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.

Silent Sunday: Still blooming...

A gardener's week - #18

With one thing and another, it has been a pretty busy week but not a very productive one in the garden. My list of fall cleanup chores continues to grow, but I made absolutely no headway on it this week. Instead, my week was spent going to appointments, running errands of various kinds, and trying to figure out when I would have time to put up a tree and holiday decorations.

No matter how much I tell myself every year that I won't let it happen again, it always does. These last few weeks of the fifty-two, I'm caught up in a whirlwind of activity as I try to get ready for holiday guests and try to get everything done that needs to be done by the end of the year. And suddenly, the garden, which is my consuming passion for much of the year, plays a distinct second fiddle.

I have new beds that need to be dug, plants that need to be planted, plants that need to be moved, plants that need to be cut back after the few frosts we've had, and none of it is getting done. It's frustrating, but there are only so many hours in the day and I only have so much energy, not a winning combination.

I did note that my Christmas cactus is developing some fat buds. Perhaps they will actually open in time to greet their eponymic holiday. Likewise, the amaryllis bulbs that I potted up (belatedly) are growing. I must say I'm not hopeful about their ability to produce blooms before the end of the year though.

I haven't even been able to spend any significant time observing the birds in my garden, although there still doesn't seem to be much activity at the feeders. Time to get my thistle feeders out. Another of the growing list of chores I need to accomplish this weekend.

Speaking of birds, I dreamed of hummingbirds one night this week. I often dream of birds of all kinds actually, but the ones that visit my dreams most often are hummers. (No doubt there are Freudian implications, but I don't think I want to know about them!) The next day, I was sitting at my computer and idly gazing out the window at the hummingbird feeder that still hangs there when a visitor came calling.


I think you'll agree this is a very odd hummingbird!


Actually, I've seen many kinds of critters making use of my hummingbird feeders this year and it's nice to see that they are still serving some purpose, even though I haven't seen a hummer since about a week before Thanksgiving. I think much of the traffic at the feeders, especially of critters such as anoles, is attributable to our drought. We've had only neglible rain here since July, and, as La Nina is expected to continue to hold sway through at least May of next year, there seems to be little relief in sight.

Meantime, I continue to water plants and critters and hope for the respite of a front that brings significant moisture. Santa, if you're reading this, all I really want is some rain.

Wordless Wednesday: Fiery Skipper and lantana - before the frost

For some things, it's easy being green

In the vegetable garden these days, it's all about the greens.


There are collards, of course. They took a while to get growing, but once they got started, wow!


The broccoli is beginning to sprout some heads.


The white turnips are growing like there's no tomorrow.


The carrots are eager to keep up. (Pay no attention to those weeds among the carrot tops. My crack gardening crew - AKA Me, Myself and I - will get them pulled out. Any day now.)


Some of the red cabbages' leaves got bitten by the frost, but it has hardly slowed them down.


The mesclun mix has gotten almost knee-high in spots.


And the delicate, ferny leaves of the mizuna mustard are almost too pretty to pick.


Bronze fennel is holding up well, untouched by the frost.

Well, you get the idea. I won't even bother to show you my spinach, Swiss chard and beets. All in all, even though my saved potatoes never germinated, except for one plant, and only a few of my sugar snap peas came up, we should have quite a lot of good eating ahead of us this winter.

Having finished my documentation of the greens, I stopped by my new pond on the way back to the house to visit with my fish. All six of my tiny goldfish, as well as my giant plecostamus, are doing well and seem happy - as best I can judge the happiness of a fish - in their new home.


Here are three of the goldfish. There are three of the orange variety, two white ones and one calico, and no, I haven't named them. They'll have to reveal their personalities to me before I can give them names.

Farther along the path back to the house, I encountered this guest sunning herself.


This is an American Painted Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) butterfly. She is smaller and the dots on her wings are slightly different from the plain old Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui).


This is a Painted Lady that I snapped on my new almond verbena a couple of days ago. She was most uncooperative and I couldn't get a dorsal view, so you can't really tell much about her from this shot, but perhaps you can get a sense that she is quite a bit bigger than the little American Painted Lady.


And speaking of that almond verbena, it is an absolute magnet for butterflies, including the few Monarchs that are gracing my yard these days. I'm so glad I got it! There's not a lot to attract the butterflies in my yard just now but this at least gives them something to sip.

Silent Sunday: Wildflowers and wild grasses by the sea

A gardener's week - #17

Cold one day, hot the next. It must be December in Texas.

This has been pretty much a typical December week. It did get down to freezing and left us with some frost one night, but the very next day the temperatures were rising once again. Tomorrow it's supposed to get up to 80, but then on Sunday the forecasters tell us the mercury will plunge. Never a dull moment with Southeast Texas weather!

I can't say that I accomplished very much in my yard this week, although I did make a start on the after-frost cleanup. I started by cutting back some of my frost-burnt cannas, but that's about as far as I got. There's still a lot to do, some of which I hope to get done tomorrow.

Another of my post-frost tasks was taking care of my green tomatoes. I made the green tomato relish that I told you about earlier in the week. In fact I had two batches of the stuff! I just hope it proves edible.

On Wednesday, I had a very exciting outing with my younger daughter. We visited the Heights and toured a couple of the native plant nurseries there, namely Buchanan's and Joshua's. They are both terrificly interesting establishments with very similar stock for sale. Buchanan's is a bit more upscale and has a wonderful gift shop where I could easily have wandered all afternoon. Joshua's is more downhome and their staff deals in the hard sell, which I found a little disconcerting. When I'm considering the plants I want to buy, I don't really want some salesperson shoving another plant at me and telling me what a great bargain it is. But that's just me.

Both places were busily preparing for Saturday's "Mistletoe Madness in the Heights" event, and they were doing a brisk business in Christmas trees as Christmas music filled the air. I wasn't there for a tree, though. I was shopping for some of the native plants on my wish list and I was able to make both establishments a bit richer by leaving with a car full of plants. Among the plants I came home with were a strawberry bush, almond verbena, red firespike, a couple of dwarf wax myrtles, and some pavonias. I could have got more but my daughter's car is small.

I had been hoping to come home with a sumac, but I didn't find one at either place. Ah, well, I'm sure one will turn up for me one of these days.

On Thursday, I spent the afternoon at my daughter's house working in her yard. She works long hours and that doesn't leave her much time or energy for her poor garden. It did need some attention.

Her loquat tree had bit the dust. I'm not sure, and neither was she, whether it was a result of last winter's freezes or this summer's drought. More likely, it was a combination of the two. I have an offspring of her tree in my yard and it is very healthy, but I think it probably got quite a bit more tender loving care than hers did.

We cleaned up her backyard and removed most of the loquat, except for the base of the trunk which will require a chain saw. The little garden looked much, much better when we finished. But her yard, like mine, is suffering from the drought. A pine tree in her front yard is dead and will have to be removed by professionals. If she doesn't provide sufficient supplemental water, she may lose more plants.

As long as the drought continues and the autumn rains stubbornly refuse to make their appearance, we are locked into the necessity of continuing to provide some water for our plants. It's not as urgent as when the temperatures were in the high 90s every day, but plants do appreciate a little drinky even when the thermometer is reading in the 60s and 70s.

So, as long as it stays dry, you'll still find me dragging the hoses around every week, trying to keep my plants happy. Thus is the life of a gardener.