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| Helleborus niger ‘Josef Lemper’ |
Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for December 2015.
Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6a garden in central Indiana, we are in the midst of the tail end of a warm spell of record high temperatures.
On both Saturday and Sunday we had temps in the high 60s, which is about 30 degrees warmer than usual.
This mild weather has resulted in the beautiful display of the Christmas rose, Helleborus niger, as nice as I’ve ever seen.
Some little snowdrops I planted earlier this fall popped unexpectedly a week or so ago and look pretty good for December.
And there was one single Camellia bloom on the ‘Snow Flurry’ camellia.
I’m still watching the flower buds on another Camellia ‘April Remembered’.
If a watched bud never opens, then this one is going to remain tightly closed for quite some time. But I won’t complain. The Camellias are marginally hardy for my garden so having any bloom, any bud is enough for me.
Inside, as usual, I have amaryllis blooms almost ready to pop open, just in time for Christmas.
What’s blooming in your garden on this lovely December day? We’d love to have you join in for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day and show us. It’s easy to participate. Just post on your blog about what’s blooming in your garden on the 15th of the month, or thereabouts, then leave your link in the Mr. Linky widget below and a comment to tell us what you have waiting for us to see.
And remember,
“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence
Thanks for hosting again Carol, for once it seems like we have the same weather both over here and in US – warm with season confused plants. I have hellebores and snowdrops in flower too, and I saw on the news today that there are daffodils in flower here.
It certainly has been an interesting December with record high temperatures here on Long Island as well. Some of the plants are even confused and sending out new growth. I enjoyed viewing your Hellebores and Camellia still flowering! Thanks for hosting!
What nice winter surprises in your garden! We've had record rains here so everything is quite wet most of the time but there are still a few blooms happening outside in my garden. Thank you, Carol, for being our steadfast host and for inviting everyone to the party! Happy GBBD!
You've got some nice blooms right now, especially considering your location.
It's interesting to see you have early snowdrops too Carol. Mine are flowering earlier than ever this year.
Happy Blooms Day everyone and season's greetings to you and yours.
lovely!
We too are having such warm temperatures for a while now, even night temperatures are far higher than they should be. Lots of plants are confused, but I am just enjoying their flowers and hoping we don't get a frost to spoil them.
Thanks for hosting Carol! I love the little snowdrop! It looks so cute. I have a lot of blooming carnations in my garden and some other plants too. Come and look at my garden, I'm on number 11.
Greetings, Sofie
http://sofies-succulent-beads.blogspot.be/
An extremely mild start to the season here in the UK as well Carol. It's not often we get to see roses and witch hazel flowering on the same day. Good luck with the camellia. My experience is that the buds take a tantalisingly long time to open!
I'm not complaining about the weather. Us old timers like not having to worry about slipping on snow and ice. Thanks for hosting this blog hop. I am so glad I found you and the other gardeners.
Your camillias are an inspiration.
Thanks for hosting, I saw where you ready for winter to begin….I however am loving it…….
It seems that everyone is enjoying(?) a mild late fall, early winter. I imagine the cold will come though. Meanwhile, enjoy your snowdrops and the lone Camellia! Thanks for hosting GBBD.
The weather here has been amazingly mild, and while I do have unexpectedly green coral bells foliage in the garden, all I have indoors is my dependable Christmas cactus. Now that we are in our new house and making improvements the situation may be very different next winter.
Your camellias are beautiful! These warm temps have been nice, but I think I'm ready for a little snow for Christmas–notice, I said a "little." Thanks for hosting once again, Carol!
I'm glad you've seen at least one Camellia bloom. Here in Southern California, I've only seen one bloom on my C. japonica myself but the C. sasanqua is blooming its heart out. Thanks for hosting Carol!
Such beautiful white blooms you have! I finally spotted buds on my Hellebores but it's a long time until they open.
That's a beautiful hellebore Carol. 'Christmas Carol' seems to be the main helleborus niger for sale here but I will be on the look out for 'Josef Lemper'. No post from me this month as it has just been too dark to get out to take photos 🙁 Just wanted to say thank you for once again being such a great hostess this year as well as to wish you all the very best for Christmas and the New Year. May all your blooms prosper!
Hard to believe it's really December over here in northern Virginia! It feels like Florida. Nature is confused!
I like that Camellia "Snow Flurry'! In the spirit of the season, I have my old faithful C. "Yuletide" blooming this month. Thank you for holding Bloom Day for us!
Ha! I picked the same Hellebore to feature as you for this bloom day. Have a wonderful holiday season and a new year's 2016!
We have something in common – I am trying to grow one of the April series of camillas but my garden is in zone 5b on the edge of the New York State snowbelt. Loved your Lenten Rose. Thank you for hosting GBBD once again and may you have a wonderful 2016.
With so many plants still flowering in December hopefully winter will seem short this year. Joining in with your meme but I failed the Linky widget test – still learning!
I love it when pushing one's zone pays off. May you see camellia blooms for many years to come!
I am envious of your upward facing white hellebore! It is so pretty! The Camelia is as well but I can't grow that here in zone 5b.
I went looking for snowdrops thinking this warm would make them come up. Not a one to be found. Hellebores? Nope. Not even buds. I vote for winter to begin now.
It's been warm here in Massachusetts too, and I was so excited to see my new Hellebore in bloom. Your camellia is beautiful! They are such beautiful flowers. Thanks for hosting, Carol!
I am very impressed with your camellias. Are those varieties supposed to be particularly hardy? Maybe they would be worth a try here.
It's wonderful to see blooms in your December garden.
Beautiful!
It's just lovely to see your hellebore, and certainly the camellias are sooo special… what a beautiful treat for December!
Nice camellias 🙂
That camellia is worth all the tea in China. Happy Bloom Day my friend. I made it. Barely.~~Dee
Looking ahead it seems that we have another 10 days of this incredibly warm weather. I'm wondering if the other members of the Camellia clan (you know the ones that should be flowering next April) will begin to flower as well.
P.S. If anyone visited coldclimategardening.com and found that comments were closed on my GBBD post, please come back and try again. Comments were not supposed to be closed and I opened them back up again.
Carol, I'm so amazed that you have outdoor blooms in December. What a treat to have the Christmas rose blooming at Christmastime! Although we are also having unseasonably warm weather in Maine, it's not that warm, so I have only indoor blooms to share. -Jean
Late, again, to Bloom Day; was visiting my 96-yr-old dad…
In central PA, where we usually have frozen soil and at least ice if not snow by early December, we still have flowers surviving outdoors. I ignored them this Bloom Day to show off some faux flowers from fog.
Those hellebores are lovely. Helleborus niger is harder to find in my area, and it's expensive, too. I think I need to make the investment for those beautiful winter blooms, though.
A bit late, sorry, Carol. As I said in my posting, I wish I had hellebores and snowdrops, but I did have some tiny blooms on this unusually mild bloom day. Thanks for hosting. P. x
Annnd now it's cold again… 🙁
On the bright side, it's supposed to get a bit warmer again during this week. Or I suppose maybe that's not such a bright side, if you were hoping to have a white Christmas.
I struggled to post here. My widget was naughty. Now as I read all the other lovely blogs, I see a familiar face three times…mine! Please forgive my persistent ignorance. Hi Ho!