Moraea polystacha

Winter has arrived here just over the last week.  I was in out in California last week.  When I left all was sunshine and glorious fall.  When I returned the flowers almost all frozen off.  Twenty degrees will have that kind of effect.  Especially when we hadn’t had a killing frost yet.  This is well past our normal first frost date, but we have often had flowers lingering on to mid-November.  Not this year.  That’s why i’m leading off with the above greenhouse Moraea for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day this month.  Most of the outside plants that still have glimmer of flower are just barely showing as in the following cases.

Last of the Fall Crocus

Daphne collina x cneorum

Stachys lavandulifolia

Delospermum ‘Gold Nugget’

Anyway, you get the idea.  Most of the flowers have moved south for the winter.  Just a few stragglers.  There’s always the brilliant orange-red of the pyracantha to lend consolation.

Pyrachantha ‘Mohave’

Fortunately there is the greenhouse to provide regular encouragement as we recreate a less temperate springtime.  The lovely little North African Hyacinthoides lingulata is very much in bloom now.

Hyacinthoides lingulata

I find the blue stamens and pistil very striking.

I also grow the Cyclamen hederfolium in the greenhouse, though I think it would be it would be quite hardy outside.

Cyclamen hederifolium

And of course there are the ever-present, ever-blooming oxalis.  I’ll share just a few more of the many species.

Oxalis purpurea ‘Cherry’

Oxalis caprina

Oxalis engleriana

All this serves to remind me that there will be flowers, even if goes to twenty degrees on a regular basis (which I’m not wishing for).  We did get the tractor ready for snow removal today just in case…