Above: Protea 'Mini King'
Below: Hunnemannia fumariifolia
Arctotis 'Pumpkin Pie'
Rose 'Brass Band'
'Brass Band' is lanky after a long season of drought, but still blooming, despite.
'Perdita'
It took many months for the Russelia to start blooming, but once they started, they have not stopped. Shadows cast as the tubular flowers spill over the retaining wall.
That's about enough for this month. Perhaps a hummingbird or three? Glaring at the camera--what's that beeping sound?
One station over, another bird eyed the camera with suspicion.
This bird has a beautiful iridescent green back, and a few feathers missing.
Still a lot of them around the garden; they continue to empty the feeder daily.
Happy Bloom Day!
May Dreams is the place to find many more links to beautiful December blooms.
I'm dreaming of a Protea 'Mini King'...
ReplyDeleteIt needs soil slightly acidic...must break out the soil sulfur and give it a taste. It has hardly grown anything except for new flower buds, while 'Pink Ice' has at least tripled in size.
DeleteBeautiful roses, beautiful birds.
ReplyDeleteA good combination!
DeleteSuch fun to see these hummingbirds and the roses 'Brassband' and 'Perdita' are some wonderful ones, together a beautiful combination too.
ReplyDeleteThank you Janneke!
DeleteLoving the colors of your Bloom Day flowers. I need more (wait, I need SOME... ANY!) orange in my winter garden! Thanks for sharing yours.
ReplyDeleteOrange probably brightens your winter-gloom climate, doesn't it? Here it stands up to our sometimes harsh sunlight.
DeleteI need to find a place for a Protea 'Mini King' in the new year. Your roses, as usual, are gorgeous and I remain amazed by the congeniality of your hummingbirds. I rarely see even 2 at the feeder at the same time - as soon as another gets close, they're both off on a chase.
ReplyDeleteYou won't need much space, it's not a big plant (so far).
DeleteBreeding season is just about here, perhaps the battles will soon begin.
Your Bloom Day flowers are so beautiful dear Hoover, love the shadows of the Russelia blossoms on the wall, a lovely photo and the hummingbirds are so cute.
ReplyDeletexoxoxo ♡
Happy Bloom Day Dianne!
DeleteWinter honeysuckle is going strong; bees are working it hard. In town, the unseasonal warmth has opened a few blooms of Forsythia suspensa on walls. And that's it for floral splendor, so it's nice to get a glimpse of California brilliance.
ReplyDeleteWinter honeysuckle sounds nice! :)
DeleteIt is! Planting two of them (L. fragrantissima and L. x purpusii) near the house was one of my best gardening moves ever. Delicious lemony fragrance all winter long when temps rise above a certain point (40-ish, which is many days in a typical winter here). They're on some lists of invasives, but I've yet to see a single seedling or any berries on these after 20 years. They're a completely different story from Japanese honeysuckle -- tall shrubs, not vines. Ours are limbed up, which minimizes both risk of drooping branches rooting and cover for blacksnakes, and also makes the plants marginally less ungainly (their beauty is mostly in the fragrance).
DeleteI'd be propagating these for friends if they weren't being called invasive. I'm not one to dismiss the issue; I've put a lot of effort into getting rid of the tree of heaven, autumn olive, Japanese honeysuckle, and multiflora rose that plague us, and have seen with my own eyes the harm being done by these and other plants on the list. But I haven't seen and don't even know anyone who's seen winter honeysuckle growing outside cultivation in this area (western VA, ridge/valley/mountain foothills).