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Mid-December Miscellany

Ilex verticillata 'Winter Gold'; Nancy J. Ondra at Hayefield

Forget what the calendar says: Like many of you, I’m already thinking about spring. The fall spectacle is over, I have almost everything cut down, and there’s a whole box of seeds holding treasures for the upcoming growing season. In a “normal” year (whatever that is), we’d have likely been stuck inside for weeks by now, dealing with below-freezing temperatures and spells of snow and ice as well. This year, however, the seasons have been turned upside down: Our temperatures have been well above average for the last six weeks, feeling more like April and May than December. It was tempting to call this a Bloom Day post, but I don’t have any open blooms to share at the moment. There are still some nice-looking things, though. Continue reading Mid-December Miscellany

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Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – December 2013

Ilex verticillata 'Winter Gold' at Hayefield.com

I’ve missed just one month of the Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day ritual and I’m already going into withdrawal. Unfortunately, we’re now thoroughly frozen and snow-covered here in southeastern Pennsylvania—likely to stay that way for a while too—and I don’t even have any houseplants to coax a flower or two from. But in the spirit of using Bloom Day as a sort of garden journaling, I wanted to see what I could come up with that was worth noting from the past few weeks.

Continue reading Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – December 2013