My newly purchased Bloomday for January 2014

The local go-to plant for January blooms seems to be the hellebore, sadly none of mine are open yet. You'd think my standing over them with camera in hand would have pushed the flowers over the edge into full bloom, but no. My disappointment over this, mixed with a healthy dose of spring fever, had me walking the isles yesterday at my neighborhood nursery - Garden Fever. Thankfully this sweet little Helleborus lividus 'White Marble' was willing to come home with me, thus breaking the "no flower" curse for this January Bloomday...

However as these things go the buying didn't stop there. You see as I walked past this Hamamelis x intermedia 'Early Bright' I was hit upside the head with the most amazing scent. I usually have great difficulty smelling witchhazel, but this little twig knocked me over with it's powerful fragrance...plus it was that pinky orange color I love...plus I had been considering adding a hamamelis to the garden. Sold!

Once home I looked it up online only to discover this downer of a description from Gossler Farms (they supplied Garden Fever with the plant): "Wow! What fragrance! H. 'Early Bright' has small orange-yellow flowers in January. The flowers aren't very exciting but the fragrance is probably the best of any hamamelis we've sniffed."...THE FLOWERS AREN'T VERY EXCITING. Are you telling me I finally bought a witchhazel but I managed to purchase one with boring flowers? I'm such a loser...

In other Bloomday news...the yellow-puffball flowers of Acacia baileyana 'Purpurea' are filling the shade pavilion greenhouse with their lovely scent.

While the potted Acacia pravissima hasn't quite broke into flower yet.

The buds on Edgeworthia chrysantha ‘Akebono’ are swelling, but still colorless.

And I don't think this Grevillea victoriae has the chutzpah to open anymore of its buds. It's still in shock from the cold.

I'm holding out hope for the Grevillea 'Suberb'...

And trying to do the same for Grevillea juniperina ‘Lava Cascade’ and ‘Molonglo’ both of which are covered in buds but appear to be dying from the center outward (more cold damage).

The Arctostaphylos x ‘Austin Griffiths' is just hours from bursting into full bloom, oddly it's the only one of my four arctostaphylos that has buds on it this year.

If my rather poor Bloomday showing has you wishing for more, visit May Dreams Gardens for links to all the blogs participating in the flower show this month.

All material © 2009-2014 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

In a Vase on Monday: the bathroom smells amazing!

After a few weeks with no new "In a Vase on Monday" submission (as hosted by Cathy, at Rambling in the Garden)  I was feeling the pressure to do something, anything! I love having fresh garden arrangements in the house and really needed something to brighten my spirits.

But then there's the whole "garden is trashed from winter" thing. What to do? Oh ya, my Hamamelis x intermedia 'Early Bright' Hamamelis x intermedia 'Rochester' (just heard from the nursery I bought it from, they'd got it in mislabeled and emailed me with the right name), was looking good, back before the snow and ice snapped it's trunk, or so I thought. Turns out once I was able to really investigate it wasn't that bad. There's a small fracture but it's completely salvageable, I'm sure of it. While working to brace the trunk (in case we get another winter storm) I decided to cut a couple of small branches, to enjoy indoors.

And what better to go with them than a bit of Grevillea australis, my most used shrub — for "in a vase" foliage. That's it there, under the dead Acacia dealbata. It's also damaged and I'm trying to decide what to do with it.

Walking back towards the house I spotted the third "vase" element. Foliage from the Metapanax delavayi has been falling to the ground.

The plant is okay, but some individual leaves are unhappy. I can't blame them.

Here's the final vase-full...

The Hamamelis brings color and fragrance, the Grevillea acts as a suitable "filler" (although I do hate that term) and the Metapanax is the backdrop — it's all on the shelf in our bathroom.

As I said in the title "the bathroom smells amazing!"...

Of course this little guy is my favorite bit of the vignette. A small cachepot and a mini opuntia, both from the Portland Nursery houseplant sale ($2.99 each and then minus 30% off...they practically paid me to bring this home!)...

A "snakey" Tillandsia and "B" bingo ball ("B" for our last name) were already in my possession. I really like how it all came together, with minimal effort.

Now just because I believe in keeping it real...lest you think it's all fresh flowers, clean dishes and vacuumed carpets around these parts. Here's how the mantle is currently looking. Ya, nothing has changed since you last saw this on January 2nd, four weeks ago!

On the far left things are still (amazingly) fresh. That Antherium dates back to our wedding anniversary on December 18th!

Not so with the Protea and Leucadendron. They're dead. Dry. Crispy.

Ha! And this too, the Ginger. This is what happens when you're busy and distracted. Oh well. At least they don't stink!

Weather Diary, January 29: Hi 46, Low 33/ Precip trace

All material © 2009-2017 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Bloomday, a day late and battered

So yes, I cheated. Snow was in the forecast and I knew, due to my schedule, that even under the best of scenarios if it melted on queue (which of course it hasn't) I wasn't going to be able to take photos before Bloomday. Plus anything that was blooming in the garden had already survived multiple snowfalls and ice storms. So I took photos early. Then all hell broke loose (if you can equate snowfall with hell-fire). These photos were taken on January 10th, but everything that I've posted looked the same on January 15th, under the foot of snow that refuses to leave, I'm just sure of it...

