I was happy to see a variety of hardy winter blooms that survived the freeze. Hellebores were hunkering down under the cold, but their blooms looked good. I am confident they will rapidly recover as soon as the weather improves.The yellow Edgeworthia flowers below were not completly open. They remained beautiful, although they were covered by a film of ice. There are many buds on the shrub. Prolonged hard frost will damage them, but they tolerate brief dips below freezing.Small photos above, clockwise from top left: Camellia bloom that has fallen to ground, beautiful to the end; Another camellia flower is not very happy with the frost, but hundreds of buds on the same shrub are undamaged; Daphne odoro 'Aureomarginata' produces late winter, waxy blooms.These buds were unharmed by the hard frost; Flowering quince produces blooms for several months from late January into spring. Open blooms will be injured by severe frost, but unopened buds are very tolerant of the icy temps.One camelia with unusually frost-tolerant blooms is Camellia japonica 'Crimson Candles.'  The temperature was about 20 degrees F when I took these photos:

If daffodils are in full bloom. their flowers are likely to be killed by frost. But if their buds have not opened, they can survive frigid weather.

As I walked around in the snow yesterday, I noted other features that added interest to my winter garden. I depend upon foliage to provide the backbone to my garden, especially evergreens that look great when many other plants are dormant:Clockwise from upper left:Hardy Japanese Holly Fern (Cyrtomium fortunei); Vaccinium corymbosum is a compact, native evergreen blueberry bush. The reddish foliage will become glaucous blue as warmer weather arrives; Variegated false holly (Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Goshiki'); Loropetalum 'Purple Pixie' is a truly dwarf loropetalum.

Pleopeltis polypodioides, also known as the resurrection fern, is an intersting evergreen plant. In dry weather it shrivels up to a grayish clump and looks dead, but as soon as it receives water it rapidly recovers and looks healthy and green again. It is native to the southeastern US, but can be found as far north as New York. This one is growing out of a crack in a large rock:

The fairies inside my Wheelbarrow Fairy Garden have taken themselves and all of their belongings inside for the winter, but their warm weather habitat inside the wheelbarrow is doing well:

Here are a couple of scenes from inside the woodland garden, taken from opposite ends of the main path that runs through the area:

Finally, here are some more features I noted inside the woodland garden:Clockwise from top left: A dried hydrangea bloom, leftover from last year; A stepping stone, decorated by nature; A shivering rhododendron that will perk up as soon as the temp rises. The curled leaves help protect the plant from very cold weather; Turkey-tail fungus and moss growing on an old stump.

By now I was freezing! It was time to head inside for something hot to drink and to curl up by the fire with a good book. Happy winter!

December 2020, images taken in Deb's Garden

Barred owls have lived in our garden for many years.I have taken a break from blogging to complete a book I started a while back. And now it's done! This is a tale about some interesting creatures, both common and odd characters, that enriched my life through the years. It is humorous, but a bit of a tear-jerker as well. It should appeal to a broad market of pet owners, family and nature lovers, but I am realizing that completing a book may be the easy part of the job. Finding an agent and publisher looks daunting for someone who has never been inside that business. I have been encouraged by a manuscript reader who has himself received many writing awards, so I am sending out queries. I am ever optimistic, and we will see what happens. Ideas for future books, including one about my garden experiences, are tumbling around inside my brain.

I haven't forgotten Deb's Garden! This is a recent photo of a section of the perennial/pollinator garden. Plants are dying back, and everything is buried under a sea of leaves.We had plenty of rain in 2020, and most plants have done well. The perennial/pollinator garden is two years old now and has begun to fill in. I have added a variety of plants to this newest garden, including some gorgeous day lilies hybridized by my friend in Georgia. I also planted some more native azaleas inside the woodland garden. I now have about two dozen whose colorful, sweet blooms will enliven the space from spring into summer. 

Beauty exists in the garden even as plants are going dormant and leaves are dying.

These Snowflake hydrangea leaves recently were still clinging to the shrub as they were backlit by low winter sun.

