A sunny December day in the garden…

Wednesday was a glorious (rare) sunny day with a lovely blue sky. Heck the temperature wasn't even bad, just a t-shirt and jeans with a sweatshirt over and I wasn't even cold. So can you guess what my first order of business was? I severely cut back the Creeping Wire Vine from Monday’s post. You all scared me into action, thank you! Notice I didn't say I dug it out, I’ll leave that for spring (right now it just looks too nice to get rid of in favor of bare soil). I did however cut back all the long parts and bits encroaching on other plants. In the process I learned that indeed it does root in places where the “creeping” stems touch the ground. Be afraid…be VERY afraid.

So with that chore done I wasn't ready to go back inside quite yet (even though I had a list a mile long of things that needed doing). So I grabbed the camera and lingered a little longer…soaking up the sun and getting that warm “all is right with the world” feeling that you can only get when you’re happy in the garden. It had been too long…

The leaves on the Callistemon 'Clemson' were very fragrant, the sun seemed to be warming them and releasing their scent. It was lovely.

The "Echium that ate my garden" lives on, this is the arm that didn't bloom last summer. It's roughly doubled in size, if it makes it through winter I imagine there will be a huge bloom come May. Oh and it's sprouted a coulple of arms of it's own.

I'd really like to have Sammy (the Yucca rostrata behind the Echium) be the star of the garden again. But as long as this thing keeps going I'm going to let it.

I can't believe this Clianthus puniceus (from Annie's) was just a small 4" container when it went in the ground last spring. It's almost 4 ft tall now. Unfortunately it only has two stems but they are starting to branch, it's an awkward shaped thing but I love it.

Euphorbia stygiana

Love the Loquat!

The silver leaves are the underside of the Banksia marginata...

Rubus lineatus

Love those pleated leaves!

The Tetrapanax is inching ever closer to blooming. It's a race with Mother Nature to see who will when! So far no threats of freezing in the forecast (and it's December!)...

I climbed up on the side of the stock tank to get a closer look at the buds and was able to look into the cut we made after the winter of 2010/11 knocked it back to a new growing point (two actually)...

All that brown fuzz (indumentum), don't get it in your eyes!

The shade pavilion greenhouse glows with the lower angle of the sun...

All the better for the plants inside!

Horse-tail rush (Equisetum hyemale) glows pretty nicely too.

I finally pulled a couple of the plants from the stock-tank pond in hopes of over wintering them.

The Colocasia had a baby!

Here's one of my original Yucca 'Bright Star' it was down to just a couple of leaves when I planted it in this small container. It' managed to work it's way back over the summer...

See those two tiny little plants in the lower left hand corner of the photo below?

Here's a close-up. The Yucca 'Bright Star' that I planted here died and then these appeared. Haven't grown a bit since that day in May of 2011...that's my less than successful history with Y. 'Bright Star'...so I guess technically I haven't had any die on me. Just shrink.

With that I take my camera and go inside. I think I have spring fever.