Merry Too Warm Christmas

Winter began warm this week here in the Northeast.  The lawn is still green.  Some of the annuals are still blooming in the flower boxes that I deinstalled from the front of the house in order to make room for Christmas decorations.  I noticed today that the gorgeous mauve hellebore in the front yard is blooming, right under our huge, lit wooden snowflake decoration.  I did a 23-mile bike ride yesterday morning after the gifts were unwrapped, and had one of my best times of the year.  It's a bizarre wet, and warm weather pattern that we're in.

On the bright side, the winter jasmine has bloomed all at once, instead of winking on and off.  It's a dose of pure yellow sunshine even on these cloudy, short days.

This annual mallow in the garden I planted near the loading dock at work is a dead man walking.  It should have been struck down by cold and snow by now, but it's blooming its beautiful head off.

Late 2015 Gems

Yes, the gentian finally opened a few days ago.  I thought that its late bud was doomed but I covered it through a couple cold nights and was rewarded with this gift of intense blue.

The arum italicum is always gorgeous this time of year, warm temps or not.

The winter jasmine is blooming beautifully on the deck, but that's another story.

Tiny Jewel

Erodium reichardii 'Charm' lives in a tiny planter on our sunny, west-facing porch for weeks every fall, before I bring it into the house for the winter.  It's probably not hardy here in our Zone 6b, so it always gets a spot in one of our few sunny windows for the coldest months.  For a tiny groundcover that blooms for six months, it's hard to begrudge it a warm refuge during the snow.

Staying Up Late or Getting Up Early?

 

It's been so warm this fall that some plants haven't gotten the message that winter is coming.  This gentian has developed a really fat bud in the last couple weeks.  I'm hoping that the plastic jar covering it will save it from being frozen.  We'll see...

Viburnum farreri 'Nanum' seems to have taken a catnap and woken up in bloom.  I can't complain; it's beautiful whenever it blooms.

We have 26 degrees predicted for tonight.  That ought to put an end to all this friskiness.

Autumn Bits

Loebner Magnolia doing its fall thing.

Some blue to balance all of the oranges: saxifrage happily growing in tufa in a trough.

Hips on a climbing rose

Fothergilla 'Mt Airy, my favorite fall shrub

Mallow, living the life of an annual, blooming until the end.

Young crape myrtle 

The obligatory autumn event in the garden.

Autumn in the Troughscape

Autumn in the troughscape in front of the garage.

Tiger Eyes Sumac, rhus typhina 'Bailtiger'

Sedum sieboldii

Same sedum, different trough

The yellow in the middle is iris gracilipes var. alba, Buko Form

Carolina Allspice (calycanthus floridus) and ilex verticillata 'Red Sprite'...and in the background, new troughs for a lucky gardener in central NJ.

Juniper Zombie

Right plant, right place, right time.