Camellia ‘Survivor’

Just a few things to share for this bloom day.  As always the Camellias are the most startling representatives of our late Fall gardens.  I’ve never figured out why more people in Maryland don’t grow the Camellia Sasanqua but for us it multiple weeks of pleasure.  The white one shown above is the first to bloom and probably the hardiest on our property.  It comes from Camellia Forest in North Carolina.  But right behind it is our red Fall Camellia which I brought back from California many, many years ago on my lap in a cross-country flight.

Red Camellia sasanqua

The rest of the yard has pretty much succumbed to touches of frost.  Still no really hard frost so a couple of roses are still in bloom.

Crocus Rose

And a few spots of Daphne can be seen too.

Daphne

The last flowers in the vegetable garden are some lovely little calendulas.

Calendula

And it’s hard not to notice the berries when you walk about the yard.

American Holly

Otherwise it’s diving into the greenhouse where I’ve made space for other plants by taking out the 10 foot high pomegranate and some other potted plants that had rooted themselves in greenhouse floor (not allowing that anymore).  This leaves space for big pots like this Plectranthus.

Plectrantrus

I think we will also harvest some mandarins this year off of the potted citrus.

Mandarin Orange

Some of my favorite greenhouse plants are the various Nerine species.  They bloom over a long period with various flowers that resemble more reasonably sized amaryllis.  The one in flower at the moment is Nerine undulata.

Nerine undulata