This past weekend I finally felt comfortable putting the shamrock plants out. The are kind of a fixture in the summer garden. The purple one especially draws the eye all the way to the end of the linden garden area.
Since we live in Minnesota, the shamrocks make their late fall to mid-spring home indoors. The night-time temperatures need to be around 40°F outdoors before they can go out in the spring. This year that was late. But they are out now, and the cycle for spring shamrock cleanup has begun. You see, every spring when I finally feel comfortable putting the shamrocks out, I am happy, and sad. Happy because the mat of dead stems that is hard to clear amongst the fragile live stems gets kind of “ugly” by May, and sad because the beautiful live shamrocks will get windblown, die back, and then take a few weeks to get their summer “coat”.
The wonderful part is what I saw first hand today as a robin flew back and forth between the purple shamrock and a nearby pine tree, plucking first big sections of the dead stem mat, and then finishing by plucking tangled remaining dead stems. It happens every year. And it makes my gardener/bird lover heart smile.
Can you see the robin? Another sat nearby and flew right behind over to the new nest location. I am assuming that is one of the pairs we saw “mating” in the past week.
Susan's Daily Garden 