Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, December edition

Last spring Carol at May Dreams Gardens declared the 15th of each month as "bloom day" and invited fellow gardeners to show what was in bloom in their gardens, around the world. I wouldn't miss it for the world, not even in December.

There have been years when something has been in bloom every month of the year here on Tiger Mountain. Some Decembers I've even had the occasional tea rose. This year it's been colder than usual, so I'm not sure what I'll find outdoors, beyond the old winter-blooming standby, vibernum tinus, shown here after a dusting of snow last week:




While I wait for the rain to let up, here's what's in bloom indoors this month.

I'd identify this plant but I have no idea what it is. I got a couple of slips from a co-worker who, in spite of her advanced degree in the biological sciences, isn't much of a plantswoman, because she maintained it was an african violet. Well, it does have fuzzy leaves and violet-colored flowers, but there the resemblance ends. It's a nice sturdy plant, though, one I'm happy to winter over indoors.


A real african violet. I keep my home too cool in the winter for african violets to thrive, but this one is hanging in there and even trying to bloom.


Another one I can't identify. Along with the african violet, it was part of a gift basket of plants last spring. I liked the foliage well enough to bring this one indoors this fall. The flowers were a
surprise.


And a Christmas cactus:


Venturing past the front door, here's my standard grocery store wreath, trimmed up with some berries and blooms from the garden:


I added the berries and blossoms from the vibernum, a sprig of rose hips, berries from a tiny beauty berry (Callicarpa americana) shrub I planted this spring and promptly lost in an overgrowth of pink mallow and lantana, until after the frost when I saw a few clusters of bright purple berries poking out from the leaves. And yes, in the 10:30 position on the wreath, is a sprig of frost-kissed blooms from my 'wine and roses' shrub rose.

It looks like the rain has let up, so lets see what's outside.

In the greenhouse, somehow surviving the recent frosty nights:


Beneath the bench, a japanese anemone that I bought on clearance this fall shows its gratitude:


Behind the greenhouse, in what I euphemistically refer to as my "nursery bed" (It's got an awful lot of plants that are plenty big enough to survive in the ground, if I only knew where to put them) I got a surprise--primula 'Francesca' thinks it's spring:


And a mustard plant blooms in a bed I didn't get around to cleaning up this fall:


Can there possibly be anything blooming in January? My money's on this sarcococca, which is showing flower buds:



And this hellebore, also in bud:


Hope I get back here before January 15th, but if not, I wish you all a blessed solstice and a happy new year.