Sometimes I let the rules take over, I guess it’s that oldest child thing.
If the rules for Bloggers Bloom Day state that you photograph and record what is blooming in your garden on the 15th of the month, than by gum I’m gonna wait until the 15th. So much for playing by those rules! I was so excited to contribute this month along with esteemed garden bloggers like Kathy Purdy of Cold Climate Gardening Idaho Gardener and many more. There are so many clever, quirky, irreverant, smart, sassy garden bloggers out there. It’s a great big sandbox and I want to play!
Inspired by the words of Elizabeth Lawrence, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year,” Carol of May Dreams Gardens started Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, garden bloggers from all over the world publish what is currently blooming in their gardens, and leave a link in the comments of May Dreams Gardens.
We’ve had a very mild autumn thus far and for the past few weeks I’ve been making a list of plants that are (were) flourishing and (did) look lively. Autumn blooming tuberous nasturtium (see above) only just begins to bloom in mid November; its slender tubes of brilliant orange and yellow look like upside down flames dripping from the lobed, blue green foliage. The crops of equally orange berries on the Iris foetidissima were a nice echo (note: I count berries on my “blooms” list).
In another berried echo across the yard the Billardiera berries are (were) fat and fancy with a coat of shimmery iridescence, while nearby umbels of Dichroa febrifuga fruit dazzled in dusky shades of pewter, pink, lapis and inky midnight blue. I just love berries – the more otherworldly in color the better.
It’s an off year for beauty berry in my garden. In the big garden overhaul of ‘08 I tore out my Callicarpa dichtotoma ‘Profusion’. In the past I was willing to forgive it its awkward gangly form for its brilliant florescent purple berries every fall; that was until I discovered C. d. ‘Early Amethyst’ a more compact and pleasing form with attractive foliage that emerges dusky purple in the spring and exhibits a glorious golden decline in the fall. ‘Early Amethyst’ berries are in tighter clumps than ‘Profusion’, put on quite a show against the fall foliage and persist well throughout the winter. Anyway, my little one gallon plant was only installed this fall and I’ll have to wait at least another season for the effects to return. We gardeners are forever planting but what we’re really cultivating is PATIENCE!
Anyway… it’s only the 14th but in a fit of rebellion I’m going to post my Bloggers Bloom pictures today while the lovely mantle of snow (!) is still fresh. We hardly ever get snow in Seattle, and of course when we do everyone freaks out, weathermen flap their hands like excited geese, shoppers stock their pantries for the end times and drivers…well, the less said about Seattle snow drivers the better. Remember, we have a lot of hills and it doesn’t take much to spin around and start playing automobile pinball.
So when I awoke to a winter wonderland this morning I rushed outside to snap some garden shots which I’ll quickly post before I get in my armoured snow vehicle and make the trek to the grocery store to stock up on provisions for the Big Blast of 08 – I’m sure the local TV stations each have their own storm logos by now along with various “parka boys” bringing LIVE reports every 15 minutes.
Winter blooming crocus…I have no idea which one. I bought these corms probably 15 years ago at a local bulb sale and they’ve shown up every winter since.
Camellia sasanqua ‘Setsugekka’ This beauty blooms all winter and smells lovely when I pick a blossom to float in a shallow bowl by my bedside.
Here are my tuberous nasturtiums (left) and Iris foetidissima
…ah, the best laid garden plans and plotting.
Billardiera longiflora brrrrr… we’re not in Tasmania anymore!
Dichroa febrifuga This plant looks like a recumbent hydrangea all summer with characteristic mophead flowers but the fall berries are the real treat – at least before they dessicate in the freezing cold.
Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’ Usually I go out and pick the last straggling leaves off her, especially if I’m going to take a picture or cut some branches for a winter bouquet – but I think I mentioned – it was COLD out there!
Clematis cirrohsa ‘Freckles’ Cute, huh? This little rascal blooms all winter…and spring and summer and fall for that matter. Never a giant show but endearing and most welcome at any time.
Well, that’s my contribution to Bloggers Bloom Day December 08 here in Zone 8, Seattle, WA.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I often take photos a day or two early, but usually schedule my post to publish on the “right” day. I am more likely to be attempting to avoid snow than to make sure I capture it. But, of course, I would have a lot more snow.
This is very exciting to me to discover new blogs, like yours, through bloom day. Kathy P., Cold Climate Gardening, alerted me to your post.
I also love to read about what people do when it snows in places like Seattle, and the fun everyone has with it. It appears in addition to causing havoc on the roads and making people shop like they will never be able to go out again this winter, it causes people to break “the rules of bloom day”! Good!
Seeing the fuss you all make over your snow makes me more appreciative of what I have when it snows where I am, which it does often.
I hope ‘Freckles’ and all the other blooms come through the cold and snow for you! Thanks for joining in for bloom day.
oh joy. i needed some snow-in-Seattle imagery and I knew you’d have it here, Lorene!
We missssssss misss misss the snow! Even though it only comes to Seattleites once or twice a year, it’s a treat!
Esteemed? You gotta be kidding me. But I like that you used that term.