Looking back at my past December Garden Blogger Bloom Day posts I’m actually a little bit surprised that I remembered them wrong. I thought we had had late color in years past but this year really is unusual for the length of the lingering fall.

A lot of the plants in bloom now are the ones that are simply unwilling to give up. Here’s a little list of our hangers-on:

Other plants are blooming out of all proper sequence. I expect that of forsythia and the autumn-blooming cherry (in fact off-season bloom is the reason Prunus subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’  is so special) but flowering quince (Chaenomeles speciosa) really shouldn’t be blooming now (I couldn’t get a shot of ours because the few opening buds are at the tippy top of our largest shrub.) So many of the buds on the quince are swollen that I really fear for the inevitable frost-bite blast that could do in our spring show. And the skunk cabbage is a full 4 months early. Not all of those are up but enough of them to make me worry if there will be few for the bees come March. Or maybe the same plants will push out another round?

Are you worrying like we are about what a lingering fall might mean for spring?

Head over to May Dreams Gardens for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and a look at what else is in bloom this December…

Despite increasingly frosty temperatures some plants in the garden seem unable to resist the urge to keep growing and are lending a whole new meaning to the idea of “evergreen”. Usually by now have extolled the virtues of evergreen foliage in the garden: how essential it is for structure and color particularly through the winter months. But we haven’t had the chance (aside from needing needles for holiday wreaths) to fully appreciate it yet. I won’t give away the oddly timed bloomers before Garden Bloggers Bloom Day on the 15th, but I can show you some examples of new growth, lingering fall color, and even prematurely swollen buds.

Apart from grousing about the weirdness of the weather and worrying over the plants that are headed towards winter in a very vulnerable state, you won’t catch me complaining. Part of me is anxious for the cold to hit but it’s the same part that knows I won’t be quite ready for it when it comes.

Because we’re still growing too. Even though the shading hasn’t been etched off the greenhouse yet (frost – snow even – is what does it) the plants are thriving and we’ve started taking another round of cuttings from the cuttings we took back in September. I feel like I’m just doing that because I can’t not, but actually, growing in the greenhouse doesn’t stop for winter and this work is all part of our normal cycle. We’ll take cuttings from these cuttings when the sun climbs over the greenhouse roof again in late February and March.

Are any of your plants still growing? Are you having a hard time knowing when to quit too?

The best thing about hypertufa troughs is that they give us a place to plant tiny fragile things that might otherwise be lost, trampled, or overtaken in our gardens. They are also especially perfect for anyone interested in alpines who might not have a dedicated or perfectly situated rock garden. – We do have a dedicated rock garden but in a less than ideal situation. It’s in partial to full shade at the lowest (wettest) point on the property and we’ve found that a lot of alpines, which need a high pH and well-drained scree, struggle. In troughs, we can at least give those plants high pH (leached from the cement) and decent drainage by adding plenty of sand or grit to the potting mix.

That said, we haven’t purchased many precious alpines for the troughs (yet. – I’m lusting for saxifrages) and we filled them instead with the tiny stonecrops we can never resist when we see them for sale, and pieces of various and sundry Rock Garden survivors. I wish I had taken pictures of these troughs earlier in the season because the fall color that makes the plants extra pretty also makes them harder to identify. Please speak up if it looks like I didn’t hit the nail on the head. (Click on pictures for larger view.)

1. Sedum cauticola ‘Lidakense’- summer foliage is blue-grey, flowers are hot pink.

2. S. dasyphyllum – summer foliage is very blue and VERY tiny.

3. S. spurium ‘Voodoo’ – deep burgundy-brown foliage.

4. S. ‘Angelina’ – might need to keep an eye on this bright-orange/chartreusey  beauty. Given half a chance it will fill the whole trough. (Funny that it has all but disappeared in these troughs.)

5. Ajuga ‘Chocolate Chip’ – probably the cutest bugle ever. Its foliage is much more purplish  in the summer and does really well in partial shade.

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1. Sisynchrium ‘Lucerne’ – blue-eyed grass. Blooms tiny purplish blue stars in early summer.

2. Sedum dasyphyllum

3. S. spathuifolium ‘Cape Blanco’

4. S. ewersii – also has blue summer foliage and it’s very possible that I’ve confused it with S.  cauticola ‘Lidakense’ above. S. ewersii trails and S. cauticola has reddish stems…

5. S. ‘Angelina’

6. Ajuga ‘Chocolate Chip’

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1. Sedum sieboldii – October daphne. blue summer foliage.

2. S. dasyphyllum

3. Armeria maritima – Sea thrift. pink pom-pom flowers on and off all summer over a tuft of thread-leaf foliage.

4. Sedum kamtschaticum ‘The Edge’ – larger foliage than the others, delicately smudged in yellow with yellow flowers.

All of these plants are hardy and the troughs will stay in place outside all winter. Please let me know if you think any of these things are misidentified – and if I’ve managed to help you get a vision for creating an even prettier trough tapestry of your own. (I have all sorts of hopes and plans for next season’s batch!)