Tuesday, December 15, 2009

December week 2

We finally got our first freeze, but somehow spring is in the air!

Forsythia's blooming,
and daffodils are peeking up. Boy are they in for a shock!
Thankfully, there are more seasonally appropriate plants elsewhere. At the Colonial Williamsburg nursery there were lots of fall vegetables to be seen:
London flag leek (Allium porrum),
lettuces including imperial (below), brown Dutch, and aleppo,
and purple top turnips
and in another corner of the garden, Indian currant (Symphoricarpus orbiculatus). It's not a vegetable, though the bad tasting fruit is apparently edible.
There's still color to be found around town:
the cheery yellower flowers of mahonia,
and lots of reds:
firepower nandina,
dwarf burford holly,
and pyracantha.
I also came across some plants that would be good for an autumnal goth garden:
the dark blue lugubrious fruits of ligustrum,
the dark twisted fruits of honeylocust, looking like hanging bats,
and the dramatic black leaves of a sweetgum.
Out in the countryside, we'll be seeing a lot of these coppery beech leaves. They'll be hanging on the trees for another couple of months.
You can see my other December week 2 pics here.


3 comments:

Les said...

I have only recently come to appreciate the persistence of Beech foliage, especially when strong winds are blowing.

Aaerelon said...

I've heard a few other people mention that their forsythia have had flowers. Very nice pictures!

How It Grows said...

Aerelonian, thanks for stopping by.