First Snow Fall

I woke up this past Sunday morning to see snow falling outside. That was a shock. I knew it was supposed to get down into the 30s overnight, but I didn't think the rain would turn to snow. I told a still half-asleep Nigel it was snowing and he said "Ha ha." I used The Voice on him and then he knew I wasn't joking.

I checked the weather online, and it looked like within a few hours it would turn back to rain, so I got dressed and hurried outside to take some photos. It was already turning slushy.

The front garden with its dusting of snow

Strappy Iris leaves

Snow-laden Panicum virgatum

Zombie flamingo and cap of snow

Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

Tetrapanax 'Steroidal Giant'

Trachycarpus fortunei

Verbascum bombyciferum

Snow-capped cardoon

Agave havardiana

Paperbark maple

Mahonia x media 'Charity'

What's this fella got to smile about?

Foliage Followup -- November 2016

For Foliage Followup, I'm again sharing some examples of fall color.

Stewartia pseudocamellia, planted in the spring, seems to be established, but is now turning fall colors

My 'Sunlight Lace' Hinoki cypress pictured below is a nice shade of apricot.

That's because it's DEAD.

Moved in the spring from the front garden, where it was getting a bit sunburnt, it's now a casualty of our early, long, hot, dry summer

Its needles fall off now at the slightest touch. Maybe I'll leave it, strip all its needles, and then spray paint the bare limbs. Or I can put a new shrub in its place. I recently bought a good-size, heavily fruited Pernettya rubra that I could either plant in the vacated hole, or plant near it (since the 'Sunlight Lace' won't be getting any bigger).

What do you think?

Pam at Digging hosts Foliage Followup on the 16th of every month, the day after Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, for garden bloggers to celebrate the role of foliage in the garden. Check out her post here.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day -- November 2016

For Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, there's not much still flowering outside in the garden, but there are a few.

Alstroemeria -- still in its black nursery pot

Unknown hardy Geranium reblooming

Tricyrtis

Fuchsia magellanica

Fuchsia magellanica aurea

My Chrysanthemum 'Sheffield Pink' flowers so late, starting in late October and continuing into November, I sometimes wonder if it's worth growing. I tend to overlook it. Although I still have plenty of work to do out in the garden, and projects to accomplish, once the October rains and cold temps return, I start spending less time out there. It flowers spectacularly, but it's playing to an empty theater.

Chrysanthemum 'Sheffield Pink"

One of my Mahonia x media 'Charity' sits right outside the window of my TV room, and its flowers are attracting hummingbirds that squabble over its nectar and pollen, providing me with a lovely distraction from tele-viewing.

Mahonia x meadia 'Charity'

Mahonia x media 'Charity'

In the greenhouse, the flowering plants are dominated by a handful of different types of Aloes, all with sweet, elegant flowers.

But like the 'Sheffield Pink' mums, the Aloes don't start flowering till just before, or even after, they're moved into the greenhouse in the fall. I'm not sure if I wish they would flower in the summer, or if I'm glad I've got something sweet and delicate to look at out there on rainy days.

There are a few other plants flowering in the greenhouse too.

Iochroma 'Ashcott Red' -- A Brug relative formerly owned by Peter The Outlaw Gardener, and now mine

Salvia 'Wendy's Wish' -- normally an annual, but I'm going to see how it winters over inside

Euphorbia milii/Crown of Thorns

Begonia

'Old Lady' cactus

Pelargonium sidoides

That's about it for flowers here. Without the greenhouse, this would be a much shorter post.

Carol and May Dreams Gardens hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Check out her post here, where many gardeners around the world share posts about what's blooming in their gardens this month, and every month on the fifteenth.

The Garden in the Garage

Last weekend, during a break in the rain, Nigel and I moved the Brugmansias into the windowless garage for the winter. There's no heat vent in there, but it houses the furnace, so it stays warm enough. The Brugs used to spend winters in there before I got my greenhouse, where they lived last winter, taking up lots of valuable space. But they don't actually need the light of a greenhouse. They will eventually drop all their leaves, and I'll give them a drink of water maybe once or twice for the entire winter (from now until the end of February, basically).

Right now, though, they're still flowering, and yesterday morning when I entered the enclosed space to start the car to take Nigel to the train station, I noticed the wonderful, delicate scent from the currently open flowers.

Five Brugs all in a row

The furnace is not the usual backdrop for my pictures

Two more flowers perfuming the area

More flowers coming on

I wonder how many of them will actually open?

Wednesday Vignette

Today's Wednesday Vignette is a matter of life and death.

I'm sharing a few shots of a Sempervivum flower from this past summer, still standing in its little planting niche in the recycled concrete wall in the front garden. In Latin Sempervivum means "always living." For the most part that's true of these wonderful little succulent plants. They require little but good drainage and some sun, and they stay pretty much the same from year to year, producing offsets, till they decide to flower. They're monocarpic, which means once they flower, they die.

They're also called hens and chicks, and houseleeks, and according to Wikipedia, they are associated with the Norse god Thor, and the Roman god Jupiter, leading to common names like thunder beard and Jupiter's beard. That common name Jupiter's beard is one reason why it's better to use Latin names than common, because Centranthus ruber is also called Jupiter's beard.

Anna at Flutter and Hum hosts Wednesday Vignette. Check out her post here.

Wednesday Vignette

I was surprised this morning to see frost twinkling on the grass circle in the front garden. I thought that it was only going to go down into the low 40s, maybe high 30s last night, but apparently it went lower than that. Good thing all my tender plants are in the greenhouse, except the Brugs, but I think they'll survive this light touch of frost. This weekend we'll wrestle them into the garage.

Yarrow leaf outlined in frost crystals

I didn't have anything to post for Wednesday Vignette when I first got up this morning. So this was an opportune moment for picture-taking.

Anna at Flutter and Hum hosts Wednesday Vignette. You can check out her post here.