Brave Plants

11/23/13

mums

     In the last three weeks we have had some cold night temperatures.  The temperatures have not just gone below freezing, but have been in the mid-twenties.  Yet I have some flowers that are still hanging on with a few blooms.  The mums, of course, are still blooming.

Carolina Jessamine vine

     The Carolina Jessamine vine has a few blooms.  I did not know whether it would bloom this fall, since it was so recently planted.  But it did surprise me with several blooms.

begonia

     I have one begonia that is still blooming.

petunia

     Everything around my one petunia in the back yard garden succumbed to the cold.  But it is still holding on.

gaillardia

     The gaillardia in the side garden is still trying to put out blooms.

back yard garden

     My back yard garden is cleaned out for winter except for some sweet alyssum that still has flowers.

bare trees

     Most of the leaves have fallen off the trees in our neighborhood.  So everything is looking kind of bare outside now.

rhododendron

       But surprise!  As I was doing final cleanup in the gardens yesterday I saw a flash of pink in the rhododendron bush.  I looked inside and found three blooms.  So even though we are supposed to have wind chills in the teens tomorrow, these blossoms reminded me to think about the coming spring.

Changes in the Back Yard Garden

10/6/13

center of back yard garden

     I made some changes to the center of the back yard garden.  This photo shows what it used to look like with five boxwood bushes and three nandina bushes.  These shrubs were here when we moved in.  The garden surrounds three sides of the patio, and these bushes stood in the center and divided the east and west sides of the garden.  The boxwood bushes were removed.

     My husband dug the boxwoods up and transplanted them along the outside of the back yard fence.

      This is the Carolina Jessamine vine I planted on the other side of the gate across from the boxwoods.

     This is what the center of the back yard garden looks like now.  The nandina bushes were left in the garden.

     I put in five brunnera plants that will be covered with tiny, lacy, blue flowers in the spring.

Behind the brunnera plants I put in yellow astilbe plants.    In the spring I'll fill in with some annuals along the front of the brunnera.