Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - December 2010

Only one week until Winter Solstice but what passes for winter here in Southeast Texas has already sneaked into my garden. We've had several frosts, although no hard freezes yet, but everything that goes to sleep in response to cold weather is now sleeping and my garden has that brown and skeletal look of mid-winter.

Some plants press on, of course. Many of the same bloomers that I showed you in late November continue to send out blossoms. The tough old roses will not be deterred by anything less than temperatures in the 20s, so if I need color this December, I have only to visit with them. The Turk's caps have some limbs that found their way to the brick wall behind the bed where they live and those protected limbs are still full of blooms and are still visited daily by grateful butterflies. Likewise, the autumn sages, sprawling purple lantana, and blue plumbago continue to send out blooms. The gerberas, too, are still opening their inviting colorful disks to the butterflies each day. But these are the exceptions. Most of the garden is tucked in for a long winter nap.

And so I was surprised a couple of days ago, as I fished the falling leaves out of my little pond, to glance over my right shoulder and see...a tiny bloom from plants that I had forgotten were even there.


Sweet little narcissus! Your proper name has been tucked away somewhere among the wrinkles of my brain, but I greeted you on that cold, windy day like a long, lost friend - which is what you are, really. How it made me smile to see you! And it makes me smile again every day as I walk by you on the way to the pond and see your cheery blossoms. Sweet little narcissus - Nature's promise that spring will come again.

Visit our hostess, Carol, at May Dreams Gardens to see a list of beautiful gardens around the globe that are participating in this Bloom Day,

Thank you for visiting with me today and a joyous holiday season and happy New Year to you all.