No blossoms poking thru on my Hellebores. No sign of crocuses or daffodils poking thru. So I was a bit surprised to see these Hyacinths poking thru. I usually don't see Hyacinths until May - usually around tulip time.

OK, I get it, this is the Feb 2012 thread!

Although I have a few things in bloom (hellebores, heath, jasmine, and witch hazel) the showiest things in my garden now are the Nandina domestica, which has some lovely red foliage and the best berries of any plant I grow.

This one is in the back yard in a warm, sunny spot:

and this one is at the entrance to the music studio, where it gets a lot of comments. The strange purple plant at the base is a seedling from a lettuce mix that I planted about 15 years ago. They pop up all over, and I usually let them grow wherever they like. Not only are they delicious, a few leaves added to washed lettuce leaves makes them keep in the fridge for a really long time.

Those Nandina berries are terrific, DtD, and the purple lettuce leaves popping up here and there must be a delight. Luckily, it sounds like you're not one who has to weed out everything unexpected and not deliberately planted. Letting the garden have a little independence and initiative is part of the fun of it (for me, anyway).

Your purple lettuce is like digitalis (foxglove) which is a strong-willed plant (I think I'll grow THERE this year).

This one is encroaching on a rhododendron and refusing to die back.

My most decorative berries are Ilex opaca 'Goldie' which are still not eaten. I don't know how long they'll last because this is by far the best display I've ever had. Two hollies about six or seven feet tall.

Back down to the ground, a pine stump is bedecked with euonymus and fungi.

and the lichens and ivy are climbing up a live white pine.

Claire

My holly didn't have as many berries this year, almost like it knew the birds would have plenty of food in this mild winter. The ones it has haven't been eaten much either. I still haven't seen many signs of crocus leaves, which is strange because in other mild winters I've had them in flower in mid-February. No sign of hyacinths or species tulips either. Unusual year for sure.

{{gwi:5901}}

DTD - I really like the looks of that Nandina. I think I'll do a bit of research. I'm really looking for plants/shrubs that will produce many colored berries to add to my winter landscape.

Claire - does the ivy "kill" the trees by climbing? I've wanted to plant some ivy as ground cover way out back - in the areas I've cleared of poison ivy, oreintal bittersweet and multi-flora rose. But I'm a bit concerned that I could be creating a new "problem" in place of the old problem.

On the subject of tree stumps and fungi - I have quite the collection growing on this old tree stump.

ANd I think this is a pansie sproutlet. I planted pansies in my front garden 2 years ago. Last year I had many volunteers. And it looks like I will have volunteers again this year!

pixie_lou: The question of ivy hurting trees is very contentious. This Royal Horticultural Society article gives a very balanced and sensible discussion of the issues. I'm not worried about my big healthy white pine.

I guess the answer is "it depends..".

I inherited the English ivy and it's slowly growing over areas under trees where I'm happy to have it as a groundcover. If it encroaches on my epimediums or hostas or ferns I'll deal with it, but it's easy to pull up. Actually, in a hosta vs ivy confrontation, I'll bet on most hostas to trounce the invaders. I've seen hostas fend off lily of the valley without breaking a sweat.

Paghat's Garden also had a nice article a while back, English Ivy, invasive Hedera helix vs its non-invasive cultivars, that talks about the different ivy cultivars and levels of invasiveness.

I think my ivy is one of the more civilized.

Claire

Claire - thanks for the info. I'll spend some time reading those links. I do like the looks of the ivy climbing the trees. And the pine trees are all 60 years old. I guess I really need to think about what I want to do in that back area - either just mulch it and plant a ground cover. Or if I want to add some shrubs or other specimen plants - in which case I may not want such an aggressive ground cover.

What a surprise I found yesterday - my first snowdrop open. It's so tiny in the grass - I literally stumbled upon it. Even though this has been a mild winter, I'm still waiting for it to be over.

And I know this isn't blooming in my garden, but my Christmas amarylis bulb has finally bloomed.

I was curious how my few lone snowdrops would fare in the single digit temperatures we had earlier in the week. Looks like all the did was lie down in the grass and attempted to sleep thru the cold.

I'm surprised to see tulip sprouts. No signs of daffodils yet.