It is winter now and many plants are sleeping, but in subtropical Alabama the engines of the earth beneath the surface are hard at work. Multitudes of microbes are busy digesting mulch and other organic matter in the soil, transforming these into nutrients that will be available for plants when they wake up in the spring.

Earthworms aerate the soil as they prepare for hibernation. They dig tunnels for themselves and create burrows deep in the soil. Their bodies secrete a protective slime that helps them slip through the soil and keeps them warm. This worm slime is high in nitrogen and improves the fertility of the soil. It also is an excellent binding agent and improves soil texture.

Plant roots are busy, stretching out and becoming stronger so that they can supply plants with soil nutrients when the plant wakes up. Rhizomes are creeping, and bulbs are quietly growing and spreading their root systems. In my part of the world winter is a great time to plant dormant trees and shrubs because their root systems have time to establish themselves in the soil before the stress of hot summer arrives.

As the new year begins, our lawn is still mostly green, but the Zoysia grass soon will fade to beige.Thanks to all of you who have expressed concern and wondered what has happened to me! Like those plant roots, I am still alive and stretching myself. Best wishes to you all, and hoping for a very happy 2021!

Deb

Daffodils have almost finished blooming in the garden now. But from February through March they were gorgeous.

My life style has slid into decadence. With no appointments to keep I can read late into the night and then sleep late into the morning. My husband has different biorhythms and has the inhuman habit of rising at 4:30 am. After a few hours he checks on me to make sure I am still breathing. If he see signs of wakefulness, he will bring me a cup of coffee to ease the transition. 

Nature is finished with sleeping. After an exceptionally wet winter, spring has burst forth with glorious activity.Swaths of hellebores are continuing to bloom under the Snowball Viburnum, as well as in several other places. Like the daffodils, they have been blooming for months. They started in shades of pink, green, and white and have all slowly faded to white. The flowers will begin to drop by May, but the foliage will continue through the year..In the garden there are riots of color and symphonies of bird song. Everything is fresh, healthy, and exuberant with life. One of the first things I do every day is to open the door and breathe in the crisp air, taking in the aromas of the damp earth, young vegetation and sweet blooms on the breeze.

Tree form Encore Azalea 'Autumn Embers' grows in the arbor garden. It will produce brilliant blooms even more abundantly in autumn:

1st row: Calycanthus floridus is a native commonly called sweet shrub or strawberry bush in reference to its fragrant blooms; Calycanthus floridus 'Athens' is a cultivar with greenish blooms that smell strongly of ripe bananas; Clematis 'Niobe'; Foxglove 'Camelot Lavender'. 2nd row: Deutzia gracilis 'Nikko' (dwarf slender deutzia); Lonicera sempervirens (coral honeysuckle) is native to the eastern United States; Purple Shamrock; Leucojum aestivum, although called 'Summer Snowflake', flowers mid spring. 3rd row: Native azaleas are beginning to open their buds. These deciduous shrubs traditionally were called honeysuckle because of their sweet fragrance; Shasta Daisy; Phlox subulata is a creeping form of phlox; Variegated Winter Daphne.

Clematis 'H.F. Young' :

This is a view of the front walk, with silvery dusty miller growing around the trunk of a crape myrtle tree. A pink hanging bougainvillea and ajuga bloom by the birdbath. The path leads past the front door and continues around the house to the patio:

Here are two spring photos taken from the patio:

This view looks toward a weeping green laceleaf Japanese maple. Those white flowers on the right are called fleabane, a wildflower (weed) that I allow to grow in a few places. The strappy foliage belongs to day-lilies that will bloom later:

The gorgeous Japanese maple in the following shot across the front lawn is our "marriage tree." It will soon be forty-five years old!

This is a spring view inside the front garden:

As beautiful as all the flowers are, I am first devoted to interesting and colorful foliage. Here are a few examples:Large photo: Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) is a native woodland plant that is widespread across most of eastern North America. Smaller photos, clockwise from upper left: Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon'; Sambucus racemosa 'Lemony Lace'; Heuchera x 'Caramel'; Dryopteris erythrosora, the autumn fern.This is of one of my favorite parts of the woodland garden. I moved the concrete bench to its new location to take advantage of the view:

I hope that you are well and staying strong through the tough times. It is easy to worry about coronavirus and to focus on uncertainties. But I am reminded of these words, taken from the fourth chapter of the Bible's book of Philippians: Finally, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 

May the God of Peace be with you!  Deb

Here is the February 2020 edition of my woodland garden moss path. It is lush after all the winter rain we have had. Last year I added the blue bottle tree.

