December 2012 in the Northern Hemisphere

[zvone]

Hi!


Although there are present first Frosts.... he is blooming at Me:



(Aponogeton distachyos)

http://zvonem.blogspot.si/

Best Regards!  zvone

[Menai]

Hello Zvone
I noticed a flower in my pond also today - 2 days after our first proper frost. It is such a modest plant that I don't always see it. Unfortunately it has been rather overwhelmed by Pontaderia cordata which has also suppressed my water-lily.

Erle
Anglesey 4°-7°C today with a bit of sunshine.

[KentGardener]

I awoke to my first snow of the season today in the UK.   

What a difference a few hours can make...

1 - 08.00
2 - 08.00
3 - 08.00
4 - 08.00
5 - 13.00

It now feels quite warm this afternoon after that rather surprising start to the day.   

[Tim Ingram]

John - doesn't snow give a great feel to the garden! I like the picture of the fern very much. Our garden is rather expansive by comparison but the snow tidies it up beautifully.

[Nate]

Most of my garden has gone into hibernation, but at least I have something cheerful indoors!

Petrocosmea cryptica, blooming for me for the first time =)

[johnw]

John - doesn't snow give a great feel to the garden!

The British variety maybe, not the Canadian, certainly not the Hokkaido strain. 



johnw

[KentGardener]

Our garden is rather expansive by comparison

I soooo wish I had a larger garden - but I try to do the best I can with the tiny space I can afford. 

[Tim Ingram]

It can be a mixed blessing John = a larger garden can begin to have a life of its own which you run along behind!

JohnW - how on earth do they manage to keep a road like that clear?! I agree we are rather lucky.

[johnw]

JohnW - how on earth do they manage to keep a road like that clear?! I agree we are rather lucky.

Gerd   - I wondered that as well.  Perhaps they use snow removal machines like those here, they melt rather than blow.  All that water would have to go somewhere.

johnw

[annew]

JohnW - how on earth do they manage to keep a road like that clear?! I agree we are rather lucky.

Maybe it's only a metre high behind those banks 

[Casalima]

I've seen an aerial view that gives the impression it is a very deep cutting, with trees growing relatively near the edges of the snow.

[Leon]

Actually this Passiflora was blooming last month but I just got the photo off my camera yesterday.  Yeah, you can call me a procrastinator. This is Passiflora belotii (P. alata x P. caerulea).  The plant has now been killed by a freeze but I took ample cuttings to get a replacement to plant back next spring.  There were at least 200 buds waiting to open when the plant died but I enjoyed many blooms through the summer.


Passiflora belotii

[Tim Ingram]

Going from the rather beautiful to... I can only say malodorous... these are fruits of Ginkgo biloba picked up whilst weeding today. We have quite a mature plant, now about 25 years old or more, but this is the first time it has ever fruited. I was under the impression that Ginkgo was dioecious and separate male and female trees were required to produce fruit, but our tree is obviously, at least to an extent, monoecious. The seeds apparantly are a delicacy in Japan but the flesh has a strong sweet and sickly smell which doesn't endear you to the tree quite so much!

[Garden Prince]

I believe female trees produce seeds, males don't. In the Netherlands Ginkgo's that are planted as street trees are almost always cultivars of the male variety (Princeton Sentry, Tremonia, Autumn Gold etc.)

[Tim Ingram]

Interestingly I don't know of any Ginkgos planted as street trees in the UK, even though they are renowned for their ability to tolerate pollution. Our tree must have had at least some male reproductive parts for it to produce what look like viable seeds. On the other hand I can understand why 'male' trees are planted in streets - the fruit really does smell unpleasant!