I have a few tulips just showing leaf tips, but, oddly, almost none of the crocuses! Daffodils that were planted last fall are not showing, but the ones from previous years are. The hyacinths and tulips that I planted last fall have not shown up yet. And I have two camellia blossoms that have opened already, and that is definitely the earliest ever for those. It's rarely before early April when the flowers open. Strange season this year!

{{gwi:5901}}

I have one snowdrop up, newly planted last year so the timing may be off.

The skunks are probably up too (although I think they've been up for a while). It's hard sometimes to tell the difference between a turkey scratch and a hole the skunks dig to look for grubs. These feeding holes, though, are much too small and neat for a turkey.

I applaud the skunks for eating grubs.

Claire

I have a fair number of plants in bloom now. Here they are, minus the duplicates (lots of hellebores and heaths), the winter jasmine, and the winter honeysuckle, neither of which is photogenic, the honeysuckle flowers are almost invisible (it's a thug, too, but it sure smells nice).

Winter heath (Erica carnea):

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane':

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Arnold Promise' (I can't seem to get a good photo, this one knocks your socks off, it's really a brilliant yellow)

Hellebores: H foetidus
{{gwi:1058812}}From Winter20112012

H. niger:

H. x hybridus (aka orientalis)

And, last but not least, snowdrops!

I'm always astonished at how DtD manages to have something in bloom at the most inauspicious times! and in a climate very similar to mine (grumble, grumble).

My little H. Arnold Promise has no blooms yet, but I think it's in too shady a location (I haven't figured out yet where I can move it).

Claire

Claire - I spent the longest time looking for the snow drops in your photos. Then I *finally* went back and read the text to see that I successfully found the skunk holes.

That's funny, pixie_lou! It's the sort of thing I might do.

Here's the snowdrop photo. I didn't post it because it's not a great pic and others had already posted snowdrops, but I guess, in this season, you can't have too many snowdrops.

Claire (who believes in nice warm leaf/pine needle mulch on everything).

Oh my! Those hellebores look great! So many flower buds!

I have a winter honeysuckle too and it seemed to stay green most of the Winter. I should check to see if there are any flowers yet.

I've had daffodil shoots up since November. They came up a couple of inches and stopped. Haven't developed at all. I wonder if warmer than usual soil got them started, but then the light wasn't right and the right chemical changes didn't occur? I'm just making that up to satisfy myself. --But it sounds sort of plausible... (Right? Grin.)

Oops, I deleted the H foetidus photo, which was a dupe.

Wow, DtD. It appears that Spring has appeared on the Cape. Not so much here in Zone 5 in the Worcester area. Nothing outside is really blooming. So what do we do for color?

Well, there is Pinus Strobus 'Wintergold'

And Abies Koreana 'Aurea'

And this Viola never stopped blooming this winter.

And then there's the basement full of Hosta seedlings.

And the forced Tulips (Darwin hybrids Pink Impression and Ivory Floradale)

And then Hippeastrum 'Charisma' decided to send up a third flower stalk.

Steve

It has taken me the better part of two weeks to figure out how to post photos again after Imageshack started requiring folks to register. They no longer permit simple uploads + in order to copy the Direct Link you now have to register/log in. At first I couldn't find the direct link after logging in so I've been putzing around trying to figure out which link/code I actually need to copy that gives a photo larger than my thumbprint & smaller than a drive-in movie screen. These were taken back before the change on their website but not much looks any different around the garden since. Thanks for all your gorgeous photos which drove me out the door with camera in hand to find a few interesting things in the winter garden.

Butterfly bush seedhead

Harry Lauter walkingstick tree/Demented witchazel

Daffodils

H. Cinnamon Snow

Carex/Japanese sedge 'Ice Dance'

Lavandula/Lavender Provence

Still not seeing any blossoms on my hellebores. I keep checking them, digging thru the leaves, keeping my fingers crossed. I just planted the hellebores last fall - the plants look healthy.

But I was pleasantly surprised to see a reticulated iris in bloom.

My snowdrops are exploding into blossoms.

And since this is February, and flowers aren't really the norm, just a photo of my hydrangea seed heads.

I have my first crocuses. The yellow ones always bloom first.

And I have a blossom on one of my daffodils.