December in the Northern Hemisphere

[Hannelore]

The last colour in the garden for this year . . .

Greetings
Hannelore

[Gabriela]

The perfect picture to start the holidays season! 

[Leena]

Snow melted in November, but ground is frozen, and the temperature has been between -5 to -10C (one night last week was -13C). Pictures are taken today when there was so pretty frost in Helleborus leaves  . Spruce branches are there to protect Hellebores from hungry wild hares who like to eat them.

[meanie]

First flower on Canarina canariensis................

[ashley]

Very nice Meanie .  Do you grow it outdoors in summer or always under glass?

[Gabriela]

Snow melted in November, but ground is frozen, and the temperature has been between -5 to -10C (one night last week was -13C). Pictures are taken today when there was so pretty frost in Helleborus leaves  . Spruce branches are there to protect Hellebores from hungry wild hares who like to eat them.

I've never heard of 'someone' willing to eat the Helleborus Leena; or may be that just the rabbits don't like them?

Temp. are the same here but things are starting to drown in the snow, and there is more to come! Pictures of yesterday and today with the last ones standing - Allium the Scabiosa.

[meanie]

Very nice Meanie .  Do you grow it outdoors in summer or always under glass?

The only time that I move it undercover whilst it is in growth is when there is a threat of frost. I usually put it in the greenhouse over the summer (when it is dormant) for a "summer bake" but this year it was so late dying back that I didn't bother. As a result it is very late for the first bloom to open.

[ruweiss]

Found this Gentiana Hybrid yesterday flowering in the open garden.
The lowest temperature of this winter was -6°C; still too warm for my taste.

[Maggi Young]

Better to have snow cover for minus 6 though, Rudi!  Black frost is not good.

[Robert]

The only time that I move it undercover whilst it is in growth is when there is a threat of frost. I usually put it in the greenhouse over the summer (when it is dormant) for a "summer bake" but this year it was so late dying back that I didn't bother. As a result it is very late for the first bloom to open.

Meanie,

Beautiful flowers on your Canarina canariensis!    Ours have grown fairly large - at least a meter or more across, however no flowers yet. Last year they were getting ready to bloom and then the flower buds all aborted! Maybe we will have better luck this season.

[Leena]

I've never heard of 'someone' willing to eat the Helleborus Leena; or may be that just the rabbits don't like them?

I know  , Hellebores are supposed to be poisonous, but our local hares (Lepus europaeus) don't know that, and they have eaten both Helleborus leaves as well as flower buds (last year). This year the first snow came so early that I hadn't put any protection to my plants, and so the hares dug the Helleborus leaves from the snow and ate some already. I saw it from the foot prints in the snow that it was hares and not deer which we also have. Of course it doesn't matter that they eat leaves, because I cut them anyway in the spring, but I don't want hares to get into more habit of coming to eat my Hellebores as they already do. In the spring I now always put spruce branches over the plants when they are in small bud to prevent the hares from eating them, and it seems to work. When grass and other green starts to grow then they leave my plants alone, it is only in the winter when they do the damage.

[ashley]

Here something regularly cuts down almost all emerging flower stems of hellebores in late December/January unless they are protected.  Perhaps the young growth tastes better or is less poisonous.
Maybe the same culprit harvests cyclamen seed capsules, but only when ripe (around July) and then very suddenly over a night or two.  Very frustrating because it/they are so thorough.
In both cases I suspect bank voles (Myodes glareolus), accidentally introduced to Ireland in the last century

[Leena]

Bank voles are very plentiful here (in autumn we catch a lot of them when they try to come to my greenhouse or our barn - and also inside sometimes), and also I suspect them eating seedpods of Hellebores. They (or some other vole) also eat Erythronium flowers, but luckily they have left my Hellebore flowers to grow. The amount of them fluctuates, but every year they do some harm in the garden, the only good thing about them is that they are good food for owls.

[Hoy]

I've never heard of 'someone' willing to eat the Helleborus Leena; or may be that just the rabbits don't like them?

Temp. are the same here but things are starting to drown in the snow, and there is more to come! Pictures of yesterday and today with the last ones standing - Allium the Scabiosa.

Gabriela,

Nice pictures. I love snow!
But no snow here and probably no snow this year. No frost either.

[Gabriela]

Gabriela,
Nice pictures. I love snow!
But no snow here and probably no snow this year. No frost either.

You can always move to Canada Trond 
It is beautiful right now and more snow this week; I can start sowing.