but it did! (Did it ever - it's rooting all over the place!)

    Sometimes I have to replace things that can't take the HEAT though! Just gives me an excuse to purchase something else. :) lol

    And - I would NOT grow roses if I had to 'bury' them every year! What a pain! My idea of getting ready for winter is to turn off the A/C and flip the switch to 'heat'. :D

  • beachplant
    14 years ago

    Yeah, but Corpus is not one of those places you have to grow plumeria in pots, dig them up or anything else.
    If it freezes at my house it gets replaced. I'm not running around in the cold covering and uncovering anything!

    And then the months of snow, cold, ice....BRRR. We were talking about that at work yesterday, the bathtub drain freezing, plugging in your car in the winter, needing a heater in the garage so the hot water heater doesn't freeze, no thank you.
    Tally HO!

  • seamommy
    14 years ago

    I agree it is great to live in Texas. I love the long growing season and the mild winters. I love that the leaves stay on the trees for most of the year and Spring comes so early here.

    I should mention that before I moved back to Texas in 2k I lived in Colorado for 22 years. As they say, 'Tis a priveledge to live in Colorado' and it really is. Such a beautiful state. The crisp clear vistas in every direction and the pine scented air. The dryness will give you a nosebleed, but you can also go outdoors when the temp is 10 degrees in a light jacket and feel perfectly comfortable. We'd get 3' of snow one day and 70 degrees the next day and total meltoff. And of course there is the Mile High Club, the Polar Bear Club, skiing naked, and the beautiful Rocky Mountains. No fire ants, no scorpions, life was good there.

    I grew up right here in the DFW area, a 1970 graduate of L.D. Bell. And I moved back here for the most banal of reasons, money. I got a better job offer and I took it. It worked out very well since my folks were still living in the house I grew up in and Daddy was ill. I'm glad now that I moved back when I did, but at the time I had major misgivings, the job paid better but the working conditions sucked big time. Things have gotten better and I plan to retire here in a couple of years.

    DH is a Colorado native and plans for us to move back there when he retires. I guess we'll see how that works out. Mean time I battle the fire ants all over our property, worry about my little 2yo DGS getting bitten by one (or more) and try to stay ahead of the invasive weeds, Johnson grass, bermuda grass, rodents, and mosquitos.

    We never had any of those problems with pipes and things freezing up in Colorado. I guess since DH was a native, he took care of draining and wrapping water lines and outlets. Our house had extra insulation everywhere except in the ceiling of the garage. We lived in a tri-level and the master bedroom was above the garage and that floor was cold in winter. That was a great house, with a solarium, formal living and dining, den, full basement, eat-in kitchen, 4-4-2. Great yard, mature trees and I had my dream potting shed, 10'x12' with windows and pretty little flower beds around it.

    I have better soil here and longer time to grow things and I really enjoy that about Texas. Winters in Colorado were for quilting and I did a lot of it. I can hardly get started on a quilt here before the winter is over and it's time to start planting. Tough choice, ya know, something I love to do, or...something else I love to do. Gee, my life's really hard isn't it? Cheryl

  • ltcollins1949
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Yes Carrier, I do realize many places in Texas don't have the wonderful weather we have down here on the coast, but it's still not as cold as other parts of the country.

    I grew up in NW Indiana (5th generation in the same county), and I remember so many, many blizzards, white outs, ice storms, no electricity, no running water, no driving because we were snowed in and even if we could have gotten out, there was no gasoline because all the electricity was off and there was no pumping gasoline. I remember sitting around in coats (no heat) and playing cards by lantern light! Stuff from fridge went out into the snow banks, had to get buckets of snow to flush the toilets, no baths or showers because we had no water.

    YIKES! I hated it then and after the great ice storm of 1967, I vowed to get the h**l out of there just as soon as I was old enough to move out of my parents' house. And in 1969 I moved to Florida (nice but too crowded) and then in 1976 I moved to Texas and have never wanted to move anywhere else again. I love living down here on the coast. Yes, it can get cold and some plants might die, but I say that it's "survival of the fittest"!

  • holleygarden Zone 8, East Texas
    14 years ago

    Cheryl - sounds like Colorado may be in your future! As for me, I love Texas!

    Now, there are things that aren't perfect. But I lived in the North Carolina mountains for 5 years. It was just enough time to get tired of it. Yes, the scenery was beautiful, the rhododendrons are to die for, and you get four distinct seasons.

