Just curious what's still blooming where you live? I have Red Penta's that are still going strong and my Knock Out Roses look really good too. The roses are a much deeper pink/red than during summer .... wonder if it has anything to do with the little cold snap we had down here the week of Thanksgiving? Here's a photo.
Lin
And here's the Penta's
Lin, well, up until this week I had : arum italicum
Belinda's Dream rose was still blooming
and so was Knock Out ( I love your pentas with your Knock Outs !)
This message was edited Dec 6, 2006 3:40 PM
my Niobe clematis was reblooming - the latest ever !
my nandinas are looking good
and one lone rudbeckia
Corgimom: Love that Clematis .... Gorgeous! And, arum italicum is so pretty .... does it bloom? I've never heard of it before, but I just love that foliage! I wonder if it will grow in my zone .... maybe as a houseplant if it's too hot down here for it outside!
Lin
My Rudbeckias have all dried up for the season! I collected loads of seed .... first time collecting seed, so I hope some is viable to plant in spring! It's one of my favorite plants even though it spreads like crazy from what I've heard! I may be digging up loads next year to trade! LOL.
Lin
Lin, yes, the "bloom" is in the spring. I will see if I can find my picture of it ! It would need to be in the shade for you for certain, but I would give it a try.
Lin, go to Plant Files and type in arum italicum in "generalized search". It will bring it up and you can see not only the bloom (sort of like a modified jack-in-the-pulpit) but also the red berries it makes !
Lin - I noticed that all the "negatives" - the ones that said it was 'invasive'- all were from Calif. I have grown it for 20 years on my property and still have it in little clumps. My mom has had it on her property for 50 years and it is still in small clumps. I guess we have enough cold here to keep it in check. I was shocked to see that it was invasive for anyone ! Maybe you had better check it out with someone else in your area then before planting it. Ask if it is invasive there. If not, dmail me in the spring and I will send you some.
This message was edited Dec 6, 2006 3:54 PM
Thanks! And, it WILL grow in my area! I will have to try and find a source for this one!
Lin
Corgimom: I've been doing some searching on google to see if that particular arum is invasive here in my zone 9a .... and I can't find anything saying it is invasive. I would love to try it. I would probably watch it closely to make sure it didn't spread and take over like some invasives do here in Florida. I have had a major problem with stuff doing just that and worked MANY hours digging and clearing my back yard this past spring! I had Sword/Boston Ferns that had taken over a great portion of my backyard as well as something I think was called Cape Honeysuckle ... beautiful vine with orange flowers, but no scent, so I'm not real sure it was honeyhsuckle!
Do you know if the Arum Italicum can be grown in containers? I do a lot of container gardening as well as flower beds in the yard. If I get things that seem to want to spread and multiply, I usually only plant them in containers!
I would love to make a trade with you in Spring for some of your alum!
Lin
Oh when I see all these beautiful pics of things blooming in December I get a Major Case Of Zone Envy!! I wanna move South!
Oh Cedar: Love that expression "Zone Envy"! I understand .... when it's hot and humid down here in the summer with 90+ temp's and high humidity, I get in the mode of zone envy too .... only, that's when I want to move North! LOL.
Things may not be blooming here for long .... our high today is only low 50's and very windy ... wind chill factors in effect if you can believe that in Florida! Our low the next two nights is supposed to be @40. Folks up in NW Florida are having freeze warnings ... around Gainesville area they are expecting low - mid 30's!! Yikes! I don't like it when it gets that cold!
Lin
Hmm, right now:
Roses
Lavendar (just a scattering; the big show is in early summer in May)
Leptospermum
Passionflower
Tibouchina
Gazania
Daylilies
Alstroemeria
Hydrangeas (hanging on)
Cestrum
Lantana
Indian hawthorne
Osteospermum
Bearded iris
Cannas
Callas
Hellebores
Jkom51: Wow! Beautiful Garden!!
Gorgeous Jkom51 !!
Lin,Wow that is really cold for Florida!
Yea, too cold for this time of year! Makes me wonder what our normal cold months of Jan & Feb have in store!
The weather is really odd this year .... we are still in a huge deficit on rainfall this year, like 8-9" below normal! Haven't had much rain at all the past several months! We've been under a red flag (Fire) warning for awhile .... burn ban is in effect in our county and one just north of us too. VERY windy today, so they scrubbed the Shuttle Discovery launch again today. They will try again tomorrow night, but I think there's less of a chance (because of weather) tomorrow than there was today! It's the first night launch in quite a while! They are neat to watch in daytime, but REALLY impressive at night! We can stand in our front yard and watch. Night launches are so gorgeous .... entire sky lights up! Wish I had a camera where I could get a photo at night!
