Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for December 2009!
Like many areas of the United States, we were hit with a blast of frigid air last week which brought low temperatures in the teens to my garden. Those temperatures caught these roses by surprise, judging by the state of these rosebuds.
These are the last of the bloom on the three Sunny Knock Out® roses (Rosa ‘Radsunny’) that I planted this past spring.
Around the corner from the roses, I found a lone blue flower on a stem of Vinca minor growing up close to the foundation of the house. Yes, that is chickweed growing with it!
Here the radiant heat comes off the brick to warm that spot up and fool that poor plant into blooming in December. But it isn’t truly a plant that is supposed to flower in December in Zone 5. Is there such a plant? One that blooms on purpose in December, because that’s its season of bloom?
If there is such a plant, I’d love to plant it in my garden, because I think that would be more true to the Elizabeth Lawrence quote, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year”.
Elsewhere in the garden I was pleasantly surprised to finally see some berries on the variegated coralberry, Symphricarpos orbiculatus ‘Taff’s Silver Edge’.
This is the coralberry that I almost dug out last summer because it is mostly just variegated foliage with tiny flowers that no one would notice. Admittedly, not many people will notice these berries unless they get right up next to the plant, but that’s okay if the birds like them.
I also have purple berries on some hardy beauty berry shrubs, Callicarpa dichotoma ‘Issai’.
Eventually the birds should eat these berries, too, right after they dine on all the Viburnums.
And that’s pretty much all there is to show in my garden on this cold, dreary December day. I’ll save the few blooming indoor plants for January’s bloom day when presumably there will be even less outside in my garden.
What’s blooming in your garden on this fine December day? We’d love to see and hope you’ll join in for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day by posting about what’s blooming in your garden on the 15th of the month.
It’s easy to participate! Just post about what’s blooming in your garden, then leave a link to your post in the Mr. Linky widget below so we can find you. As a back up to Mr. Linky, you can also leave a comment to tell us a little about what we’ll find in your December garden.
All are welcome to participate!
“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence
Gosh — I'm first, yet I feel a bit of a fraud for being here. I'll just whistle for a few minutes over here while others put up some *real* Blooms Day posts. Carol, I have those same frost-frizzled rosebuds (though mine are 'New Dawn'), but I wish I had your beauty berries. What a display!
What can I say? Move to the South, where Roses bloom in December and it never snows. We'll have a hard freeze later that will take out the Roses so the Camellias can shine.
Thank you for hosting Bloom Day once again.
Our recent snows and extreme cold have buried all the plants in the garden and lots of trees and shrubs. These killer Decembers seem to be the new normal here in Wisconsin. I would love to see even one Vinca flower right about now! Thanks, as always, for hosting this wonderful event.
Thanks for sharing the last of the outdoor flowers of the season with us. With your plants like callicarpa, it definitely makes you appreciate that gorgeous things in the garden aren't all flowers. Of course there's nothing wrong with great flowers… Enjoy your indoor blooms!
See, didn't I say yesterday – flowers, colour = happy Carrie on the plots xxx
Oh, Carol, Honey…it's amazing how often I see pictures of a lone blue vinca when nothing else is blooming. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, it's a reviled invasive around here! Please enjoy some of my blooms, and I'll enjoy your callicarpa!
I've had to cheat a bit too this month, as the balcony is currently looking very bare and wintery. So the post is really just what's survived from summer and what's coming on for spring. But as it's Christmas, I've added a competition to cheer things up 🙂
Carol you have far more in flower than I have at the moment I could only find one plant – really need to address that.
Second ever bloom day, and I was worried I'd have nothing… I've got nothing flowering outside, but I came up with a clever way to cheat, so I've got some sultry flowers to share!
Hello! Carol and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.
Carol you always have something interesting to show, no matter what."
Here in the Northeast no flowers are Blooming in my garden, but my Barberry is showing off it's beautiful Red winter berries. I took a few pictures of it for Garden Bloom Day.
I found two plants of the same genus blooming, but only one made a dramatic picture, so that's the one I used. Both looked kind of battered, seeing as they've endured temperatures into the teens(F) at night, and a bit of snow. http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2009/12/15/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-december-2009/
Even the south suffered during the freeze you talk about. My plants generally look not much better than those in Zone 5. Happy bloom day and thanks for hosting.
