I woke up to a spring-like day today, despite the fact that winter hasn’t actually started yet!  Now is the perfect time for shopping, for planning, and for ordering things online!

To combat the seed hoarder in me, I’m not allowing myself to order any more ornamental plant seeds until I plant each and every seed that I already have.  Today I inventoried those seeds and I have 85 different kinds that have either not been sown at all, or that were plentiful enough that I had lots of extras!

Here are a few of the more interesting seeds I have that I’ll plant for 2016, along with links to photos of them:

Ligularia dentata “Dark Beauty”           Gladiolus carinatus

Eupatorium “Blue Mist Flower”              Watsonia knysnana

Hesperantha vaginata                        Sparaxis grandiflora v Grandiflora

Dierama latifolia                                              Lapeirousia fabricii

Gladiolus splendens                                             Babiana patula

Kniphofia multiflora                                    Massonia depressa

Freesia laxa Blue                                                  Rogeria adenophylla

Dorotheanthus bellidiformis                           Tritoniopsis pulchella

Chasmanthe floribunda Duckenii                        Tritonia crispa

Cortus matthioli                                                         Lapeirousia jacquinii

Dietes bicolor                                                            Cyrtanthus epiphyticus

Carmichaelia sp.  “Ribbon Tree”                         Amoreuxia wrightii

Lithops optica Rubra                                                    Gasteria liliputana

Talinum caffrum                                                                Rebutia minuscula

Senecio macrocephalus                                                   Onixotis stricta

Phaenocoma prolifera                                                   Frithia pulchra

Marlothistella stenophylla                                     Cheiridopsis pillansii

Hesperantha schizostylis                                            Solaria brevicoalita

Ideally, with seeds, they should be planted right away.  But even if only a small percentage of these older seeds germinate, I’ll have plenty of new treasures for the greenhouse and around!

Speaking of greenhouse, here are some pics from there from today:

The first open Cymbidium flowers–this is the dwarf orchid that brother Tim passed to me that we just call Mom’s.

Another flower, part way opened.

The Masdevallias are off to the races with flowers–completely off season.  I’m not sure what I did right or wrong this year, but usually these are March/April bloomers!

Other plants that are off season include this potted Hyacinth, sitting on the shelves outside the greenhouse.  This and another blue one are both blooming now in the fall, when normally they would bloom in April.

I was very surprised to see flowers on this Prime-Ark Blackberry here towards the end of December!  I’m not expecting berries, but it is funny to see this apparently very hardy plant blooming so close to Christmas!

Here are some other garden highlights:

This Canary Island Ivy is a show-stopper in winter.  Another excellent plant from brother Tim, this large vine lives in the Doug fir bed and is much less thuggish than the English ivy that shares that bed.

Each leaf is different and lovely.

Below is the Calanthe orchid that I planted out this year after several years in the greenhouse where it did not bloom.  This interesting plant is in the Doug fir bed and doesn’t seem phased at all so far by the cold.

In the Asian Pear bed, the Beladonna lilies have fresh leaves popping up.  I’ve yet to get flowers from these bulbs, but they live on year after year.  I’m not positive if the problem is exposure, depth or what, but they just haven’t bloomed yet.

The Camellia near the orchard bed is budding up nicely–should have lots of huge pink flowers in a few months.

Here is the Hakone grass in winter–it becomes an attractive tan color and maintains its graceful habit until the weather tatters it to pieces.

Close up showing the seed stems mixed with the leaf blades.