Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day—December
‘Belinda’s Dream’
“God gave us our memories so that we might have roses in December,” wrote J. M. Barrie. Here in Austin, December is still very much autumn, and you need not rely on memory to enjoy roses. My shrub roses take a star turn in December amid the subdued late-fall garden, providing color, fragrance, and soft, velvety petals.
My Bloom Day post is up a day early this month because we have a busy weekend planned. I shot these photos at 8:30 am this morning in a misty drizzle. It was 52 degrees and gray. But I hope these December roses and other flowers brighten your day, as they do mine.
To see what’s blooming in other gardens around the world, visit May Dreams Gardens on the 15th.
Another look at luscious ‘Belinda’s Dream’
‘Marie Pavie,’ backed by a few blue flowers of ‘Indigo Spires’ salvia
‘Valentine’
‘Carefree Beauty’
‘The Fairy’
My new Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’ is blooming in a protected location. I love that electric blue.
Cigar plant (Cuphea ignea ), with the blue bottle tree behind it.
Although this plant really puts on a show in hot weather, it’s not too shabby right now either.
Little, yellow hymenoxys (Tetraneuris scaposa ) shows up best during the cooler months.
Unbelievably, narrowleaf zinnia still blooms prolifically. Does it ever stop? Yes, when we finally get a hard freeze, which could happen this weekend. A few white flowers dot the skullcap (Scutellaria ) to its left.
A closer look at the zinnia
The dwarf bottlebrush (Callistemon viminalis ‘Little John’) continues to bloom, though sparsely.
The various mistflowers have mostly gone to seed, but Conoclinium coelestinum still provides some color in the shadier garden. Out front, the white mistflower has quite a few blooms, but I neglected to get a good photo.
Purple trailing lantana (Lantana montevidensis ) really shines as the days grow cooler. Its foliage, normally bright green, takes on a burgundy tinge, and it blankets the ground with small, purple flowers amid the fading salvias and ornamental grasses. This photo doesn’t show you the effect of it en masse, and the foliage visible here is not the lantana’s but the strappy leaves of a liriope.
Purple heart (Setcreasea pallida ), which always has great color thanks to its foliage, continues to bloom. Once we get a good freeze, it’ll turn to mush until next spring.
Prostrate rosemary twinkles in winter with tiny, pale-blue flowers.
Whatever the season, you’re likely to see a purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea ) or two in bloom at Digging.
Or three or four. That’s a softleaf yucca (Yucca recurvifolia ) in the background.
Ground-hugging pigeonberry (Rivina humilis ) blooms and berries at the same time, making for an unusual pink-flower/red-berry combination.
In the front garden, a wider view shows a few blooms on the pink Autumn sage (Salvia greggii ), the white narrowleaf zinnia, and, in the background, Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha ).
A closer look at a daintySalvia greggii flower
And a closer look at the Salvia leucantha. All those beautiful red berries in the background belong to a weeping yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria ).
For those of you dreaming of spring, here’s a last shot of ‘Belinda’s Dream’ to help you along. And here’s to roses in December.
All material © 2006-2007 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Pam your garden is absolutely overflowing with blooms. I love it. Wonderful to see on a dreary winters day.
I’m glad you enjoyed the flowers, Lisa. Winter gardening is our reward for getting through the summers down here. —Pam
What beautiful roses you have. Have you ever been to the Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham? Their display gardens are so nice and if you are a rose-a-holic, sheer heaven.
Yes, indeed! The Emporium is one of my favorite destination nurseries. Click here for a post about my visit last year. —Pam
Pam… I love the quote about roses and the pictures of your roses, too. I guess we can now say God gave us the Austin bloggers so we might have roses in December. Your garden is quite different from mine today, and quite beautiful as always. Thanks for another great bloom day post.
Carol, May Dreams Gardens (where we are anticipating 6 – 10 inches of snow on the 15th!)
Thanks, Carol. And, egad, 6 to 10 inches of snow tomorrow? Good thing you posted early too. —Pam
Hi there, Pam 🙂
Gosh, what a number of blooms you have for December! What a colourful garden you have at the moment. I am beginning to wonder if you garden will ever be ‘dull’ 😀
I love the purple hearts and the coneflowers. Thanks for visiting my garden yes at the moment anyway I have some flowers just hanging in there – but not for long I suspect. We can get flurries of snow in Scotland in December but usually late January to March is when we will expect snow here 😀
Best wishes for 2008 😀
Hi, Shirl. I hope that my garden never looks dull because of the structure that I’ve put into it, but it does indeed have downtimes for flowers. Usually August is one of those times. February will be another, right after I’ve cut back all the perennials. But isn’t it great how a blog, by focusing tightly on those few blooms out there, can make it look as if so much is flowering? 😉 —Pam
My cuphea put out a bunch of flowers recently. It’s not in the backyard tho’, so I forgot to get a picture of it. I wish I had more room for roses.
I think of my garden as being small in comparison to others I see on garden blogs, but yours truly is. Even if you don’t have room for all the roses you’d like, you’ve managed to combine an amazing number of plants in your tiny, urban plot. —Pam
Weeping yaupon is such a lovely plant! I keep on wondering why on earth they called it “vomitoria”? It deserves a prettier species name.
