November Bloom Day

'Queen Charlotte' violet

 

By mid-November there aren't a whole lot of flowers outdoors in my Zone 6b Virginia garden to celebrate Bloom Day on the 15th of the month (hosted by Carol Michel's May Dreams Garden blog). My 'Queen Charlotte' violets are among the few flowers that persist this late in the season. There would be none if I didn't cover them with a wire cloche because the deer like to eat them ( I remove the cover to photograph them). 

 

Aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium)

Aromatic asters among the leaves.

 

Some blooms persist on the aromatic asters even after the first few frosts, but it's the leaves that are most colorful at this time of the year. I love the colors of the trees in the woods behind my house! This shot was taken a few days ago, most of these are native oaks. The hickories have lost most of their leaves.

 

The woods in early morning.

 A few shrubs in my garden are still colorful too, like this dwarf Nandina that doesn't fruit (I've forgotten the name of this variety), and the Viburnum 'Brandywine'.

 

Nandina

Viburnum 'Brandywine'

 

The witchhazels in the back woods are also blooming at this time, although two other varieties in my garden don't bloom until late winter or early spring.

Native witchhazel trees in the woods.

My back yard in November.

To make up for the lack of flowers outside, there are plenty of blooms in my indoor garden. The  yellow hibiscus my sister gave me is still offering a flower or two after being brought indoors. I brought in the white heliotrope plant hoping to keep it alive during the winter for a larger plant next summer. The begonias next to them are among the plants I keep alive indoors from year to year to decorate the back deck in summer.

Yellow hibiscus

White heliotrope with begonias in back

One of the small Phalaenopsis orchids I bought for one of my botanical art classes a few years ago decided to re-bloom for the first time, along with a miniature Dendrobium. The two orchids in the master bath are usually very prolific with their blossoms--I can't believe they're blooming for the second time this year!

Phalaenopsis orchid in bloom.

Dendrobium orchid

Orchids in the bathroom.

My Bearss lime tree is covered in blooms too, and setting fruit.

 

Bearss lime blossoms

 That's about it for November's Bloom Day.

Garden Bloggers' January Bloom Day

 

Orchids in my bath.

For my first post for the Garden Blogger's Bloom Day (a day late) I'm starting with my indoor garden, where I have a couple of orchids in bloom in my bath. The dark pink is a Miltonidia, a hybrid of Miltonia with Oncidium, I believe. This was the first orchid I ever bought many years ago--it was on sale at a local garden center and looked almost dead, but the orchid expert there assured me it would revive if soaked in water for a few hours, which it did. It has bloomed regularly since then.

The other orchid in the bath with fading blooms and a new flowering spike coming up, I bought at a road-side stand during a trip to Florida, and appears to be a Brassia hybrid, maybe Brassidia? It too flowers regularly for me every year during this time. This season it produced three flowering spikes.

 

Phalaenopsis hybrid

Moving along downstairs to the family room is another orchid, a Phalaenopsis hybrid one of my sisters gave me a few years back, that has re-bloomed reliably. I have another five or six florists' orchids around that haven't bloomed in several years, but hope springs eternal in a gardener's heart, so I won't throw them out just yet.

 

Pink Anthurium

Near the Phalaenopsis is this pink Anthurium, also a gift from my sisters. The African violet below is one of two Optimara varieties I've grown for nearly forty years; I've kept them going by taking leaf cuttings regularly.

 

Optimara African violet (Saintpaulia hybrids)

 

The plant below is the exotic Gardenia Tree (Tabernaemontana divaricata) which I've been growing for about seven years now, and blooms during winter. The flowers have a marvelous scent for the first six hours after opening, and gradually lose their fragrance. My tree is about three feet high now, and I'm wondering just how much larger it might get--I may have to give it away to someone with a greenhouse when it reaches a size I can't accommodate.

Gardenia tree (Tabernaemontana divaricata)

The only thing blooming outdoors in my USDA Zone 6b garden is a native witchhazel tree (Hamamelis virginiana), and some buds are appearing on a Japanese Andromeda (Pieris japonica).

 

Witchhazel blossoms.

Japanese Andromeda cultivar in bud.

There is one more blossom to account for, but this one is the fruit of my artistic endeavors--a flame azalea watercolor that I finally finished. As I was painting this, it was exciting to I learn that the eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly is one of the few insects that can pollinate these native azaleas in the wild.

 

Flame Azalea and Pollinator.

I photographed the flowers and the butterflies two years ago during a trip to a West Virginia forest.