African Garden + time

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day January 2008

There is a plant in bloom here at Squirrelhaven! So what if it's only one flower. It's a Lamium maculatum in a raised bed against the east side of the house. This protected microclimate has allowed this one plant to bloom.

Not yet in bloom, but hopefully so very soon, is the Giant Snowdrop, Galanthus elwesii.

I have about four groups of these. The Galanthus closest to the house is, surprisingly, always the last to bloom. The buds in the photo are under the dead stems of Aster divaricatus/Eurybia divaricata out in the middle of the Woodland Garden.
I don't expect Helleborus niger to bloom anytime soon, but it is also in bud.

Bloom Day, sponsored by Carol at May Dreams Gardens, has come at a very opportune time, between record breaking warmth and a forecasted return to single digit temperatures. Snow has fallen since I shot these photos; now the garden is once again blanketed in the white stuff.