With all 10 blooms.

Blooming at present,..Chrysanthemum.

It blooms for me in November and December,..started off as a cutting,..now its approx 9 Ft tall.

so tall,..but attractive,..but spiky leaves.

It certainly looks like Christmas.

Nice seasonal color!

What plants are the last two, which are unfamiliar to me (and so probably not hardy here?)

The last two are a Mahonia (winter bloomer, delicious scent possibly Mahonia x media 'Charity) and a Cotoneaster (possibly Cotoneaster salicifolius. Both very common over here. The Cotoneaster is listed 6a to 10b and is considered totally hardy in the UK. The Mahonia is listed zones 8 and 9, which amazes me, since it is considered tough as old boots and absolutely hardy here.

Hi floral uk,..i agree with you with the Cotoneaster,..always a display of green shiny leaf and in summer produces small white flowers,..towards the cooler days the red berries appear,..there are so many species of this that i found it difficult to pinpoint the exact species.

The Mahonia japonica,..it surely is a tough one,..nothing seems to bother it,..however it is getting taller and taller which makes seeing those yellow blooms more difficult to appreciate fully.

Philip

glengarry23 the Mahonia can take a hard pruning. I thought that the racemes were too upright for M japonica and Charity is one of the commonest in commerce. But I'm no Mahonia expert.

Does your Mahonia have the lovely honey-scent that some of the native western US ones have? I have memories of a blooming Mahonia in a Utah canyon one spring that have stayed with me for probably 20 years.

Hi Nhbabs,..you remember the scent correctly,..it does have that sweet scent,..it was a cutting i took some 9 years ago and didn't really appreciate it until it was in bloom and i happened to be standing close to it,..now i love it for the scent plus its in flower just now when most of my blooms have gone.

Philip