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| December 2019 |
Welcome to my December garden and the last Bloom Day post for 2019! Like last year, December has been a unpredictable month with a little bit of everything weather-wise. The first snowfall on the 3rd. really got us onto the holiday spirit here in the northeast, followed by a second snowfall om the 11th, and now the temperatures are seasonably cold (in the 30's and 40's) with a surprise day in the 50's every now and then. The garden is in hibernation mode, but the evergreens and structural elements are keeping the interest going for into the winter months. Come along and see what the December garden has to offer!
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| Hypertufa Planter with Evergreens |
Fist stop is the Hypertufa planter with a combination of Dwarf Hinoki Cypress (right), Juniper (middle), Golden Boxwood (left) and thyme. I purchased it at the local nursery this past fall. As I walked in, I had no intention of looking for a planter, but this one grabbed my eye and quickly won me over. It came home and I am really enjoying it!
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| Garden Whimsy |
Throughout the garden I have some playful statues that also give enjoyment during the colder months. Here is one of a girl and boy playing, which brings back memories of childhood.
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| Garden Gal with Black Mondo Grass |
Garden Gal is still sporting her Black Mondo Grass, which stays mostly evergreen throughout all the seasons.
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| Dried Sedum Flowers |
There is beauty to dried flower stalks. This is Sedum 'Brilliant'. After blooming late summer into fall, the flowers dry to provide late season interest.
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| Dwarf White Pine and Weeping Norway Spruce |
In the backyard are Emerald Green Arborvitae, Weeping Norway Spruce and Dwarf White Pine, with Gold Lace Juniper and Skip Laurel in the backdrop. The sky looks very ominous behind them.
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| Weeping White Pine Seed Cone |
One of the things I love most about fall and winter are the large seed cones that form on the Weeping White Pines. Here is a view of one close up.
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| Crape Myrtle Bark |
Crape Myrtle has an interesting bark, which is more prominent this time of year. I love how it peels to expose new layers underneath. At times, it appears like a rainbow of hues.
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| A Favorite Combination! |
In the back garden bed is one of my favorite foliage combinations. Here are perennials Japanese Golden Sedge and Heuchera 'Caramel'.
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| Late Fall/Winter Foliage |
Add some Gerard's Azalea in the backdrop and you get a really nice splash of fall color, that will last into the winter. The Azalea is evergreen and the Sedge and Heuchera are both mostly winter hardy (semi-evergreen) here in zone 7.
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| Golden Skyland's Oriental Spruce |
Remember the new Skyland's Golden Oriental Spruce that was planted in the pool garden a few years back? Well...here it is and growing nicely. It is now about seven feet tall.
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| Front Property December View |
Follow me around to the front garden. In the foreground are Dwarf Cryptomeria (left) and Weeping Norway Spruce (right), Weeping Japanese Maple (center) and Blue Atlas Cedar (back left). It's mid-December and the leaves still remain on the Weeping Japanese Maples, which has been the trend for the last couple of years. With the fluctuating temperatures, some of the ornamental trees are taking their time to defoliate.
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| Blue Atlas Cedar |
Majestic as ever is the Blue Atlas Cedar on the northeastern side of the property. It was brought home in the trunk of a Ford Probe back in the early 1990's, before I became a landscape designer and acquired a truck! It wouldn't fit in either one now!
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| Front Walkway December View |
Come along to the front walkway. The walkway is lined mostly with evergreens and you can get a glimpse of the red branches of the Coral Bark Maple glowing in the backdrop.
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| Nellie Steven's Holly Berries |
On the northwestern side of the property, red berries are prominent on Nellie Stevens Holly.
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| December Views |
Looking out from the front yard onto the street are the defoliated branches of trees on the median in front of the very ominous sky...
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| Driveway Garden View |
and here is a close up view of the lamppost and Weeping Norway Spruce in the driveway border garden.
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| Welcome Frogs! |
Around by the back patio, the Welcome Frogs are enjoying a nice cup of hot cocoa!
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| December 3rd. First Snow! |
The snow is now melted, but the beauty of a virtual tour is that I get to share the views. On the evening of December 2nd, plummeting temperatures and falling sleet were followed by a couple of inches of pure beauty on the 3rd. The event happened again on the morning of the 11th, covering the landscape in a blanket of snow.
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| Snowdrops on Hypertufa! |
Each snowfall covered the landscape and transformed it into a winter wonderland for a couple of days...
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| December 11th. Second Snow! |
then disappeared as quickly as it came.
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| December 2019 Snow! |
Decorated with snow, Welcome Bear guards the outdoor garden...
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| Thanksgiving Cactus |
while the cactus blooms away on the inside to bring in the holidays.
The holidays are here! Treat yourself or the gardener in your life to one or more of my books-all written from my experiences as a lifetime gardener and professional landscape designer/consultant for over 20 years. Each is filled with gardening advice, design techniques and garden musings, making for a thoughtful gift!
Author: Lee@A Guide to Northeastern Gardening,© Copyright 2010-2019. All rights reserved.
