Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Ok.  Let's see if I can post images from my new computer (sadly I haven't found the disc copy of my photo manipulation software so I had to use the old computer to mess with... but you didn't come here to listen to be complain about computer stuff.  You came here to look at pictures!)

Woo-hoo!  An actual flower in my garden in December in New England.  This tough little viola managed to stick a bloom up over the leaf litter by the fireplace just in time for GBBD

Pansies are a reliable winter bloomer in some regions.  I still have some holding on here but I doubt they'll still be here for next month's GBBD.  Then you'll get to see my blooming houseplants.

My Scabiosa were blooming last week but it's just been too cold and the blooms and buds are all bent over.  I think they've given up for the year.

This Helenium Mardi Gras tried to get one more bloom but the freeze got here first

These Pieris japonica buds will survive all winter long, providing some interest in the garden, but they won't bloom until spring.  Still, it's a reminder that spring will come again.

My male Ilex bluesomethingus seems to be confused and has put out some new growth recently.  Since this plant is doomed to be replaced (it was planted WAY too close to the house and is actually snuggled right up to the siding) I won't worry.  Next year when we get the siding repaired and painted I'll have to remove it and buy a new male to put somewhere further from the house.  Poor guy.  It wasn't his fault some landscaper didn't take his adult size into account.

Grasses like this Miscanthus zebra grass can provide nice late fall interest.

Here's another interesting seed head.  It's retaining some of the purple color of the blooms.

So that's it for this month.  I'm sure by next month's GBBD my garden will be under a good snow cover and I'll be taking pictures of my houseplants.  I'm hoping some of my forced bulbs will be in bloom for then.  And I'll be drooling over the catalogs, dreaming and planning for Spring.