Lin
Hibiscus
Cheaters! Zone 7 . . . . Zone 9, Florida, California, Mississippi. What's the biggie?
Just kidding. Its always nice to see real, blooming flowers, wherever they are from.
STILL blooming in my Minnesota outside garden: Alium thunbergii 'Ozawas'. No digi camera, the pic was taken in late November. Now the flowers are pretty pale in color, but still going strong! And I have only received and inch or so of snow so far, but it's all gone now, although the soil is defintely frozen.
Rick
P.S. Just wanted to gloat. LOL
Leftwood: Yeah, we still have lots of plants blooming down here in the South, and some of us are still outside gardening and mowing our lawns!
The winter landscape is beautiful in it's own way too, and we Southerner's love looking at y'all's photo's of the snowy landscape! I've seen a couple of beautiful photo's posted here on DG. We don't want to be up North in all the Snow and Ice, but we enjoy sitting back, sipping our sweet tea and looking at the pictures! LOL.
Actually here in East Central Florida we've had cooler temperatures than normal .... a few nights down in the low 40's and a couple of days only in the 50's and 60's, very unusual for this time of year! Our cold real cold temp's and frost/freeze time is not usually until January or February if at all. We've been very fortunate the past few years and have not had any freezes, but I have a feeling this winter is going to be different. Our winter weather never lasts long though ... a week or two here and there for a couple of months at most. The coming week for us is back up in the high 70's to right at 80!
Lin
I am still waiting for the snow, and missing it too. These last several years have been really whacko. Falls are extended by almost a month, and real snow doesn't come anymore until a month later too.
Maybe not still blooming here but starting to bloom. Daffodil and narcisus buds... Photo taken this morning. Bring it on! : )) pod
Hey - they can't bloom yet! Its just the first day of winter!!! Ya gotta tell those buds that
they are spring bloomers Podster. LOL
Tam
PS: Nice to see bloom. We've got a few dianthus still blooming here despite the cold.
Its actually been a very warm December.
LOL ~ these guys will bloom usually in Jan with ice dripping from their noses and frost on their toes... Warms my heart and makes me anticipate spring! And you, dear, have my sympathy. : )) pod
Absolutely nothing.
I find this hard to believe, but a Potentilla alba 'Snow White' planted in my gravel garden still has flowerbuds on it. It's a low-growing perennial, making a little mound of glossy green leaves, with white flowers. It flowered in spring, and again in the fall, and just keeps on going despite nightly frosts and a couple of snowstorms. If we get a couple of mild sunny days, those buds will open. I hope I'm home then, so I can take pics to prove the flowers exist! There's also a Johnny-jump-up viola still in bloom, growing in a gravel-mulched flowerbed next to the south-facing wall of the garage, but I can't take any credit as it seeded itself. I'm starting to like Global Warming if it means I can have flowers in December!
Plantladylin, lomely garden and I see you are a bird lover too with all those little houses and feeders. That is my next wish to set up some sort of bird feeder.
It is summer here so the garden is looking pretty good.
The campunalu is in full bloom here.
Corgimum, i meant to say on my first post how wonderful your flowers are, especially that clematis, so beautiful.
Jkom51 - wow, you have a lot of plants in your garden that I have in mine, a pic of Alstromeria and Pentstemon and at the back, Coreoptis.
Violet Treasure, we have a city called Dunedin in our country too but I don't think hibiscus would do well there, it's way down south and gets snow in the winter, well, sometimes it does. What is the Hibiscus called, I would have popped out and take a photo of my one Hibiscus but it is pouring with rain at the moment.
Please, don't tease! It's rainy and feels like spring outside, but if ANYTHING wakes up, the snow will be here in a minute! The dead of winter here in Iowa.
Sniff Sniff, Wanda. You make me feel a little better.
You Zone 7, 8, 9, 10 folks all have such beautiful gardens. Wanda, I'm in the same boat as you, looking at almost but not completely dormant plants. Went out this morning to see if Potentilla alba had opened its buds, but what I found was this daft pink phlox instead. It usually flowers in late April.
Here's what I found yesterday... red verbena bloomin its heart out!
Or how about a primula in bloom five months early?
Not a thing :o(
If it makes you feel any better, I found a bunch of weeds and they had lots of blooms
too. :-(
Oh yes, Tammy, here the dandelions are flowering too. But look on the bright side: if the weather stays mild, we'll be able do some weeding.
My garden on New Years Day
