First snow!

Pieris japonica

First snow of the year! First snow in almost three years, I think. We had a dusting of heavy wet snow on Monday and then more last night. Most of these pictures are from Monday because snow turned to rain before dawn today and was melting when I got up.

I love seeing snow in my garden, but I am a little worried about how new plants will handle the winter. I planted so much new this year, and the last two winters were very mild. The forecast for next week looks colder so I'm thinking about covering my new camellias and hot lips salvia.

Dragon's hoard

Hollyhocks

English daisy wants to sprout

Lace leaf lavender

Globe in the rose garden

Rose garden

Succulents hidden under the melting snow

Broken ball and bee balm stalks

Hot lips salvia - I hope it survives the winter!

Hot lips salvia

Color gradient on the last grape leaves

More grape leaves - picture on Monday, gone by Thursday

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - November 2016

Lace leaf lavender and rose

This last month seems to have disappeared without a trace and my yard thinks it is October, not November. You may recognize many plants from last month, they keep on blooming. We still haven't had first frost, although it could possibly come on Friday, and the late summer flowers are lingering on. I'll enjoy them as long as they last, but it has been wet and seems very dark now that daylight savings time is over, so I haven't been outside as much.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting the monthly roundup of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. I'm glad I remembered this month, only a day late!

Still have a few lingering roses

Borage

Toppled over delphinium

Hollyhocks keep blooming and blooming

Hollyhocks

Calamint, planted from seed this year

Fuchsia Genii

Hot lips salvia shows no sign of stopping

Hot lips salvia

A taste of winter to come, Yuletide Camellia

In bloom this week: May 9, 2016

Oriental poppy, lupine and irises

Flowers are taking over my vegetable garden, and they are the stars of the yard this week. A giant blue bearded iris that had languished in a shadier, weedier section of the yard for years is very happy here. Lupine and oriental poppies are also flourishing. Delphiniums that I just planted last fall are still small, but in bloom.

Lupine

Delphinium, still a baby plant

Oriental poppy about to pop

Bearded iris

The roses are in their full glory, this time of year makes up for all of the weeding, watering and disease control! Roses are not low maintenance plants, but they are gorgeous.

I've planted a lot of lavender in the rose garden this year; it's all very small still, but here is one lace leaf lavender.

Lace leaf lavender

The one Dutch iris from last week has turned into a nice little cluster. This is also in the rose garden.

Dutch iris

Salvia, or at least this plant, was sold as an annual but this is the fourth or fifth year that it's come back to life.

Salvia

Next week: maybe a hollyhock? Nah, it's probably a month away still. They didn't bloom until very late in the summer last year, but I grew them from seed and was surprised to get any blooms the first year. 

Hollyhock