December blooms?

Another Garden Blogger's Bloomday is here (courtesy May Dreams Gardens), and it's the last one of this crazy year. Speaking of (crazy) how bizarre is that blue sky? It lends a summer-like feel to these photos, but I can assure you it was a rather cool day when I snapped these shots—in the 40's and windy. Still, I am not complaining! 

So what's blooming in December? Not much. Thus this post includes several photos of things that caught my eye while I was hunting for flowers—purists, you've been warned. Starting in the front garden we've got Fatsia japonica...

Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Nanjing Gold', which will actually bloom in February but gives me hope for those longer days now, when I need it.

In the scar from a cut edgeworthia branch are these tiny mushrooms!

Here we have the ever blooming rosemary, but quite possibly my favorite ever photo of it—even though it's a little blurry. The rosemary sprig is laying on the red stems of Callistemon 'Woodlander's Hardy Red'.

Bright as a bloom, the berries of Mahonia gracilipes.

Mahonia x media 'Charity' is getting HUGE.

And the saga of the ever hopeful Tetrapanax blooms carries on. Here are the front garden plants...

And in the back garden...

Fatsia japonica 'Murakumo Nishiki'

Berries on the Aucuba japonica ‘Longifolia’, they'll start to turn red in the coming weeks.

This surprised me! Buds on Helleborus x hybridus 'Jade Tiger' (I later found Helleborus x ballardiae Pink Frost emerging as well)... it seems too early.

The leaves of Farfugium japonica 'Kaimon Dake' were glowing in the afternoon sun, I love that mottled green.

Mahonia eurybracteata 'Soft Caress'

Fatsia polycarpa ‘Needhams Lace’, I'm always surprised by how different these buds and blooms are from the other fatsia in my garden.

The cones on Cryptomeria japonica 'Rasen' count as blooms, right?

And since this sarracenia pitcher is one of the most colorful things in my garden right now, well it got it's photo taken.

Comptonia peregrina, because brown is a color too.

And speaking of color, a new—colorful—frond on Woodwardia unigemmata.

What's left after the orange flowers fall, on Leonotis leonurus.

Eriobotrya japonica (loquat) flowers. They were so deliciously fragrant that day.

Magnolia laevifolia flower in the making.

Ditto for the Edgeworthia chrysantha ‘Akebono’.

And it's post-flower berries for the Lonicera x brownii 'Dropmore Scarlet'...

And perhaps the Schefflera delavayi? All the other stalks have dropped—maybe this is the year my plant finally lets a few seeds ripen?

So... is there anything blooming in your December garden? Or are you one of those hardier people whose garden is already under snow or has endured truly frigid temperatures?

—   —   —

Weather Diary, Dec 14: Hi 49, Low 41/ Precip trace 

All material © 2009-2020 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.