After a week of very heavy frosts, with Thursday night getting down to -9C, there are not many flowers left in the garden, and those that are still there, are not worth photographing! So this weeks six are a couple of frosty shots and the rest are indoor flowers, either in the kitchen or the conservatory. I’ll start with my frosty shots from a very cold Friday morning.
No 1
Purple Berberis looking decidedly frosty.
No 2.
Lonicera beside it looking just as cold.
I didn’t want to walk on the lawn with so much frost so the rest of the photos were taken indoors.
No 3.
The geraniums in the conservatory are still putting out new flowers. This area is heated just to +5C.
No 4.
I picked a small branch from my chaenomeles by the back door a few days ago and the buds opened up in the kitchen, I hope all the other buds are ok outside in the cold and that I’ll have more flowers when it becomes warmer soon.
No 5.
My White Christmas cactus on the windowsill is blooming happily with plenty of buds still to come.
No 6.
And my red Christmas Cactus is also covered in flowers and buds, happy on the other end of the lkitchen windowsill.
It is now considerably warmer, maybe a balmy +2 C! Hopefully I will be able to get out into the garden once more and start cutting back all the dead stuff which will make all the borders look a lot better, the forecast is for double figures soon!
Thanks again to Jim at Garden Ruminations for hosting, if you go to his blog you will see what is happening in gardens around the world.
You really have had quite a cold spell Pauline. Still it makes a lovely change to see your houseplants. The Christmas cacti are lovely and flowering right on time!
For us it was a very cold spell Denise, not for you where you are though! The Christmas cacti make the kitchen look nice and colourful on a cold day. I have managed 2 sessions of gardening so far today, in the sunshine, hands and feet were a bit cold though!
Those Christmas Cacti look splendid.
Thanks Noelle, they do brighten up the kitchen on a winters day!
I abused my Christmas cactus last year. It looks better now, but it is being sullen and not planning to bloom anytime soon. Maybe next year… Yours look great!
Glad you like them Wisconsin garden, I have to admit I’d rather neglected mine, but a bit of fertilser earlier this year obviously works wonders!
I don’t remember ever seeing a white Christmas Cactus. Lovely!
The white Christmas cactus is quite a number of years old now, can’t remember how many exactly, but glad you like it Rosie!
A lovely selection. I don’t think I’ve seen a white Christmas Cactus before either – very pretty indeed.
Both the Christmas cactus benefitted from some fertilser earlier in the year, I had neglected them a bit, but they are both quite old now Graene.
Yes, the white Christmas cactus is the star of your SoS, but what a lovely show your pelargoniums are making too – and I always enjoy seeing your chaenomeles. Those cold nights must have been a shock for you the usually milder south west, Pauline – even here I think -7 degrees was the lowest, but we had over a week when temperatures did not rise above freezing. Yesterday it got up to +4 – whohoo!
The cold nights have been a shock to me as well as the plants Cathy, after losing a few things with the heat of the summer, I think maybe there will be a few more that don’t make it through to next year unfortunately. Today it is above freezing and pouring down once more!
I’m hoping to venture out in the garden tomorrow Pauline after about 12 days of really bitterly cold weather and below freezing temperatures most nights. We are usually protected from the worst of it by our proximity to the Mersey but not this year. Your little chaenomeles must be a lovely reminder that spring is not that far away.
Lovely to hear from you Anna. The last 2 weeks have been pretty dire, but now we are into double figures and last night seemed positively hot in comparison! It rained all day yesterday and I think will continue all week, I managed to do 2 sessions of gardening done on Saturday but was rained off yesterday.The Chaenomeles is covered in buds so that will be looking very pretty soon and I noticed that Iris unguicularis has opened its flowers as soon as the temperature rose, it will feature in next Saturday’s SOS.
It certainly has been freezing! Thank goodness it’s getting warmer. Lovely seeing yout indoor plants, I especially liked the white Christmas cacti.xxx
From -9C to +9C in just 48hrs was amazing, so much warmer now thank goodness Dina! The white Christmas cactus is still opening new buds, it will be flowering for quite a while.x