Garden Bloggers Bloom Day December 2020

The winter months have begun, and it's time for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (the 15th of every month).  Oh, what to do?

I've gone from an abundance of flowers to almost none.  That's what happens in my New York State zone 5b garden at this time of year.  In fact, right now, it's snowing.

I could cheat and show you the hanging basket I have kept alive (for now). But first, a special announcement.

I have an outdoor flowering plant!  We've had somewhat of a mildish fall - it hasn't dipped much below the mid 20's and....one of my Lenten Rose plants is full of half open buds!

The buds were covered in leaves, and I just had this feeling it would be trying to bloom.  So I went outside to brush the leaves away, and saw this holiday gift to me.

Usually it tries to bloom in January.  The buds don't always make it to the end of winter.  We'll see if they will this time.

Inside, I ended up buying a brand new Thanksgiving cactus because I managed to half-kill two of the Thanksgiving cactus I've owned for several years.  One of them even had flower buds on it. I don't know what I did wrong.  Anyway, here is the plant I bought from a nursery during their open house.

I'm trying to nurse the two ailing plants back to health. We'll see if I can.

And now for the hanging basket.  It doesn't look too good, but it has blooms on it. I cheated - I took pictures of it on Sunday, when it was mild enough to have it outside.

It has a bacopa plant.

And a Million Bells.   And a whole lot of brown.  I'm not sure how much longer I'll keep it.

Since this is Christmas time, I have two poinsettias to show you.  As many of you know, the colorful leaves (actually, brachts) are not the flowers - the actual flowers are small and in the middle of the brachts.

 Here's the other one.

And...that's all, folks.  I hope I have something to show you in January.  My African violets are on hiatus, and I decided not to try my luck with amaryllis this year.  But 2021 is a New Year and - one never knows what I might decide to do.

Since this is the last Garden Bloggers Bloom Day of the year, I want to give a big THANK YOU to Carol Michel at May Dreams Gardens, who has hosted this meme for many years.

And THANK YOU to my dear readers.  May you all have a happy Holiday season, a wonderful New Year's Eve, and a 2021 way better than 2020 turned out to be.

Stay safe, all!