The first salvia aurea bloom of the season....

Geranium cordifolium has started to bloom....

The senecio petasitis in full bloom, closeup...


The bees like it too....

Nice. Love to look at your plants. Things I have never seen before.

Thanks....lol..I'm always coming across plants (new ones for the database) that I've never seen before, and wondering "How in the world I could have missed that?"

Then do you have to have it in your garden?

Oh yeah, but I've recently come to the realization that I can't, so I'm now going with the tough, drought tolerant things that do work here. One thing I have always, always loved and never planted is pansies...and violas....the rabbits would eat them here anyway. I want freestanding window box type of wooden planters (with legs) to fill with pansies and such. I saw these in a nursery here years ago and wanted them then, but knew I could get the DH to make them....well, that's been 20-some years ago and he's made many things since then, but not my planters....lol...How can a person go forever without having pansies? I NEED pansies....

Why can't you have pansies?? I love our johnny-jump-ups which literally jump up here there and everywhere. And my winter pansies are all that is giving me any sort of color at the moment. Is it too hot for them? Too dry?

Here's some johnnies doing what they do best.


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Wavenous Wabbits.....
We had no rabbit problems for the first 20-some years here and then they came in big time....don't know why, maybe the word got out that I was planting some tasty stuff. I love Indian Summer rudbeckias, planted with the grasses, but the rabbits gobble them too. I want rudbeckias for feed for the finches and, I think, so far I've only found rudbeckia maxima that the rabbits don't eat, so I have those growing now.... in pots still. We have a tremendous gopher prtoblem also. Everything here that they will eat is planted in wire, but I can't control the rabbits. I plant mostly everything that is rabbit proof, or it goes in large pots or half barrels..

I adore pansies...

And then there are those things that just don't do well here....when we were looking for property on Whidbey, there was an old farmhouse that had a large holly on each side of the front door...I wanted to buy the place just for the holly. Then there's the Holly Farm on Whidbey (if it's still there)...oh, what a joy to have a holly farm!
Peonies, lilacs, etc.....can't have it all, I no longer try....I mean, there's a heck of a lot of stuff to grow here....lol..and if I can no longer afford the water, I'll go with all natives and succulents.

Wow! that is a beautiful Salvia. Salvias were my "lust plant" last season! I managed to get 3 or 4. Nothing that color tho. It's very pretty, I like orange plants.
There is nothing blooming in my yard. It was 22 this AM and there is still snow & ice around my yard. From Dec.! It will be another month before we even see Daffodils breaking ground. We are suppose to have sun for the next week, maybe I can get out & cut down my perennials that were smashed by the 2 feet of snow we had in Dec. It is nice to see things blooming somewhere!

Well, if it was 22 at your place, I guess those of us down here should quit complaining, huh? However, you do get a good 'winter break' from having to do a lot of the outside garden chores....I think I would drink hot chocolate and read all day / all night....

Blooming out in the shadehouse....

Billbergia nutans 'Queen's Tears'....




Billbergia nutans x windii...'Angel's Tears'

Salvia Waverly putting out a few blooms...I love the delicacy of this one...

Gee Sherry, my salvias are still just brown spots in the ground! Yes the winter does make one slow down. I do read a lot, I do drink Hot Chocolate,( w/ peppermint schnapps in it, it keeps the aunty from freezing We do remove snow on a regular basis. I had to "thwack" trees a lot this year. Our snows were deep and heavy.
I drearm of gardening someplace that never has frost. I don't think I'd miss shoveling snow.
Around this time of year, I start getting anxious for spring to get here. It's still too early to start seeds. It's hard to resist.
My Billbergia is blooming also. Mine's different it has blue on it.
This was our white Christmas. We ended up with 24'.

My billbergias will also have blue when the flowers have 'dropped' fully...some blue, some green. I got a bunch many years ago, not even knowing what they were or that they flowered...there was a place here called the 'Bird Farm' and they were selling out. They grew billbergias for the birds...the birds would shred the leaves for their nest making. I was amazed when they flowered...couldn't resist them, whatever they were, at $.75 a gallon....lol.

My husband is from Iowa and we did spend a couple of different winters there and I loved the snow, but I think I've decided that I'm too old now for snow...

I must be old, just looking at that photo makes me cold!

See? lol...This is why I'm now to old to do snow.......it would be fun for about one day....and I used to think it was wonderful...

Ha! I seldom even sweep my driveway, so I can't even imagine having to shovel my way out of it every morning.

Just saw this nice bloom stalk shaping up from my Kniphofia sarmentosa, glad to see something come out once more of this unruly set of leaves