The only thing blooming here at Sweet Garden Chicago is my May Dream garden 🙂
My GBBD post isn't up yet, but I couldn't wait to see what was going on in your garden this December day.
I enlarged your photo of the purple berries on your beauty berry shrub and, oh my goodness, that was pretty.
Instead of referring of our winter weather as cold, I call it invigorating.
donna
Thank you for hosting GBBD once again. We somehow missed out on all the cold weather that most of the country has experienced, but the future forecast looks chilly, but appropriate for this time of year. I hope you have safe and happy holidays. My post is here:
The Well Watered Garden
I can think of one plant that might fit your criterion, it's a variety of Snowdrop that blooms in the autumn. I've also had Galanthus elwesii bloom in December, if it has remained mild. Mine have sprouted already and, depending on the weather, might manage to bloom before the end of the month.
Happy Bloom Day Carol! Amazing your vinca is blooming in December. There's actually a rose still blooming here, showing no sign of giving up to the frigid temperatures we've had. I don't remember ever having a bloom in the garden in December here.
I love beautyberries. . . they've been on my list for too long, must add one to the garden soon!
Carol, I noticed the vinca blooming here too – but I forgot to take its picture for bloom day! I kind of like that we're forced to look beyond blooms in December, though I suppose I'd plant that winter bloomer too just to have it all. – The snowdrop MMD mentioned sounds perfect…
Carol, Have you a witchhazel? They bloom in the winter and some are nicely fragrant….Happy Bloom Day gail
Love your beautyberry! The birds have eaten all the berries off of mine now.
I'm amazed to see that blue vinca bloom, even if it does get some extra heat. And your berries are beautiful! I'm afraid I wasn't as creative as you–my garden is a soggy, brown mess right now with nary a bloom in sight. Thank goodness I moved a few things indoors to have something to show today.
Happy Bloom Day! I always love this day each month.
And, you will hate me if you look at my post, so, save yourself.
🙂 Katie
Just read your post after writing mine and looks like roses are the theme for December!
This is my first time participating. It's so nice to see what everyone else's yard looks like this time of year. I wasn't able to find much that was actually in bloom, but there are textures and colors all over the place.
Jennifer
Nothing in bloom outside here, Carol, and it's way too wet for me to go out and look for something even slightly not-ugly. But I AM going to do a Blooms Day post this month, just for the fun of it all. Will be back soon…
Carol, I can't believe how many berries you still have on your beautyberry! It's lovely. How has your Sunny Knock Out performed? I'm considering one myself.
Great berries! Wonder whether the Christmas Cottontail will snack on some of those as well…
Happy Bloom Day
I'd love to know what blooms on purpose this month too! We've had freezing temperatures too, but I managed to find a couple of flowers here as well. Next month looks pretty good though.
I can't wait for my Beauty berry bush to be as loaded as yours one day.
Not even a frozen rosebud here on the hill, but there are all kinds of blooms in the neighborhood.
Thanks Carol for an opportunity to look really closely at my Garden in December, – i'm now going to go through all the other posts to work out what else to plant for colour next year.
I was quite surprised to see all the folks participating in bloom day today. I will have to check out what they all have to share. I found some nice colour in my garden which was nice. You just need to look a little closer this time of year.
What a sweet vinca. I'm happy the chickweed's keeping it company. Happy bloom day and thanks for hosting!
It's taken me all day to get an internet connection, but at last I'm here!
I was so tempted to post some pictures of various weeks in flower, but held myself in check. If I'd known you were going to show off some chickweed, I wouldn't have been so circumspect 😉
We're about to join you in the wintry icy blasts, so I suspect today's harvest of blooms won't be greeting you next month.
Stay warm and have a grand Christmas and a peaceful New Year.
Oops, for weeks, please read weeds.
Happy Blooms Day everyone 🙂
I thought I'd be under snow today with no blooms but it rained instead. It's always a success to have a Bloom Day in December! Congrats everyone.
No cold weather here yet, so we've still got plenty of blooms. Happy Holiday to all.
This is the first time I have participated in the Bloom day. Its great to see what others have in their gardens at this time of year – I have very little in flower just now but what I have is so valuable at this time of year.
Gorgeous Callicarpa! You don't need flowers when you have berries in that shade of purple and in such profusion.
