{"id":2321,"date":"2008-01-15T21:50:34","date_gmt":"2008-01-16T03:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/gardenlog\/?p=2321"},"modified":"2020-03-07T13:47:27","modified_gmt":"2020-03-07T19:47:27","slug":"garden-bloggers-bloom-day-january-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/monthly-comparison\/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-january-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"GBBD 200801: Jan 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nCarol at May Dreams Gardens<\/a> invites us to tell her what’s blooming in our gardens on the 15th of each month.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhat! It’s GBBD again. I can’t believe it’s been a month since my December post. Carol’s put the pressure on us southern gardeners to come up with a lot of flowers for those of you buried under snow<\/a>. When I looked out the window, I saw a lot of green in the garden but not many flowers. Although there’s always something blooming here, it’s not the perpetual bower of flowers some of you imagine.\n<\/p>\n

\"rose
I waited and waited for this ‘New Dawn’ bud to open. Then it froze.<\/i><\/p>\n

\nIt’s been a very dry winter so there seem to be fewer narcissus and roses blooming. Austin finally had a few nights this winter where the temperatures dropped to the high 20s, finally doing in the stragglers from last year–or so I thought. Wandering around with my camera set to macro, I found a few new flowers to share and some hangers on from last year.\n<\/p>\n

New for January<\/h4>\n

\nThe Narcissus tazetta italicus opened yesterday (1\/14) almost exactly a month after the first paperwhite. This is about two weeks later than they usually open in my garden. There are some paperwhites still blooming but the Chinese sacred lilies have come and gone.\n<\/p>\n

\nAnother new flower for January is Mahonia bealei<\/i>, leatherleaf mahonia. It opened it’s first flower on January 6th and only a few more have opened since. I can’t see them from my kitchen window, yet, like I can when it’s in full bloom. \"Mahonia\n<\/p>\n

Typical winter bloomers<\/h4>\n

\nThe rosemary had one flower last month and now has three. Summer 2007 was very hard on rosemary bushes throughout Austin. It was so rainy that a lot of our xeriscape plants just rotted. My rosemary bush was about three times bigger than it is now. All but one stem died.
\n\"rosemary\"\n<\/p>\n

\nThe violas are in full bloom. They are so perky and persistant that I bought another flat of them. For the record, that’s 36 viola plants for $30. The other overwintering annuals, Dianthus chinensis<\/i> and the sweet alyssum are also fulfilling their winter duties.\n<\/p>\n

Surprise Hangers On<\/h4>\n

\nAfter some cold weather the first week of the year, the Dolichos lablab vine died back. When I began pulling it down to put in the mulch pile, I found section of vine still blooming in a protected corner.
\n\"Dolichos\n<\/p>\n

\nI had hoped that the Podranea ricasoliania had died back finally but there is a section just north of the garage that escaped the freeze and is still blooming. And I was further surprised that a flower opened on the Thai basil. The basil surely should be dead by now. I dug up the other basil plant and potted it up. We’ve been enjoying basil and pine nuts over Central Market’s handmade mozzarella this week.\n<\/p>\n

\"Thai
Although some leaves are frost damaged, the Thai basil hangs on and has finally bolted.<\/i><\/p>\n

\nAnother survivor so far is the lantana. Actually the leaves, as you can see in the photo, are frost-nipped but it continues to put out flowers, some white, some purple. I have another lantana plant on the opposite side of the yard which died back to the ground on the first cold night.
\n\"Lantana\n<\/p>\n

\nI was expecting the duranta to die back to the ground. All three plants look green and don’t show any frost damage yet. They are all putting out miniscule flowers and golden seedpods at the same time. I love the contrast.
\n\"Duranta\n<\/p>\n