A beautiful winter day!

Winter cold can be really devastating to a garden, but up north snow in moderation is a gardener's best friend. It keeps things nice and fresh and looks so beautiful. Here are a few pics! 

Crape Myrtle and Spanish Moss

Crape Myrtles are beautiful year round. Their seed pods add a lot of winter interest.

A walk down the block

My Cordyline Australis looking a little bent up from the snow. Don't worry it bounced right back when the snow melted!

My Southern Magnolia 

Daphniphyllum macropodum is commonly called "Rednecked Rhododendron" and I think you can see why. A beautiful broadleafed evergreen that sailed through this past winter. 

Eastern Prickly Pear

My Y. gigantea out for some air.

Mahonia holding onto some flower buds.

The scene is much nicer indoors where it's warm!

Out of nowhere the sun came out and it went from gray to blue very quickly!

Snow looks so much more beautiful during sunny skies.

I decided to go for a walk into the forest

 And WOW was it beautiful! 

Today

Back in Warmer Days 

Maybe you remember this scene from the summer? Quite a contrast but both very beautiful in their own way! 

(Today)

(Summer)

Beautiful day in the snow. Thanks for looking! 

November Pics Around My Yard

Remember that frost scare I talked about in my October Post? Well it hasn't really gotten any colder since. All the plants that survived through that are still doing great.

Here's my mekong Giant. It will be overwintering outdoors. I hope it survives!



A restaurant down the block landscaped with coconut palms this year. Here they are around Thanksgiving time still looking green. Could you believe that Coconut palms could co-exist with christmas decorations in NYC!


My Washingtonia Palm is still very green as are my cannas. No hard freezes in the front yard yet!


I am in complete disbelief with this one. My Kopper King Hibiscus is actually still blooming despite it being late November! Anyone who grows hardy hibiscus know to only expect blooms during the hottest weeks of the year. These are newly planted though (I planted them in September) and I guess the greenhouses they were grown in threw them off schedule. We'll find out their real blooming schedule next summer!



Although crape myrtles are generally associated with the southern states, they compete with the fall foliage of northern trees easily! My crape is definitely one of the more colorful trees on the block (Keep in mind people mostly plant bradford pears on my block and their foliage isn't too spectacular in my opinion).



Fall foliage with palms.



My Loquat is blooming. This tree is marginally hardy here in NYC (I'll be protecting it anyway). These blooms are about the most fall color you'll see from them. Their appeal this far north is their leathery evergreen leaves. Down south they are growing for their tasty fruit!


A couple of angles from the front yard.




Here's a closeup of my Washingtonia.




It's amazing to be greeted with mandevilla vines after Thanksgiving.



My Sabal Minor and Black and Blue salvia still looking like summertime. They will be going through their first winter this year. My begonias are still looking great in November too (you can see the edge of that planter to the very right of this picture).



I've definitely started to associate fall with butterfly ginger. If I'm lucky the blooms will begin to open up in August, but they'll always be enough buds from summer to last into the first frost. There are still plenty of blooms in November. The blooms are beautiful but the fragrance is what makes this plant really incredible. I actually bought these plants as tiny roots in Hawaii at a tourist shop. They were really easy to grow!











Thanks for looking!

Mid October Pictures Around the Yard

With an early frost possible, I decided to play it safe and bring some plants inside.

The hibiscus are nice and snug for winter!





My bottle palm heading indoors ahead of the frost scare


The plumerias are also heading inside. I have never seen them in such full bloom this late into the season (These pics from the middle of october!). Even my largest plumeria is throwing some blooms!





Plumerias do very well inside since they are able to go dormant. Unfortunately inducing dormancy means cutting off all their leaves which can get a little messy!






Meanwhile outside many plants are as green and healthy as ever despite the frosty weather. Here's my Mekong Giant Banana with my Bronx Fig and some elephant ears.



My Butterfly ginger doing well after the frost scare.


Although crotons are pretty frost sensitive this croton still looks great since it was protected by a tree overhead.


The angel trumpet blooming as well as ever. The fragrance alone is so nice to have this time of the year!




Here was my quick frost protection for it


A look at all the pool plants. You can see a little bit of frost damage on the Alocasia Portora to the far right.



Here is the pool area the night of the frost scare


Yucca Filamentosa "Color Guard" make amazing potted plants because it looks this nice all year long!



My bananas and monstera vine received some quick frost protection. The large tree also provides some frost protection too so I was not worried about these plants as much.



This winter I am trying a Soft Caress Mahonia. They are only cold hardy to about 10F so they are really borderline cold hardy here in NYC. I will throw some blankets on them when it gets really cold. The blooms are beautiful. It's going into the winter really healthy!





The pathway to the backyard sees full sun during the summertime but is pretty shady this time of the year.


The roses are loving the cooler weather. During good years Knockout Roses can bloom 10 months out of the year. My washy palm adds a nice tropical backdrop.