    However - I learned to hate to shovel snow (and we didn't get that much!), come February I was ready for some 80 degree weather, and I could never get used to having Easter before the flowers started blooming.

    I have two sisters that live in Colorado and they are always begging me to come live there. No way! When I visit, I am always cold. I would also miss the long gardening season we have here.

    Texas may not be perfect, but it's close enough for me. :) ltcollins - glad you found a place you love. Isn't that what it's all about, really?

  • rick_mcdaniel
    14 years ago

    Some of that has to be containerized in North TX, or you are wasting your time to plant it.

    Even containers get to be a hassle though, and eventually I may just not bother with tropicals any more.

  • jolanaweb
    14 years ago

    I am a native Texan and love it, do I get frustrating with the weather sometimes, yes!! We have lived in other states for short amounts of time and it was nice and we have land in CO but that is just for weeks that are 106-112 degree temps during he summer. The best of both worlds during the summer but no way during the winter anymore since we both have to watch our old bones, lol
    Holley, I'm with you, I love Texas
    Linda, good for you!!!
    Cheryl, you do have a hard life, lol
    Carrie, it is worth it to have beautiful blooms and greenery early and you have some beauties
    Tally, I'm glad your garden is getting situated, somewhat? LOL

  • carrie751
    14 years ago

    Hey, Linda, did not mean to sound as if I don't love my native state ..... I do, and would never want to live anywhere else (well, except maybe farther south in Texas). I love the heat, hate the cold .... so the cold, cold north would not be my cup of tea at all. I love tropicals and will continue to keep as many as I can successfully move in and out, but the time will come when I can no longer do this, so I will try to find a good home for them.

  • seamommy
    14 years ago

    Hey Carrie, this is what retirement savings are for, so you can hire someone to move those plants in and out for you...and I do really love living here in spite of all the negatives. In fact when I wanted to move farther south, DH objected because it was too far from his beloved Colorado. I also don't like shoveling snow. But I truely never found the cold weather in Colorado to be uncomfortable because as we always said, it's a dry cold. I remember standing in the driveway one morning with a heat blanket on the car engine warming it up so it would start and I was wearing cotton slacks, long sleeve shirt and a sweater. Only my feet got cold standing on the concrete. One year it was so cold the ice evaporated out of the dogs water bowl. Now that's cold. As I've gotten older I don't like the idea of moving to a colder area than the one I live in now. And although I did love Colorado, it is great to live in Texas. Cheryl

  • carrie751
    14 years ago

    You are so right, Cheryl, about hiring someone ...... he came on time this year, so the tropicals are safely tucked away in their "winter home". Life is good !!!

    And I won't even comment on the "coffee" ...yuk ....call it by another name ..... it is NOT coffee !!!

  • Redthistle
    14 years ago

    I've lived in Texas for most of my life, though I wasn't born here. However, I never realized till recently just how cold it gets in other places (Wisconsin, North Carolina, Illinois) and that you CAN'T garden for the length of time there like you can here. Until a few years ago, I used to envy gardeners in the north. (I was always whining about the fact that they could grow lilies.) Now, I savor my gardening here. Yep, it can be darned hot in July/August, but for the last three months, my garden has been nothing but green with flowers and tons of butterflies. I have absolutely no reason to complain.

  • sylviatexas1
    14 years ago

    I think it's just natural to mumble & grumble about whatever you have & to want whatever you don't (that's why curly-haired girls buy straightener & straight-haired girls buy perms!).

    I used to pine for those lilies in the catalogs, too...
    until I discovered crinums/amaryllis/schoolhouse lilies/lycoris radiata.

    & one other good thing about Texas is that we are on the migratory pathway for more birds than any other state!

  • ltcollins1949
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Now it's time to start on Christmas. And finally, I'm back after a busy holiday week. Between Saturday the 21st and Saturday the 28th, I had company from the Houston area (where I lived for 20+ years) every day except Tuesday. I'm so tired now.

    Carrie, I didn't think you were saying anything bad about Texas. And I realize just how big Texas is with zones 6 thru 10. Big State!

    And it's cold this morning down here on the coast, light rain and 52°, Dewpoint: 48°, Wind: N 18 MPH, Humidity: 86% and Pressure: 30.06 in Hg. It makes for a cold day. No gardening for me today because, I'm staying in today.

