A Visit From Jack Frost

Frosty Heuchera 'Marmalade'
I know I'm a day late, but Happy Midwinter, everyone! You know what this means...going forward, our days will start to lengthen again! Granted, the coldest part of the year is still ahead of us (which luckily, for Portland, is not very cold). As a little Midwinter gift, we finally got a "hard-ish" frost the other night (I can only dream of one of those amazing Hoar Frosts that you see so often in gardening books). I only had a few minutes between the sun coming up and having to dash to work, so didn't get as many pics as I'd like. The above Heuchera looks better than it has in a while...it's too bad they seem to struggle through summer, yet looks so nice during the winter.


Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm'
I'm never sure here in Portland when our technical first frost should be...but I'm guessing that it's later than usual this year. However, we've had almost no rain for weeks, which means its actually colder than usual (due to lack of cloud cover).


Euthrochium 'Little Joe', Muhlenbergia capillaris, Amsonia hubrichtii, Artemisia 'Powis Castle', Persicaria 'Lance Corporal'
I know, there isn't really any visible frost in this shot, but I was struck by how nice all the different colors seemed to really come together in this area this year...finally! Can you believe the Muhlenbergia blooms are still so colorful? I seem to remember last year they were more straw-colored by this time. I'm also REALLY liking the warm burnt sienna color of the Persicaria foliage...it's really striking. Oh, and of course, everyone stop to admire the retina-searing green recycling bin in the background.


Monarda 'Raspberry Wine'
While I'm endlessly fascinated by the strange seed heads of this Monarda, they are super-difficult to get a good picture of in my garden, being located halfway up the slope in the dead center of the garden. I carefully straddled a few other plants to get this picture...but ended up almost biting it when I tried to get down...I really must work on my dismount.


Geranium 'Ann Folkard'
Amazingly, the Hardy Geraniums are still pretty much green...which pairs nicely with the leaves that have turned red. Love how the frost accentuates all the textures of the leaves. One of the 'Ann Folkards' best assets, it's rich, red stems, are more evident now that the plants have started to collapse a bit...such a great contrast to the leaves.

As we count down to Christmas, I hope everyone has a good Holiday Season...safe travels and good times :-)