Eating the berries, unless you are a bird, will make you throw up. That’s where it gets the name. But I agree, it’s not a very pretty one for such a pretty plant. —Pam
Wow…thats it, I’m packing up and setting a tent up in your garden for the winter. I need rose therapy!!!!
Dr. Rose is in . . . for the time being. Austin may get a freeze tonight, but as my garden seems to be in the warmest part of town, I’m not too worried. So come on back whenever you need a rose fix, GGG. —Pam
That ‘Belinda’s Dream’is sublime! Is that purple heart related to Tradescantia? Lovely flowers & lovely post – I particularly like the photo with the blue bottle following the photo of the Salvia that is exactly the same color.
I think the purple heart is related to Tradescantia. Glad you liked the photos! —Pam
Lovely as usual. You’re giving me a hankering to try growing ‘Marie Pavie’ again. I took one of my rose photos in yesterday’s light drizzle too. I’m glad because it’s so windy this morning that I had a hard time getting any sharp photos. I don’t think tonight’s freeze will be too serious, do you? I’ll have to bring in the potted plants and get the canna out of the pond but I hope we Austinites will continue to enjoy our roses through Christmas.
Do you know how to take cuttings? If so, you’re welcome to a piece of my ‘Marie Pavie.’ And you’re right—the breeze today has been ferocious. I’m not very concerned about the freeze warning, though I’m moving the potted tender succulents underneath a blanket on the back porch. I’m leaving out the hoses and the hardier potted plants though, and keeping my fingers crossed. —Pam
Here in Indy today everything is white with freshly fallen snow. Your blooms, especially the pink roses, are a feast for the eyes. I can’t wait until spring.
I’m glad you enjoyed the flowers, Robin. I’ve been really enjoying your beautiful bird photos. —Pam
Love the roses. And your bottle tree, which is beyond cool (and always in bloom!)
It’s wonderful how that bottle tree is always in bloom. That’s one more good excuse to have yard art, isn’t it? Thanks for stopping by, Molly. —Pam
The roses are exquisite! And I love seeing your purple coneflowers. I’m looking forward to more in my garden next year. But I certainly wish my bottlebrush was a bloomer like yours. I think it might be getting too much water regularly being in an irrigated bed.
My bottlebrush isn’t a prolific bloomer either. I’m still trying to figure it out. Thanks for dropping by, Bonnie. —Pam
Pam,
You have quite a lot of plants still in bloom.
I have a lot of salvias still in bloom also but my coneflower is long gone.
Beautiful.
Enjoy.
I noticed all your salvias were still going. Many of mine are as well, though they’re fading fast. Thanks for commenting, Chigiy. —Pam
Oh, Pam, it’s just one stunning photo after another! And my girlfriend Marsha, who gets mentioned in my blog from time to time, just sent me that quote about memories and roses today!
Thanks, Kylee. I hope you got your fill of roses from GBBD, if not in your own garden this December. —Pam
That mistflower is so pretty! Never heard of this flower before, and love the name! I looked it up, and found something called Eupatorium coelestinum in my seed catalogue, it’s a red one, but I like the blue..
Must keep an eye out, maybe I might see one someday in a garden center.
I’m glad that you have a Eupatorium available in your region too. They are wonderful for attracting butterflies in the fall. I hope you can find a blue one. —Pam
Lovely blooms Pam. I see that eventhough we are thousands of miles apart we both have the rosemary in flower and some roses too. Nature never ceases to amaze me.
Isn’t it amazing? I looked up your gardening zone recently and was astonished to see that it’s just one zone cooler than mine—and you’re so much farther north than I am. The power of the warm-water currents! Of course, our heat-zone maps would show a huge difference, which keeps our plant selections significantly different in many ways. —Pam
Wow, all so beautiful, I love the delicate shades of the roses, the salvia and the cuphea. I bought lovely yellow ones for my hotel room. I also enjoy taking pics at different times, in different lighting.
Thanks, Nicole. Your comment about yellow roses makes me think of the “Yellow Rose of Texas” song. All Texas gardens should have a yellow rose, and I can’t for the life of me remember why I don’t have one. —Pam
Show off! Seriously, it’s all gorgeous and I can hardly manage my jealousy Susan
Oh, Susan, your own Southern garden is lush, green, and gorgeous in December. But thanks for the compliment! —Pam
Pam,
Your flowers are nice but I love that bottle tree. I wish I could add one to my garden without it looking like “junk.”
Thanks, Mr. Brown Thumb. I believe the secret to adding “junque” to the garden is to do it boldly. Make it look intentional. By the way, “bottle tree” is the number-one search term that leads people to my blog. I’m always surprised by that. I lot of people out there must be intrigued by them. —Pam
December roses! They’re definitely wonderful – and yours look very happy.
Thank you, Pam. They did look happy, until we had our first freeze this past weekend. I’ll post new pics tomorrow. —Pam
One of the joys of reading garden blogs is that, like enjoying a cocktail in the morning with the excuse that it is after noon somewhere in the world, flowers are blooming in someone’s garden, and while the scent is missing, the beauty is right there on the screen in front of my flower starved eyes! Thanks!
Tastily put, Layanee. Likewise, whenever I long for a traditional Christmasy scene of clean, beautiful snow, I know where to get my fix. Isn’t garden blogging useful that way? —Pam
Oh, all the roses are so pretty–it makes me pine for summer! Sigh! Thanks for the lovely pictures!
~Angela 🙂
Thank you for coming by, Angela. —Pam