Frost and Seedpods

Monarda punctata

Frost flowers on verbesina virginica

Last year... The temps got down to 7°  and the frost flowers grew with each day that the temp was below freezing.

Dog fennel frost flowers

The frost flowers on the verbesina are well known and often posted all over the internet... These frost blooms on the dog fennel... seem to be less documented.

Blooms on the plum tree... They're calling for temps in the teens tonight, with chill index in the single digits... How is that going to affect my plums?

The cat has attitude....

This hardy lemon... doesn't seem especially hardy...

Monarda seed pods

Verbesina seed heads

Agalinis purpurea seed pods...

Dog fennel

I hope everybody stays warm in these record setting freezing temps... And... Here's hoping someone collects the bounty on that d... groundhog...coulda done without the 6 more weeks of winter...

Signs of Spring

I'm starting to see colour...
Hate the winter blahs... Even though the people in Florida get 6 more weeks of Florida, after a palm tree saw it's shadow... I'm not as lucky... When I moved South (back in the '80s), I didn't quite go far enough...

Small clump of daffodils In the foundation bed in fronnt of the house...

Daffys n Kitties in front of the garden wire... 

Dead stems are  from the lantana...

Candy striped camellia

 Red camellias

 Variegated camellia...

Last Spring the voles chewed up the roots on this plant... it was laying on it's side when I rescued it... and potted it up... I decanted it... just before it bloomed.

Electricity in the garden...

The winter rains means a chance to do my trenching, and work can be done on 'infrastructure'.

Mockingbird

Plus.. the hellebores are blooming!

 

southern winter

 Every garden I've started for myself in the deep south...starts out as a thicket.

But... I like to heat and cook with wood... so... it's all good.

 

Spotted this pipsissewa today... while picking up the firewood.

 These little birds like the thicket...

And... leaving all the standing weeds and wildflowers feeds them...

Saw a bird eating this goldenrod seed recently... little bugger flew away as soon as I pointed the camera at it...

By gardening for the birds... I prevent the predation that occurs at bird feeders... and the spread of birdflu and whatever else is going around.

 

I was trying to describe mullein to a non-plant person recently...

I was like... you know... verbascum, uh... that plant that you use when nature calls in the wilderness...

 

The rabbits are eating my kale...

 Here's a fresh planting of collards... maybe the rabbits will let me have some some...

I planted this thistle...

I had a thistle produce bloom a coupla years ago, and I failed to collect seed... I thought that having set seed... I'd get all I wanted... wrong! I had to re-aquire seed for this supposed invasive..

Some actual colour in the winter garden... 

Winter is here...

Things in the garden always get a boost from the cooler temps... just before a killing freeze...

 Horn worm caterpillar on winged sumac... couldn't pin down what critter he was.

 Spectacular Autumn colour in my yard....

 Second generation glass gem... Our seasons are so long... that I replanted the kernels from the mature corn planted in the Spring!

 

Frozen corn stalks...

Frozen Maters

Gonolobus suberosus

matelea carolinensis

Autumn Gold

I'm getting these pics posted a bit late... Last year I posted the golden asters at the end of September...

 Camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris)

 Slender scratch daisy (Croptilon divaricatum)

 Goldenasters (Chrysopsis gossypina)

Helianthus angustifolius

Mexican sunflower (tithonia rotundifolia)

solidago rugosa

Yellow Wingstem (verbesina)

Ok... Not gold, but autumn is when the tibouchina shine... 

Unfortunately, tibouchina doesn't seem to be attractive to the pollinators... And while that purple bloom was a show stopper the first time I saw it... over the years... it's kinda lost some appeal... 

Tibouchina is easy to propagate, I shoved some cuttings in the sand one year... and it seems to thrive in my garden... that cold spell last winter didn't faze it at all.

Got 2 inches of rain, and autumn temps.

TV for cats...

Yall know that's a tomato... don't cha?