Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - January 2016

Here we are at mid-January and still we've had no killing frost this winter in my zone 9a garden. Our lowest temperature of the season so far has been 34 degrees F. 

There are a few micro-zones in the garden where the merest touch of frost has occurred a couple of times, but, overall, plants that would normally be long-dormant are still showing a green face to the sun, and there are more blooms still going in the garden than I can ever remember at this time in January. 

This is 'Peggy Martin' rose which is just now putting on its first flush of blooms for the year. Normally, this would come in March.

This old pink Knockout rose has bloomed continuously since fall and it still has a few blooms open every day.

My last milkweed plant that still has leaves also has blossoms. The other plants were all completely devoured by Monarch caterpillars in December.

Yellow cestrum would usually be resting in January but not this year.

And those Monarch butterflies that grew from the caterpillars that ate the milkweed in December are very happy that the cestrum still has blooms.

Pots of sweet little violas around the yard provide more winter color. 

As does a planter filled with pansies and succulents on the back porch.

Wild oxalis sprouts in many of my beds in winter. Technically, it is a weed but I tolerate it because I think it's pretty and it disappears as soon as the weather heats up.

Meanwhile, the purple oxalis that I grow on purpose is blooming, too.

The Esperanza has been bitten back a little by the mid-30s temperatures we've had but it still sports a few flowers.

And the shrimp plant flowers continue to linger.

Turk's Cap ' Big Momma' is flowering.

And the pineapple sage continues to sport some blossoms.

The Meyer lemon is blooming.

But it also carries lots of fruit...

...in all stages of development. This one is ready to make lemonade or a lemon cake.

Purple trailing lantana - at its best in winter.

The flowers of the Cape honeysuckle have been a bit damaged by cold weather but they still hang on and feed the Rufous Hummingbird that visits them daily.

Even the blue plumbago continues to hang on to some of its blooms.

'Hot Lips' salvia has a few kisses for us.

Copper Canyon daisy should be long dormant by now, but it is still green. Still blooming.

The ever-blooming 'Encore' azalea has a few bright flowers going for this Bloom Day.

And near the front entry, the pot with the foxtail fern, red kalanchoe, yellow pansies, and other mixed plants blooms on.
It has truly been a weird winter so far. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency predicted that our area would have a wetter and cooler winter than usual because of El Niño. Well, they got the wet part right; we've had plenty of rain. But so far the cooler weather has not materialized. Of course, we've still got a little more than two months to go in the season, so perhaps they will yet be proved correct.

Happy Bloom Day. I hope whatever the season is in your garden - winter or summer - that it is kind to you.

Thank you, Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting us once again.

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