GBBD: A Winter's Collage and a New Form of Plant Hunting

A collage of 9 flowers in my garden, December 2015
From top to bottom, left to right we have:
Cyclamen 'Snow Ridge' (wine form), Nemesia 'Wisley Vanilla', self-sown summer honeysuckle
Bolted rocket (arugula), an unusual form of Rosa 'The Fairy' (usually red), Lonicera x purpusii 'Winter Beauty'
Galanthus nivalis (the earliest flowering I've ever had), Rosa 'Kew Gardens', Knautia macedonia 'Red Ensign'

It's amazing to have enough flowers to make a Blooms Day collage, not only that but have enough to leave some of them out! I've noted my current colour scheme is tending towards white, pink and red. It's an interesting mix of summer and winter flowering blooms and everything looks set for a record breaking garden flower count on Christmas Day.

Talking of flower counts, you may like to take part in BSBI's New Year Plant Hunt. This looks at wild and naturalised flowers (not planted or garden escapees) open on one day recorded between New Year's Day and 4th January. All you need to do is go out for three hours and record what you see. Help is available for identification if needed, and tea breaks or comfort stops are allowed! Take the above link to BSBI's website for more information.

You can also read about 2015's results, where it's surprising to see just how much was in flower last winter. This survey looks set to join January's Big Garden Birdwatch (30-31 January 2016) as a great citizen science project which collects a useful data set over time. It's also a fun activity which is the perfect excuse for a walk and helps to lift the winter gloom. Remember, the nights are getting lighter already * even though we have a few more days of the entire day getting shorter.

* = warning, this interesting link which explains why our nights get lighter ahead of the winter solstice includes audio

Garden Bloggers Blooms Day is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Comments

  1. Love your collage, so beautiful with all it's lovely flowers. The warm spell is making flowers last longer and bringing early ones on to flower, it's lovely to see them all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Pauline, I was surprised at how many there were!

      Delete
  2. You have galanthus nivalis in flower already VP! This has certainly been a rather rum year. Thanks for the link that explains why our evenings are already getting lighter. I know that this happens but have still to get my head round it. I will return to the link later to see whether it can shed some light on the matter for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes it's a bit mind blowing, but I think the explanation is a pretty good one

      Delete
  3. I love the pictures of your delicate little flowers!

    Greetings, Sofie # 11
    http://sofies-succulent-beads.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. The idea of a flower count is wonderful in order to keep tract of your blooms. I do something similar with an end of the year review but I like the idea of keeping tract of each and every flower. Your collage with all the blooms is just beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Lee and thanks :-) A few of us have been doing a Christmas count for a while now. It gets you thinking about what you can do for more winter interest too, so that has to be a good thing :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. So many pretties. Here, in Oklahoma, everything is done because of that ice storm we had. Love seeing yours though.~~Dee

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a shame Dee - we're having unseasonably warm weather over here. You must be keeping all that cold weather to yourselves!

      Delete

Post a Comment

I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :)

Comments aiming to link back and give credence to commercial websites will be composted!

Your essential reads

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Things in unusual places #26: Rubber Ducks

Merry Christmas!

The Resilient Garden

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Introducing the #mygardenrightnow project