Merry Christmas !

December in the garden.

With the second snow storm of December. Time to brave the cold and have a crunch  , crunch around   the garden . 

The dogs have been clearing the paths with many little paw prints.

The sun came out this morning.

Some tiding up may be in order .

No Bloom day blooms …but many sweet snow capped seed heads.

Late November in the garden...

 Now that so much in the garden has  either dropped or collapsed in all the rain  this month.  Eucalptus camphora  or the mountain swamp gum is the stand out ! It's grown to quite a good size , considering that it froze to the ground the first year I planted it.

With some rain stoppage  in the day . I got out and lifted all the cement steps. They seem to sink down and disappear .  Probably not very level , but a start. And a bit of a clearing of some of the ugliest mess. The rest I'll leave for the worms. 

Another job …clearing the path .  

It took some aggressive chopping and pulling , but I can walk though without getting slapped in the face with cold wet foliage.

 

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day

It finally stopped raining ! So I rushed out to find some November blooms. First stop   ….  Arcostaphlos 'Austin Griffiths' . Normally a January bloomer , perhaps feeling the stress this month ?

Same here with A. 'St Helens' , actually I'm not sure which is which .                                                                                        I've been digging out  a  clump of Japanese Anemone , so there is a a huge ugly hole  just out of view that I'm leaving , so I can keep picking out the many bits of Anemone that carry on growing. 

Mahonia 'charity' with Euphorbia ' oblongata' which has been blooming all summer long.

A new bloom ….Correa alba 'Ivory bells'

My favorite annual ...Emilia javanica

Rhabdosia longituba  survived  having been moved this summer. I'm running out of planting space for late  after noon shade plants .

Not blooms ,  but awfully cute Rosa  Chinensis hips , tiny , tiny hips. There are more blooms, but it looks like  more rain !
Happy Bloom day !

Cotinus makes everyone look good.

A few things in November

I thought I'd start with a few of the tidy bits of the garden . I've enjoyed my water  bowl all summer . And the big splashy Blue jays have too. Though I'll be moving it soon , so it doesn't crack in a freeze !

I just noticed how luminous  the Echium looks at the moment .  I've given up trying to over winter these. 

Leucosceptrum stellipilum 'october moon' is at it's best right now.

A self seeded Mexican feather grace makes a nice mate for the Fatsia.

Two Clematis seed heads peeking out from the Fatshedera.

Now the messy bits !  The shade garden ….I think I'm just going to leave it till next year. The worms seem to do a good job pulling things down all winter. 

I really do like the tangled chaos this time of year. 

My favorite …. a pot of climbing Pansies .

A little autumn in doors...

 The  Bonsai  in full autumnal glory !  Indoors for the day.

Physalis peruviana

Physalis peruviana or Cape gooseberry in my sunroom. Still blooming away ! It's been out doors all  summer.  I did get a few fruit to pick and eat. I don't think these will come to anything though. 

A few small fruit forming, they need plenty of heat and water .

I adopted these two plants from my neighbor last year , they were quite small .  I really don't know how big they get , or if I need to cut them back ? 

Here is the other one . I can see many little blooms ! I'll have to wait and see how they get along in the  winter . I don't usually heat the room unless it get really freezing cold. But I might  have to treat them to a blast of the heater if they keep pushing out the blooms .

A Few October blooms …

Mickey and  I made our way round the garden ,  before our PNW stormy week arrived .   Nicotiana  Slyvestris is aways the last late summer bloomer.

Another late bloomer 'Plectranthus kameba' is much happier this time of year. I have to  given this one plenty of water  to keep it from wilting in the heat . 

Persicaria 'blackfield'  the earliest and best Persicaria bloomer , for me anyway !

Aster 'Monte casino white'  the last aster to bloom.

When I started  this garden it was Cosmos, Cosmos every where. Then they seemed  to disappear….welcome back !

Mahonia 'soft caress 

I've been enjoying this combination of Carex 'blue zinger' and Cyclamen for weeks.   Some how  it survives despite  it being a favorite spot for the dogs to snooze on top of all summer. 

A climbing Petunia I grew from seed this year. 

And finally an early  spring time visiter . This Primula likes  to give me a surprise  visit  this time of year !
Happy Bloom day ! Thank you Carol and  more blooms here,