Thanks for hosting this – it's my first time joining in, but I often look at other people's posts and enjoy seeing all the flowers – they're useful for ideas too, for what to plant another time for colour for a particular month.
Those Callicarpa berries are amazing!
Hi Carol,
Our warm spring fooled some of our plants into thinking they may have time to bloom some more. I had quite a few buds here and there when the cold came.
I had some blooms that kept some color in the snow, so I included them in my post this time.
I hope the 2 beauty berry shrubs I planted this spring grow and look like yours in a couple years. They sure live up to their name!
My post is up now and I have really enjoyed my first year participating in Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Many thanks for making it possible Carol. There are some autumn flowering snowdrops that are meant to be in flower now e.g. galanthus 'Three Ships' but I do not know whether they would preform the same in zone 5.
This is my first Bloom Day (December was a challenging month to begin, I'm telling you). This gave me a good reason to bundle up and commune with the winter garden. We have camellias, dandelions, a Climbing Aster, and a freeze-dried flower on Awakening. 800 roses here, and only one lonely, dried out flower. Is is May yet?
Connie
Gee, that rose looks like a lot of mine. So cold weather does that … I'll be dingdong-ed. I have a lot more in common with you this December Bloom Day than I did last!
Hi Carol, I'm late getting around to posting this month but I enjoy the quest for flowers (or flower as the case may be) in December. In only a couple months we'll all be discovering what we did or didn't plant this Fall. As for me I've still got a box of daffodils that need to go into the ground tomorrow. 🙂
My December post is finally up. Thought I'd never get it done with all the rain.
Jan
Always Growing
Thanks so much, I'm happy to participate for the very 1st time in Bloom Day!
I see we're growing the same freeze-dried rosebuds.
I love that blue vinca blooming in the face of winter. I wonder if it is really a pink flower that just turned blue by the cold? Does it feel lonely or does it feel like a daring adventurer.
Oh I forgot to check the berries out front! Not sure what they are but they are usually out from November to spring!
Wonder if I'll be last! Scrambling to post while Wood Rat cooks dinner…. Thanks again for this fun monthly theme – it's great to see what's blooming!
Exactly four plants blooming in my yard! Love your beauty berry – I so want one!
Hi Carol, there is such a plant and it is hardy in your area. Erica darleyensis, Mediterranean heather. Sometimes these are for sale at the big box stores, or more varieties can be had online. Christopher had blooms on his and I forgot to even look at mine, having pulled several of them out last year, but not all. Thanks for being such a sweet hostess. A good number of participants even for December. We are late, sorry, this is a hectic time this year for us, lots of incoming guests! Hooray! 🙂
Frances
Better late than never! It's about 8 degrees here and I couldn't find a thing blooming in the yard (though there is still some fresh greenery under the mulch). Luckily I have my houseplants!
I'm way behind this month, and not much blooming outside with the temps in the deep freeze lately, but some cheery blooms indoors.
Good work finding a few blooms. A little easier finding blooms in California, I reckon. I'm a day late, but I added my link. I think this is one of the most interesting months to see what people have.
Happy late bloom day. You can still see a little color left on your sunny rose, the leaves look great for 20 degrees! I love the coral berry, very different. Thanks for hosting Bloom Day, I got my post up early with a link back to you….but forgot to comment on your page. 🙁
I wasn't going to post for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, but I went out today and there they were: all three of them. Brave souls deserved to be blogged about! Do I get extra credit for having them even later into December than the official date? 😉
I wasn't going to post for Bloom Day either, but I managed to put a post together after all, so here I am.
Your berries are lovely. I need to plant more berry bearing shrubs. The American Bittersweet we planted several years ago has yet to produce any. Luckily, we have plenty of wild berries in the surrounding hedgerows to keep the birds happy.
I couldn't come up with a genuine in-bloom outdoor plant, but I did find some flower buds. Only 3 months until spring!
What a wonderful idea! Thanks for engaging so many garden bloggers with this post. Merry Christmas! Hank
I found you indirectly from Pam at Digging. I write and garden in the Texas Hill Country, zone 9a (newly changed from 8b in 2008, a sign of global warming?. Fall rains mean that wildflowers will riot here, a resurgence of hope after two parched and burning years.
I'm looking forward to enjoying the garden bloggers' monthly bloom days.