What's Blooming January 1, 2019

Honoring an old English garden tradition (at least that's where I found the idea, from an English gardener, a long time ago), I took my camera out into the garden to see what was in bloom as the old year fades into the new. 

We still have not had more that a light touch of frost a couple of nights so far this fall/winter, so there is quite a bit in bloom. Of course you have to get down low and look closely for some of it. This is not a showy season. 

There are a few roses, some faded, some in bloom, some still in the bud.

This purple leafed oxalis in a patio pot just keeps pushing petals.

 Golden fever few won't quit either if the frost doesn't knock it back. 

 The primroses are all blooming, but are bedraggled by the rain. 

The Kaffir lily, Schizostylis coccinea, persists as well.

 Stooping at the rock wall, I found tiny blooms of Companula.

 And flea bane, Erigeron annuus.

 Rosemary in bloom now? Yep. 

A Hebe that spent several years in a patio pot, but is now a healthy shrub in the garden.

 A hydrangea still holding its color

 and a late bloomer.

Forsythia buds are beginning to swell.

Not a flower, but the pretty shiny black berries of black mondo grass. 

 Cool bark and lichen on a red leaf maple. 

 Moss too, of course. Everywhere. 

 I found two fuchsia ballerinas still hanging on tenaciously.  

 Hardy cyclamen leaves are as pretty as flowers. 

Snow drops are up and ready to pop.

 This Lewisia is apparently very confused. Winter blooming? Really?

 Sarcoccocca certainly is a winter bloomer. Its tiny flowers are beginning to open, and will spread a wonderful vanilla scent around the entry garden. When I toss the evergreen bouquets this week, I'll bring in some sarcococca sprigs to add fragrance to the house. 

Hellebores are sending up flower stocks.

 We recently added winter blooming Mahonias to the front garden. 

 I startled a hummingbird when I approached this one. Our year-round resident Anna's hummers love these blooms, and that is a big reason why we added them, to give the hummers some winter food. 

 We have many clumps of Winter Jasmine hanging over walls in the garden. Hummers love them too. 

 Basket of gold and Candy tuft seem to think it's spring. 

There are lots of pretty berries on the driveway wall too. 

 Snowberry, a native.

 Purple beauty berry and a Cottoneaster.

And then there was this beauty on the wall too. 

 Charlie didn't really care about the flowers though. She wanted me to get to the back of the house and give her a treat and a head rub.

So I did.

Our Coastal Pacific Northwest gardens never really sleep. One season rolls into another and one year into another. After all, the New Year is just another page on the calendar.

That reminds me. I need to find the new calendars!  It's a new year. I sure hope yours is a happy one.