  • beachplant
    14 years ago

    Colorado was at one time part of Kansas, they didn't want it and split Co off. I was born in Fort Scott Kansas. We moved to Oregon and then to Texas in a three month period. The high in July in Oregon was in the upper 60's, we almost froze to death, it was 112 the day we left Kansas. We ended up in Galveston because they had a hurricane hit Corpus when we were moving down.

    My pipes are on the outside of my house but I've never had them freeze. My driveway is not heated, nor are the floors though I often wish the bathroom floor was. I can go swimming in November, and not at a heated pool, which by the way you don't have to drain in the south. We have humidity-I felt like a snake when I was in Colorado, what's up with static electricity??? Sorry but I froze my rearend off when I went skiing. The worst vacation I ever had in my life! The only way I got warm was to sit in the sauna. I was never so happy to see the Houston airport in my life. If I never go to Colorado again it will be fine by me. Or see snow for that matter. I HATE snow! What possessed someone to tie slippery wooden sticks to their feet and jump off a mountain in the middle of winter? And why did the rest of us idiots think that was a good idea?

    Though Colorada was downright hot compared to Alaska! That's the only place I had to wear long underwear in July and August. The last time I was at Yellowstone there was 6" of snow, in July, and they shut down roads. Didn't own long underwear at that time. Bought them in Alaska! I still don't own a coat.

    The garden is full of flowers and butterflies. I'd rather be hot any day of the year.
    Tally HO!

  • muddauber7
    14 years ago

    I hate the snow too. Speaking of which, it is snowing right this minute in Agnes 6 miles west of Springtown. We don't get snow often and it will not last long when the sun comes up so... let it snow...let it snow...let it snow......Billy

  • carrie751
    14 years ago

    Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop ......... I hate snow AND winter !!!!

  • melvalena
    14 years ago

    It was nice to wake up to... but now I need to get moving and get out and get some stuff done!

    Honestly, my errands can wait another day.. I can just stay in where its warm and dry and clean the house. (and work on that ironing pile)

    Carrie, when did the snow start? I woke up at 7am and it looked like it had been going a while already...

  • ltcollins1949
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    I hate snow, ice, cold YUCKY stuff it is. I've just been reading that this Friday we are getting hit with "an upper level disturbance is expected to move across texas and into southeast texas on friday. . . .winter precipitation will be possible across southeast texas beginning early friday morning. . . .precipitation will possibly start as rain but then change to snow during the day as temperatures fall."

  • rick_mcdaniel
    14 years ago

    There is no substitute for having all of the seasons.

  • ltcollins1949
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Like I said, I grew up in NW Indiana with all 4 seasons, and I got away just as soon as I was old enough to be on my own. Give me south Texas weather any day, i.e. hot, hotter and the hottest! I'll go up north to see the seasons change. HA!

  • beachplant
    14 years ago

    I liked Hawaii, one season! The only season I really like is summer. Fall is depressing, stuff is dying, winter is just around the corner. Winter is dark, cold, yucky. Spring is messy, melting snow, heavy rains, flooding for the first part then it's OK but I am a summertime girl. I don't go north in winter or fall if I can avoid it. Heck we about froze in Missouri in June! Had to buy a sweatshirt in Oklahoma City on the way there.
    Oh! and fall has another major problem for me-HURRICANE SEASON!
    Tally HO!

  • rick_mcdaniel
    14 years ago

    Coldest place I have been in summer, is San Francisco. Kinda like late fall in the summer.

  • carrie751
    14 years ago

    Don't know exactly, Mel, as when it got light enough for me to see what it was, the ground was already white ....

  • muddauber7
    14 years ago

    Melvalena, I looked outside at 6:00 A.M. and there was no snow, 30 minutes later there was complete coverage of my yard and vehicles. Flakes coming down big and fat and fluffy. ....Billy

  • carrie751
    14 years ago

    Billy, you see better in the dark than I ......(grin)!!!!

  • muddauber7
    14 years ago

    Not so much, Carrie, Huge floodlight. Have to see that the hawks aren't lurking when I let the pack out. He He, chihuahuas don't care much for snow!... Billy

  • carrie751
    14 years ago

    Neither do Yorkies .......

  • melvalena
    14 years ago

    My lab didn't like the snow either.
    Thanks for the report on when it all started. I hate when I oversleep and miss the beginning.

  • ltcollins1949
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    On Friday I posted on my Facebook: Ââ«It's raining, it's snowing, it's sleeting!â« It went from one to the other, but finally cleared up for a beautiful, cold sunset! It's warmer today, but overcast! What can you say about Texas weather??!!