Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Bloom Day , January 2009

January 14, 2009

The weather has been incredibly fickle so far this year.
In December we had over a week of below freezing nightly temperatures.
In January I have woken up to find ice coating my windshield and a white blanket of frost across my small front lawn.

But for the last two days it has been warm. And like the last two days it is reported that it will reach 70 degrees in Sonoma ( where I am working today ) .

Many of my succulents have taken a hard hit by the December and early January frosts.
My large clump of Agave attenuatta are pocked with frost marks and some of the outer leaves are so badly frost damaged that they will have to be cut off.

But there is still some good frost hardy troopers in the garden showing great color and enduring fine textures.

Here are a few photos that I snapped off this past weekend :

A bloom on an Aloe plant
From January 2009 garden



A Bromeliad that lives on my front porch
From January 2009 garden


An Echiveria
From January 2009 garden


A Cotyledon orbiculata in bloom
From January 2009 garden


A pot of succulents set out in the garden
Cotyledon, Senecio, Aeonium
From January 2009 garden


A detail shot of Euphorbia Tasmanian Tiger growing in the front yard border
From January 2009 garden


A favorite succulent, Aloe plicatilis
From January 2009 garden

8 comments:

Helen @ Gardening With Confidence said...

Fantastic photos! Here's my GBBD
http://tinyurl.com/9sqpe2

Unknown said...

Great colors of blooms and succulents!!

LINDA from Each Little World said...

Those plants look good enough to eat; just luscious.

Carol Michel said...

I've been reading about these temperature swings you seem to have in winter... one day 70's and then frost the next day. It must be confusing for both gardener and garden.

At least where I'm at, once it gets cold, it more or less stays cold and dormant until spring.

Carol, May Dreams Gardens

Deviant Deziner, aka Michelle said...

Well happy Bloom day to all.
Helen, nice textures, buds and foliage.

Thanks for dropping in Darla , Ms.Wis and Carol.

And Carol, thanks for creating and nurturing Bloom Day. I've enjoyed it for the last year or so.

Thanks,
Michelle

Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog said...

Oh my, your succulents are beautiful. I'd love to have a big enough greenhouse to keep more succulents going through the year. Guess I'll just enjoy them vicariously though!

EAL said...

Many of these plants are unfamiliar to me, but none more so than the Cotyledon orbiculata. It is awesome!

Annie in Austin said...

Hello DD - love that aloe bloom and hope one of mine will make a stalk like that some day. Like EAL, I also found that Cotyledon orbiculata quite intriguing and on looking it up was amused to find the nickname is Pig Ear.

Happy GBBD, a few days late!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose