Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - January 2015

Happy January to all my Bloom Day visitors. Do you have color and blooms where you are? Here in my zone 9a garden in Southeast Texas things are looking pretty bleak these days.

Just over a week ago, on January 7, I showed you some of my blooms that were still going. That night we did finally have our first experience this season of below freezing temperatures with frost and that put an end to most of those blooms. It has continued to be chilly and rather dreary since then, although the temperatures haven't dipped quite that low again.

Still, even now, I do have a few blooms to show you.


The violas, planted for their winter color and just because I love them so, continue to bloom, of course.

As do the cyclamen.

The ornamental cabbage "blooms" in a pot with heuchera, foxtail fern and pansies.

Somewhat surprisingly, some of the Copper Canyon daisy blossoms survived the frost.

As did some of the nearby 'Mystic Spires' salvia. 

Even more surprisingly, even though much of the Cape honeysuckle was bitten by the frost, several of its blossoms also survive and our overwintering Rufous Hummingbirds are very grateful.

The prairie coneflowers also were not daunted by the frost.

And this poinsettia, most definitely a tropical plant, was on my little entry patio during the coldest weather and did not have any protection, other than the fact that it was positioned against the bricks of the house which probably provided some warmth, and it's still blooming!

The Fatsia japonica (Japanese aralia) which first put up its unassuming and quite inconspicuous bloom in early December is still flowering.

Elsewhere, buds on the Carolina jessamine...

...and on the camellias give the promise that there will soon be more blossoms in the garden. (This camellia lives under a magnolia tree where songbirds roost at night among its leathery leaves. Their droppings sometimes "speckle" the camellia leaves below.)

Of course, my bottle tree is always in bloom!
Thank you for stopping by this month and thank you Carol of May Dreams Gardens for again being the hostess of this monthly party.

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