Frost on abelia

The frost is late this winter, waiting until the first week of January. Tiny crystals form on the red new growth of the abelia (Linnaea x grandiflora), which is still lush, green and shiny after the long hot summer of 2018.

Ruta graveolens 'Jackman's Blue' is a hardy little shrub. The species is native to southern Europe, but it is supposed to be evergreen in these parts, though I start to wonder when I see it in a jacket of ice:

In 2019/01 Callicarpa bodinieri pays no mind to cold. Birds pass its berries by, as they are non-native tucker and look bilious to boot.

And thanks to the lovely lady who took these brilliant photographs.

What fragrance?

In our garden, the Lonicera is in fine flower in 2012/02. I am told this has a honeysuckle odour, but I can never smell it, because its flowering coincides with my hay fever.

Week 2012/02 features some remarkable fireworks in the next street: some Hamamelis is flowering in the next street (pictured January 13, 2012), and of course planting it in front of a red brick house was the perfect way to show it to be best advantage:

Overlap Weeks

Mild winters sometimes grant us a gift in Zone 8: crazy weeks where flowers from the past season refuse to die and the blossoms of next season jump out to accompany them in their slow expiry. It is not happening in Week 2008/49, but we hope for an early spring.

Overlap Weeks

2006/49: The start of the 2006-2007 winter has been remarkably mild: grass sown in week 46 has germinated and is about one centimetre high, the Prunus autumnalis, although only 60 cm high, is in full blossom, and Katharina Stamm has a very late aster with beautiful flowers on it. The azaleas are budding, and so are the hydrangeas. Even the Eschscholzia is shooting forth anew like a perennial and is about 10 cm high and beautifully green.