January Blooms at Bliss

It's the 15th of the month and once again time for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. I joined GBBD in February of last year when Carol of May Dreams Gardens started it, so we have come full circle. One of the reasons for GBBD was to answer the burning question : is it possible to have outdoor blooms all year round? For the Bliss garden the answer is YES. This will be my last entry for GBBD, after this post I'll have shown you all the blooms in my garden and home all year round. I don't want to repeat myself (boring!) so this is it. Enjoy!

Outdoor blooms:
Rosa Moonlight, this little trooper has been flowering non stop from April of last year. So all in all she has presented me with blooms for 10 months of the year so far. Isn't that just simply marvellous?
My runner up for longest flowering rose is rosa Guirlande d'Amour that has been flowering from last May until now. But I think that this is it for this rose. Moonlight still has a few buds but Guirlande d'Amour is down to its last flowers. Still, flowering for 9 months of the year is not bad, not bad at all. Wish all my plants and shrubs would flower that long!
The winter Jasmin is also in flower. I love to cut a few sprigs for the vase. Its little flowers are like little rays of sunshine on a gloomy day like today. And dull and gloomy days abound during winter over here, in North Western Europe.
And look what I found in the garden today; the first of the winter aconites in flower. I love these brave little flowers and dream of having hundreds of them in my garden. They are slow to start but once they're away, there's no stopping them, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
The delicate flowers of the rosemary have withstood the harsh weather we had a few weeks ago. Centranthus ruber is in flower too, to my surprise.
And lookee here, our old friends the daisies are back! Isn't that great? I love the little darlings!
Even the Penstemon still has a bloom, slightly the worse for wear it's true, but hey, in January every outdoor bloom counts! I find it particularly funny that my Penstemon still has a flower or two as it was sold to me as not being very hardy. Nature never ceases to amaze me.
And of course we have the usual suspects in flower too, our dear friends the pansies and violets. What would the winter garden be without their cheerful faces?
Did you notice how wet the earth is in the last pic? We've had quite a bit of rain lately, although we had some wonderful sunny days as well. Yesterday was very nice and sunny and also quite warm for the time of year, 10 degrees Celsius which was great as I was able to sit in the sun outside. In a very sheltered spot, it's true, but it was my first sunbath of the year!
The Periwinkle was doing its best for Queen and Country too as you can see here. It's a great plant for ground covering and suppressing weeds. I give it a haircut after it has finished flowering in April. That way it remains a nice and bushy plant that doesn't take over the whole garden.
The Skimmia japonica Rubella is another great plant to have as it ads lots of colour to the winter garden for months on end. The Camelia and Sarcococca humilis are still in flower too. The last one has a wonderful scent.

And now it's time to show you my indoor blooms.
The Hyacinths and daffodils (Paper white) fill the living room with their wonderful scent. It smells like Spring !
And in our conservatory these Hyacinths are scenting the air too. I love scented flowers and try to have some either inside our out all year round. The pink Cyclamen is showing the last of its flowers.
Citrus trees are great to have if you want a wonderful fragrance. What I love about citrus trees is that they can have flowers and fruits at the same time so that you can eat the fruits and enjoy the heady scent of the flowers. This is as close as you get to having your cake and eating it!
Last December I've shown you a lot of my orchids so I won't do that now, I'll only show you a few. As you can see the flowers of this orchid are going over but this little swarm of flowers was wonderful to enjoy and lasted more than 2 months..
The flowers on this orchid have lasted for 5 months so far, which I find amazing. I bought it at Ikea, of all places. ;-)
This is a new addition to my orchid collection. I was unable to resist buying it as it was only 5 euros (less than 6 US dollars) and I love the delicate markings on its flowers.
In the conservatory the lovely hanging plant Aeschynanthus is in flower too. It's very pretty with its curled leaves and deep red flowers. Also in flower in my conservatory is the Christmas cactus (pink).
There are plants and flowers in every room of the house, the bathroom is no exception.
I love that pretty white Azalea, it flowers for months and months so it really is a good plant to have indoors during the winter months. It likes to drink quite a bit of water so make sure that it doesn't dry out but don't overdo it, it's doesn't like to be drowned.

Azaleas come in standards too, I love them like that and I'm not the only one as you can see here.
Surprise (l) and her daughter Kadootje (=little present) admiring the pink and white Azalea.

Copyright 2008: Y.E.W. Heuzen

Quantity, not quality is often much nicer and better in a garden.
Monty Don, My Roots, 2005