Or this cluster of trident maple seed pods; I think they are fascinating!

So here we are with a new year, and late winter is looking like spring, just as it does every year about this time. Occasionally we may have a few inches of snow dumped on all my late winter bloomers, just to keep things a little exciting. No snow yet this winter, but it could still happen. Probably not. Here in the Deep South it really is feeling like spring.

So here are some familiar plants, my reliable late winter bloomers. They make me happy. I hope you enjoy seeing them, too!

Hellebores, also called lenten roses, will bloom for months. They eventually fade to white, then green. I have an assortment. Over the years, many have intermingled and produced assorted offspring:

Daffodils began to bloom this past week:

Variegated winter daphne (Daphne odora 'Marginata') has been blooming a while. The waxy blooms are fragrant. Good drainage is critical for this plant, and I grow mine in a large pot:

Flowering quince (Chaenomeles) is another reliable, long-blooming plant. These flowers are from the original shrubs that were here when we moved to this property in 1985:

Here are a few more images from my late winter garden. First is Deodar cedar 'Feelin' Blue.' It was a few inches tall when I planted it more than a decade ago. It has always been one of my favorites:

This is another woodland garden view I have featured before. I like how the tree shadow points to the gazing ball:

And finally, I am particularly pleased with a resurrection fern growing in the crack of a large boulder:

May all of you find joy in a garden!  Deb

January:

Lancinato kale is also known as Dinosaur Kale. I love to include it with my winter vegetables. It is tasty and grows huge, making quite a statement in the winter vegetable patch. It produces striking yellow blooms later in the year when it goes to seed.

February:

This is a close-up of the crystal gazing ball that rests amidst moss in an old birdbath in the woodland garden. The image on the left is what you normally see, and the one on the right is the inverted view.

March:

We usually have lots of rain in winter and spring, and the woodland garden paths grow lush with moss.

April:

Rhododendron austrinum is a native azalea commonly called the Florida Flame Azalea. It has brilliant blooms with lovely fragrance.

May:

Clematis 'Niobe' was a new addition to my garden in 2019. It is growing well, and I am looking forward to seeing it bloom in 2020.

June:

This is the entrance to the vegetable and work area of my garden. A lot of non-glamorous stuff goes on behind the fence. A little fairy garden is in the wheelbarrow.

July:

This is my son Sam giving thumbs-up to his first 'Orange Crush' watermelon. He gave me several of his seedlings, and they almost took over my vegetable area. They were delicious!

August:

It is always a challenge capturing photos of hummers. It took a lot of patience to get these young ruby-throated hummingbirds to pose for me!

September:

Here is a view of the stone stairway leading from our drive down into the woodland garden. The large tree is a Southern Magnolia.

October:

'SkyRocket' Salvia is an annual that grew over three feet tall and wide and bloomed prolifically until hard frost.

November:

These mums are not fancy. They originally were a single pot bought for a few dollars at the grocery store. I have had them for many years, and they have spread to form a satisfying ground cover around a crepe myrtle tree.

December:

One of the last sunsets of the year is seen through a screen of woodland tree trunks.

Did you have a favorite month in 2019? 

Now on to 2020. Best wishes and happy gardening to you all!  Deb

This project came to my mind in late October when I looked at a picture of the garden space I had begun in August, 2018.  Here is the photo that started it all:

It was at the end of a very hot, prolonged summer drought. Few plants are blooming. What plant wants to bloom in triple digit heat? Some of them are dead! However, the majority did survive the drought, but most in this year-old garden space are still small and have little impact. 

Here is the question: Do you see the paths? The planting beds are covered in pine straw, and the paths are mulched with small pine bark nuggets. This photo showed me what my eyes had overlooked. Because pine straw and pine bark mulch are similar colors, the entire area lacked definition. Maybe when the plants matured enough to fill the beds, the issue would disappear. But many of the plants go dormant for winter, so the garden needed something else.

