A TOUCH OF COLOR IN THE DECEMBER GARDEN

Fall has been a very short season this year. The heat continued through to late November making it impossible to move the plants I would normally move in the fall. I put in winter annuals-they fried. I planted fall vegs. they were eaten by caterpillars and a huge hatch of tarnished plant bugs.
This weekend winter arrived, with a cold rain and promise of a heavy freeze later this week. It will not be the first as we have already had two frosts between those 80º days. Such is Texas weather. I began to cut back many of the last blooms of the season to tidy up the garden for winter. Now, all that remain are the plants that add a touch of color in the winter garden.
It has been a hard summer for the Felicia rose. Although she continued to bloom throughout the spring and summer, the fall blooming has been a disappointment. Thrips! But on Friday a beautiful rose with the fragrance that no other rose can beat.

And this pretty little flower on the donkey ears kalanchoe, Kalanchoe gastonia-bonnieri. A native of Madagascar it blooms at the same time as it would be blooming where it comes from. I have moved it into the greenhouse for the winter.

The winter window box on the potting shed is filling out. Never mind that when I planted it up, on the ground, I planted it the wrong way around. By the time I realized it it was too late to change so the snapdragons are on the front rather than the back. I love the color on the ornamental cabbages but in my garden a window box is the only appropriate place for these plants. If only I could be more successful with cabbages in my vegetable garden. I tucked in a few seeds of nasturtiums but they probably won't survive a heavy freeze.

There are even a few new blooms on the flowering senna tree, peaking over the wall into the vegetable garden. A seedling tree that needs relocating.

Even the ghost plant, Graptopetalum,  in the sunken garden is showing tinges of color from the cooler nights.

and of course, the Euphorbia tirucalli Sticks of Fire, is also responding to the cooler nights with flashes of red on the new growth.

and here's one of the Philippine violets,  Barleria cristata, seeded alongside the pathway, starting to bloom. What am I going to do with them all? There are at least 6 growing in the wrong places which I will need to relocate when they go dormant. I already have 3 potted up in the greenhouse.

But the real splash of color comes from the Yaupon holly, Ilex vomitoria.

The bird planted pyracantha espalier on the bathroom wall.

It's time for the gardener to take a break!

DON'T FORGET THE LITTLE GUYS

If it were not for the fact that the top of the dry-stone retaining wall is almost at eye level I might have missed these tiny star-shaped flowers, with their speckled pink petals and stamens with cerise anthers.

This is the flower of the Graptopetalum, more commonly known as ghost plant, for its pale ghost-like leaves. A native to Mexico and a lover of limey soils it seems to have found a perfect home where very little else will grow.

Not quite as showy but equally small and easy to miss the flowers of the leopard lily, Ledebouria socialis. This one is planted in a pot so when I moved it today I noticed the string of tiny flowers. Both these plants are known more for their striking foliage than their flowers: the ghost plant with its fat grey leaves and the leopard lily with its silver and green mottled leaves. But their flowers deserve the spotlight too, especially as they bloom early in the season.

And once again another plant known more for its chartreuse bracts than its flowers,  gopher plant, Euphorbia rigida. Stop and take a look at the center of those yellow bracts to see the beautiful little flower. Let's hear it for the March little guys.