Acacia baileyana 'Purpurea'...poor thing has been flat on the ground, iced over, and snowed on, and it keeps on keeping on. I know the wily ways of the Acacia however and while it can look like all's well it's really already dead. Fifteen degrees as a low on Friday morning and days and nights below freezing, I don't have much hope. Still if you went ahead and opened up those yellow flowers of powerful scent I would be oh so happy...

Grevillea victoriae 'Murray Queen' — at least the hummingbirds don't care if it's vertical or horizontal. They do care however if it's iced, or snowed over. That makes them very unhappy. Thankfully even with substantial snow a few blooms are peeking out.

Those wilted orange bits on the Abutilon nuabtang were trying to be flowers, before the last ice storm I mean. Now it's buried under the snow, I doubt they're looking better.

Callistemon viridiflorus seed pod, that was once a flower!

Edgeworthia chrysantha ‘Akebono’...these want to be flowers, and soon.

I wonder if it will happen?

Correa backhouseana, I was afraid to touch them or even breath when I was close to these — for fear they weren't real. How can they still be hanging on?

Eriobotrya japonica flowers were trying to look like flowers, and they still very much smelled like flowers.

Magnolia laevifolia, flowers in waiting. Cinnamon buds of beauty in the mean-time.

Wow! Happy discovery scratch that...it was happy back then, on January 10th. Since I took these pictures I've made the discovery that our nasty snow broke the trunk of my Hamamelis x intermedia 'Early Bright'. A nursery owning FB friend has given me great advice about patching it up, we'll see if it's salvageable. Meanwhile yes, my Hamamelis is actually still in flower, and hanging on to its brown foliage. It's just bent over...

Stachyurus salicifolius is showing off it's dangling wanna be flowers.

Euphorbia amygdaloides var. Robbiae is also looking ahead a month or so. "I will flower...you just try and stop me!"...

Helleborus argutifolius...one tough plant.

Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Nanjing Gold' is a touch more hardy than the ‘Akebono’, I have faith I will be seeing these flowers soon-ish.

Euphorbia rigida, starting the push to those acid green flowers I love so much.

Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow'...so colorful and full of bashful-bud promise.

Arctostaphylos densiflora ‘Sentinel’ is currently feeding the local hummingbirds, since I brushed off the snow-cover that is.

Along with the Arctostaphylos x 'Austin Griffiths'.

Mahonia x media 'Charity' is unfazed by this winter business. Couldn't care less.

So that's a look at what's what outside, there are also things happening inside. A second bloom has opened on the Mammillaria gracilis var. fragilis.

And this "annual" whatever it's name is (Tradescantia something or other — which I only brought in because I didn't want the container it's in to freeze) is blooming it's heart out with these little purple flowers.

And the darn Brugmansia! Three flowers are open now, with two more on the way.

They definitely develop more of a orange hue inside, outdoors they stay creamy white.

I had fun seeing what the light would do to the insides of the trumpet.

As always Bloomday is hosted by Carol over at May Dreams Gardens. See all the links to posts around the world by clicking here.

Weather Diary:
January 13: Hi 29, Low 12 airport - 14.9 on my thermometer / Precip 0 - clear sunny skies
January 14: Hi 29, Low 19 airport - 18 on my thermometer/ Precip 0 - clear sunny skies
January 15: Hi 28, Low 19/ Precip 0 - clear sunny skies

All material © 2009-2016 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

January Garden Blogger's Bloomday...

Poking around the garden yesterday, looking for blooms, I couldn't help but notice that things are looking a little "springy." When it happens so early I try not to get too excited, anything could happen at this point.

Ha! Who am I kidding, spring...BRING IT ON!

Last January this Hamamelis x intermedia 'Early Bright' was newly purchased and already in bloom. I am thrilled it's rewarding me with blooms again this year...and it smells so good!

This Helleborus x hybridus 'Jade Tiger' was also purchased last year, in March when I visited Northwest Garden Nursery in Eugene, OR.

If you love hellebores then you no doubt know of the O'Byrnes and their wonderful nursery. Their 2015 Hellebore Open Garden and Sales this year are the weekends of February 21-22 and March 7-8, 10am – 4pm each day. It's very much worth the trip if you can swing it!

This little NOID hellebore was blooming away hidden behind several things I planted last year, not thinking about the lovely flowers I wouldn't get to see. The temporary solution = bring the flowers indoors. Now let's see if I can remember to move the plant.

I've got one, just one, bloom on my Jasminum nudiflorum. What's up with that?

Crazy early (it seems?) the Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Nanjing Gold' blooms are starting to open.

Grevillea 'Neil Bell' just keeps on going...

Ditto with the Grevillea victoriae 'Murray Queen'. Nice blurry photo eh? And those are the crispy leaves of my Musa basjoo there behind it, adding texture and depth (silk purse/sow's ear).

Mahonia x media 'Charity', for the last time...I promise!

And ditto for the Banksia ericifolia, I'm sure you're getting rather tired of it (I'm not though, obviously).

No such promises here. While the banksia bloom stays pretty much static the pair of Fascicularia pitcairnifolia blooms just keep on evolving.

Pretty cool!

Bloomday is a monthly opportunity to share what's blooming in our gardens. Visit the blog May Dreams Gardens for links to all those who are participating this month.

All material © 2009-2015 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.