Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - November 2014 - Cactus Surprise

If Garden Bloggers Bloom Day had been on November 13, I still could have shown you some flowers in my zone 5b garden in the Johnson City area of upstate New York.

But yesterday, with the first snow that stuck (we had sleet and snow last Friday, but it didn't - here, anyway) and a hard freeze, I had to let go. 

Now starts the season of hoping some indoor flowers bloom each 15th of the month, so I am not totally embarrassed in front of the world.  Gulp.

Welcome to Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, where gardeners from all over the world show what is blooming.

For example, my Thanksgiving (more on that later) cactus are blooming.  Even this little cutting in a tiny pot is blooming for me. (Did you know that grammar geeks say that cactus, cactuses and cacti are all correct to use as the word to describe two or more cactus plants?  So please do not leave a comment about "cactus" as a plural.)

But before I show you more flowers, I want to show you that, as of about 7am this morning, I still had a couple of flowers left outside, in a hanging basket.

A petunia still bravely bloomed, a spot of pink in the brown all around it.  This plant has survived, twice, down to 25 degrees F (-3.8 C.)  I don't expect it to bloom much longer. 

So, what else do I have? Well, first, a confession.  Last Saturday I went to an open house at a local nursery/florist, Tioga Gardens, and replenished my supply of flowering plants.

I bought this African Violet while the African Violets I already own, roots trimmed and put back in pots with fresh soil, show their displeasure.

And, I could not resist a white Christmas cactus in bud, or so I thought. Now that it's opening up, lovely light pink blossom are emerging.  (sorry, no name tag in the plant). But I had a big surprise, reading today's post on the host blog for the GBBD meme.  I do not own any Christmas cactus - every last one of my Christmas cactus are actually Thanksgiving cactus - same genus, but different species.  The secret is in the leaves - if they have points on them, you have Thanksgiving cactus.

And maybe that explains why my plants bloom in November...

Finally, back to my flowers from this summer, here is a geranium I brought inside (one of several).  I have no idea why the picture looks like this - this is a reddish geranium.  But I loved my iPhone 4S's interpretation of this flower so much, I decided to post it anyway.

And now, I must start a hunt for a true Christmas cactus - maybe I'll have one to show you next GBBD.

Did you like what you saw? Please comment, and then please visit May Dreams Gardens, which hosts this meme every 15th of the month, and click on other links to see what is blooming all over the world.