December's Hard Frost

Well, it's finally happened. The night temperatures over the past few days have been hovering between 15-20F and was just too much for my purple Ornamental Kale and orange Violas.

I must say, however, I was rather impressed with how long they lasted. They continued to look great all through November and even early December. But just around the time when I began to think the colors were wrong for Christmas, they simply wilted over and bowed down to the cold.

Since they were spent for the season, I decided to replace them with evergreen cuttings. I filled a similar flower box on my back patio too. And it just happened to snow on them the next day, making for a very pretty sight!

I can see this box from my kitchen window and sliding glass door. It adds a nice bit of greenery to my view in the bleakness of winter.

I filled another container with some of the longer and varied pieces of evergreens and placed it in the corner. I think it looks quite lovely here.

The soil has now frozen around these cuttings, so I hope they hold up for a while!

Happy Halloween!

Jack-o-lanterns, bats, ghosts and goblins... Halloween is here! Nothing says Halloween to me like the color orange. Somehow this vibrant color maintains its vigor throughout the entire month of October - like the last rays of sun from summer. By November, the days are shorter, the tree foliage is nearly gone and everything begins to look more brown.

So in honor of the last day of October and Halloween, I went on a quest around the neighborhood to find all things orange:

Orange Viola flowers

 Orange Pyracantha berries

Orange Gerbera Daisy flowers

Orange Bittersweet berries

Orange-yellow Gourds

And of course, what would Halloween be without a cheery Jack-o-Lantern to wish everyone a very Happy Halloween!

For more Halloween fun, be sure to check out my other spooky Halloween post on some very ghoulish plants. Mwahahahah!