The solution was two-fold: First, I put in some evergreens and other shrubs of various heights, so there will be some winter interest. Variegated gardenia, podocarpus, weigela, and a potted arborvitae were some of the larger specimens I added. Then I outlined my paths with stone. This space covers over 3000 square feet. It was a LOT of rocks. Here is a view of the garden space now that the paths are defined:

Many of the plants are dormant, and the leaves have fallen from the trees. (I am making progress on raking. The garden has advanced from 'completely buried under a sea of leaves' to 'needs raking badly.') I am looking forward to spring when the plants reappear!

An unexpected bonus: When I was selecting stones from the huge pile I had purchased, I found one that looks exactly like the outline of my home state of Alabama!

I decided to incorporate the Alabama rock into a low wall in the adjacent arbor garden:

That one rock resulted in a great deal of extra labor for myself, because to make it fit I had to rebuild that entire section of wall, which is about 20' across. 

In my rock shopping I also came across an 'Indian rock.' The colorful lichens and its history appealed to me. Long ago this large, heavy stone was used by Native Americans in our area for grinding corn or perhaps for making tools or arrows. More recently, it was passed down through the same family for about 75 years. The last owner had a dog who kept hauling his feeding bowl off. (I once had a dog who did this, so I know how frustrating that habit can be.) So the man started feeding his dog in the large depression in the Indian rock. Problem solved!

In general, the following trees and shrubs in my garden produce the following colors: 

Hickory trees (Carya), Redbud trees (Cercis), Forsythia, and Winterberry (Ilex verticillata): yellow and gold. 

Maple trees (Acer), Oak trees (Quercus), Dogwood trees (Cornus), Oakleaf hydrangeas, Blueberry, and Burning Bushes (Euonymus alatus): red, orange and purple.

Crepe myrtle trees: yellow, orange, and red.

Clockwise from top left: Oak; Winterberry; Oakleaf hydrangea; Japanese maple.

The Japanese maple 'Orido Nishiki' is green, with a touch of white variegation, through the summer, but the fall foliage is always spectacular:

More autumn scenes around the garden:

This tree with fantastic bark is a trident maple (Acer buergerianum).

I hope you enjoyed my glittering fall landscape a bit as much as I have! Best wishes to you all,  Deb

But we have had some glorious days. Recently I took photos as afternoon sun glimmered through the golden leaves of Hickory and Redbud (Cercis) trees and ignited Japanese maples and other plants with fiery sparks of red and orange. Because of the previous drought and then our sudden hard freeze, I am not sure how much more color we will get, but I appreciate the beauty of the moment:

The colors are more muted this year. Many leaves have crispy edges left over from our late summer drought, but they are still lovely. 

The color of 'Feelin'Blue' Deodar Cedar is always striking, but the blue hue intensifies as cooler weather arrives:

I like the following combination of plants in the woodland garden. Starting in the foreground: evergreen Goshiki Osmanthus, also called variegated false holly; Variegated Solomon's Seal, buttery yellow as it goes dormant; Variegated Japanese Pittosporum, another evergreen; and the deep green 'Gunsmoke' Camellia. (Do you get the sense that I love variegated plants?)

Acers, especially Japanese maples, provide many of the fall colors in my garden:Clockwise from top left: 'Viridis'; Unnamed, grown from a seedling of 'Bloodgood'; 'Hana Matoi'; 'Bloodgood'.

These are all shots of 'Sango Kaku', also known as Coral Bark Japanese maple. The stems will turn deep red as winter progresses.The following is another beautiful Japanese maple that started out as an unnamed seeding. It was eight inches tall when I planted it in 1990. The leaves are just turning in this photo, and they should become deep burgundy before they fall.

