December 2015 in the Northern Hemisphere

[johnralphcarpenter]

Spring has sprung here in Kent. I think this is Narcissus 'Rijnvelds Early Sensation'

[meanie]

meanie,

In the city of Sacramento the Brugmansias grow fairly well without much protection from frost, not that the city has much in the way of frost (it does freeze every year). The plants in the ground can get quite large and the flowers are spectacular. Occasional there are hard and prolonged periods of frost. Even with large trunks the plant die to the ground, but re-sprout from the base of the trunk.

I've found it fully hardy even here in the UK (it survived the winter of 2012/13 outdoors) but there is little point in pushing it to its limits as it won't bloom. As you said even when it is taken out by the frost it comes back from the base.

[Steve Garvie]

This mild (warm) December weather complete with high humidity is causing considerable problems. We actually had some colder days in July than we are experiencing now!
Botrytis is a real issue under glass and many of my Central Asian bulbs are starting into growth far too early. The low light levels at this time of year are creating lax weak growth -prone to fungal disease. I never thought I would yearn for frost! 

Iris histrio ssp. histrio


Corydalis schanginii var. ainii


Iris nicolai

[meanie]

Lovely plants Steve!

[Hoy]

Not much in flower here at the moment, at least not outside.

A hellebore is among the few which try to flower in the rain. However, evergreen leaves are also beautiful.




The Cyclamen hederifolium grows well but the flowers have finished.




An attractive shrub with yellow berries - Ilex aquifolium 'Bacciflava'.




Cotoneaster bullatus  and a Polystichum fern.




Some hellebores waiting for spring and a Asplenium scolopendrium.

[Tasmanian Taffy]

Love those Iris Steve beautiful photos

[Leena]

Love those Iris Steve beautiful photos

Me too.

Hoy, you have very nice evergreen plants, I especially liked the one with ferns and rhododendrons, and also hellebores with Asplenium.

[Roma]

A bit of sunshine in the greenhouse
Sternbergia sicula  -  not a good picture
Osteospermum  -  they have flowers when you buy them then when potted up the make a lot of growth and are only coming back into flower when summer is almost over.  I took it inside to get the good of the flowers.
Still a few flowers on Erigeron chrysopsidis 'Grand Ridge'
Seed heads on Clematis repens 

[Roma]

Early blooms on Chaenomeles 'Nicole'
Beautiful netting on Moraea alticola

[Maggi Young]

Beautiful netting on Moraea alticola

Wow!

[zephirine]

Here in zone 7B, at the foot of the Alps mountains, the garden is torn between a very late autumn and a very early spring...
We have a saying here: "Noël au balcon, Pâques aux tisons", i.e. "(if you spend) Christmas on a balcony, (you'll spend) Easter by the fireplace".
Deep frozen Easter eggs to be expected, I'm afraid! 
In the meantime, Merry Christmas to you all!
A few pictures taken outside, plants with no protection of any kind...
Helleborus orientalis

Cyclamen coum

Centaurea hypoleuca 'John Coutts'

Galanthus gracilis

Hebe Midsummer beauty

[Natalia]

Thank you for the beautiful photos!

Add our news.
After frost we had two weeks of warm weather, the temperature was up to +10 ..

[Robert]

What wild weather we had on the 24 December. Late in the afternoon we had a violent thunderstorm first with heavy rain and hail, then it turned to snow. Very nearby, a tornado touched down with a 8 km path of destruction. Nobody was hurt and no homes were damaged, however there was other property damage.



Snow on one of our garden beds.

The weather is to be cold, at least for us, -7 C at night and a bit above freezing during the day, with periods of snow.



Another garden bed with snow.

Now the garden is a mess of snow, half melted snow, and mud. Nothing in bloom, however I did see some flower buds on the Cyclamen coum the other day. With the cold temperatures I do not think there will be much for a while.



The last of the autumn color - Rhododendron luteum with red leaves.



Rhododendron pubescens is tough. It survived the drought without and any problems at all.



Rhododendron preptum - the leaves look good this time of year.