Bright Spots

Winter jasmine.  I'm not sure why it blooms in the dead of winter, but I'm grateful that it does.

The pink hellebore in the front yard has big plans this year.  I keep meaning to divide it but I always forget.  

The variegated yucca was a gift from Ray, my plant guru neighbor, when I was starting the garden.  I never would have picked it out myself.  It's genius, of course.  It lends light and color at the corner of the bluestone path.

The coneflowers showing their cones.  I'll gladly deal with the seedlings.  I love the seedheads.

Last Photo from 2012

December 30, 2012.  Troughs awaiting a spring sale.

It's the Small Things - Part whatever

Checking out the garden today I saw the dry-laid patio out of the corner of my eye.  For a split second I thought something was foaming up from under the bluestone, until I realized that it was just snow.  I guess that the joints are a couple degrees colder than the stones.

Winter Still Life (White Version)

Winter Still Life

I'm always playing around with this grouping of containers in front of the garage, probably because I can see it from the house.  The containers are mostly prototypes that I didn't put into production or odd troughs that were leftovers for one reason or another.  The three small round ones at the front are made from extra hypertufa leftover from a casting session, kind of like how I make a cinnamon and sugar cookie for the kids when I have leftover dough after rolling pie crust.

The evergreen plants in these containers are tough customers: a couple junipers, a chamaecyparis, rosemary, an erica, and a helianthemum. 

Yeah, I'm blocking two of my garage doors.  I've still got two others that open.

It's the Little Things...

The little things, like the drop hanging on the Spriber Winterberry, are among the best pleasures of this season.

Looking For Hope

As my personal life spins out of control, I've been looking to nature for strength and consolation.  Like any good gardener, I try to take a long view.

Sedum sieboldii (above) has spectacular color as it finishes.  It's fleeting, but I look forward to it each year...probably even more than the flowering.

Dwarf cotoneaster shines right now.  It's way too ambitious to live in harmony with its more mild-mannered brethren.  I cast a new square trough for it yesterday, but I'll wait for spring to transplant it.

Ilex verticillata 'Spriber' seem to be content in a large hypertufa pot, maybe because its male counterpart is potted up six feet away.

This lonicera has great yellow color right now, as well as a last handful of flowers.

Little bluestem and oakleaf hydrangea.

This mossy rock is normally hidden behind ferns and anemones.  I'm always happy to see it again in autumn. 

Sedum spectabile has plans for next year already.  I'm jealous.

Erica x darleyensis 'Kramer's Red' is starting its four-month show.  It waits until March to change to a darker pink.

The first flower of the winter jasmine opened yesterday.  It flowered for weeks in that tough December last year.  

Welcome back, my friend.  Not much has changed in the last year.