Acer japonicum 'Aconitifolium' has multi-hued fall foliage. These leaves are all from the same tree:

Here are a few more scenes around the garden, including a photo of Lou, who often calls himself my "yard man." The leaf scoops are helpful when raking piles of leaves that accumulate quickly throughout our wooded garden. The ivy is Hedera Helix 'Variegata', an evergreen, hardy ivy I grow in a hanging basket. The lovely plant with the red berries is the unfortunate, highly invasive (in my area) Nandina domestica. I have removed hundreds of these from the garden, and there are new ones every year:

As we approach the holiday season, may you all be blessed by gardens and other beautiful things.  Deb

Crocus pulchellus, the hairy crocus, is a fall blooming crocus.

Plant fall-blooming crocuses for delightful drifts of color when little else is blooming. The fall-blooming crocuses belong to the iris family and are not to be confused with autumn crocus, a misleading common name often used for Colchicum, an unrelated plant that is a member of the lily family. Depending on variety, these plants will bloom for weeks from September into November, and even into December in milder climates. After blooming, allow the plants to die back naturally so they will replenish the bulbs for next year's blooms. Grassy leaves will appear in early spring, and then the plant will go dormant for summer.

Crocus pulchellus, also called hairy crocus, is a relative of the more common Crocus speciosus, another fall bloomer, but it has paler blooms and shorter, sturdier stems than its cousin. "Pulchellus" is latin for "pretty," and it is one of the loveliest fall-blooming crocuses. Its luminous goblets are pale lilac with deeper veins, accented by yellow throats and orange anthers.

Crocus pulchellus grows four to six inches tall. Plant the corms in late summer to early fall in hardiness zones 5-9. They do best in well-drained soil in a sunny location, though they will tolerate partial shade. Plant them 3 inches deep and about 3-6 inches apart.

Fall-blooming crocuses may flop, especially after a hard rain, so plant them in low ground cover or a good layer of mulch to help them stand upright. Locate them in rock gardens or in front of shrubs or around trees. They are beautiful when naturalized in lawns. They produce bulblets all around the parent corm and may spread fairly rapidly. They also do well in containers.

Bees and pollinators are attracted to fall-blooming crocuses. These are beautiful, low-maintenance plants with few pests, except, unfortunately, for mice, squirrels and voles. If these are a problem, you can bury them in wire cages. 

I planted ten Crocus pulchellus about a month ago, along with a giant colchicum. I found theses at Myers Plants and Pottery in Pelham, Alabama. The colchicum came up and bloomed within a couple of weeks, but the crocuses just began to bloom yesterday. I will definitely be planting more of both. It is easy to see how fall-blooming crocus and colchicum are confused, because some of them look a lot alike. Don't worry if you get them mixed up. They have similar requirements, and they look good together. Both have selections in shades of blue, violet, pink, and white. A variety of these little beauties will perk up the fall garden just as other plants prepare for winter sleep.

To compare, see photos of my colchicum in my previous post: Hanging in There, not Dead Yet!

Here are some of my trees. Early fall is still green, but these trees know summer is over!

Fallen leaves are beginning to cover our moss paths. We go from watering daily to daily raking!

The heart-shaped leaves of this Redbud tree (Cercis canadensis) are just beginning to reveal their golden autumn colors:

Foliage generally appears brighter and healthier since the arrival of cooler weather:Clockwise from top left: Deodar cedar 'Feelin' Blue'; Eastern Dogwood (Cornus Florida); Coniogramme emeiensis 'Golden Zebra' fern; Edgeworthia chrysantha, commonly called paperbush; Autumn fern (Dryopteris erythrosora); Cast iron plant (Aspidistra elatior).

Here is one leafy view from my patio. The weeping tree on the left is a dwarf lace-leaf Japanese maple:

This old cast iron birdbath is a favorite with owls and other large birds:

Here are a few more garden ornaments, which don't depend on the weather to look good!

That leads me to something new! There is an area (approximately 10' x 10') in the woodland garden in which even weeds refuse to grow. I once attempted to put my shovel into the soil there and it bounced back with a loud clunk. A pick-ax did no better. Dynamite was the next step, but I decided to cover it with pine straw instead. Later I added a small potted Japanese maple. That was an improvement, but the space needed more. I recently put in a couple of colorful pots. I may or may not plant something in them. So here is my new woodland "pot garden". The gazing ball is located in an adjacent space that is covered with vinca minor and has no problem growing weeds: