Home of the Practically Perfect Pink Phlox and other native plants for pollinators

Friday, December 3, 2010

Good Morning Garden Blogging World!

warm days and cold nights mean lovely frosty flowers
Looking out the window I can see the sun beginning to rise, the tiniest sliver of moon and a bright twinkling star.
Courtesy of NASA*

It's going to be a beautiful morning and day in Middle Tennessee...The kind of day that finds us all outdoors~
Frost Flowers are blooming






Our days may be warm, but, the mornings are crisp and cold. Cold enough that our special winter blooming Frost Flowers are blossoming everywhere! It's a gift from nature that I look forward to finding on my early morning walks in the garden. On warm days, Verbesina virginica's roots draw water up into the stem and late in the night the stems freeze, split open, and release the plant juices which immediately freeze into ribbons of ice that curl around the stem and the base of the plant! (go here for their story)...

Their ribbon candy blossoms are magical to see.
Today will be the last warm day before winter stops by and shocks us all!

Hedge renovation has begun~That's what's been on my my mind lately!
I will be out in the garden planting, rearranging and dreaming of spring. I wanted to thank you for your kind visits when I have been so conspicuously absent from blogging this past month~You are the best of gardening friends.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend filled with love, friendship, and if you can't garden, dreams of springtime.


xxoo,
gail

34 comments:

  1. Gail, thank you for the introduction to the frost flower! I've never seen one before and it's simply magical - so cool!

    Your cardinal photo looks like a beautiful postcard.

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  2. Good morning to you too Gail dear. Frost flowers are so charming. I wonder....

    I hope you have a beautiful weekend too just like the pink patterned sunrise peeking outside my window.~~Dee

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  3. Dear Gail, I love the tone of your voice in this post, so happy and upbeat! The frost flowers are beautiful, I noticed some of that here the other day, but didn't know what the cause was. Thanks for the continuing education!
    xxxooo
    Frances
    ps, have fun these last warm days!

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  4. Frost flowers.... interesting... The cardinal seems so content in this pictures. I love cardinals. Have a great weekend!

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  5. Gail, every visit to your blog fills me with even more longing to visit Clay & Limestone myself! I love the Frost Flowers ... so weirdly beautiful!

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  6. Very nice, I have never seen the plant ribbons.

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  7. Every year I mean to pick up some verbesina from the native plant sale and I end up forgetting. Beautiful photos!!!

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  8. Also, I've added you to my blogroll. :)

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  9. What a wonder Gail! Lucky you finding such delights this morning. Happy Friday. Have a great weekend!

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  10. Such a positive happy post today...just baked 2 pans of brownies and 5 doz. homemade chocolate chip cookies...the house smells divine. Off the read more about the Frost Flowers....intriguing.

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  11. Enjoy the gift of the warm day, dear Gail. Though very cold, it's sunny here today ... yippee! Your frost flowers are a pure delight!

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  12. I have never heard of frost flowers before - very interesting.

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  13. Dear Gail, Those frost flowers are fantastic - have I never seen them, or never noticed them? Love your cardinal cutie - they are my very favorites - the males are such good husbands :)

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  14. I've lived in a few frosty places but I've never heard of, or seen, frost flowers before. Amazing! Nature constantly has new things to show us. Thank you.

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  15. Happy weekend to you too Gail. Love the bird feeder...something Helen's Haven would love. And now we will see about some snow. Yikes

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  16. I love your frost flowers I wonder if they would grow in the UK

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  17. I have never seen any thing like the frost flowers. They are beautiful. Does it wreck the plant?

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  18. Yes, it sure is frosty.
    Love the cardinal on the birdhouse.
    Have a great weekend.

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  19. You seem as cheery and content as the Cardinal on the feeder Gail. Good luck with the ongoing hedge renovation! Love the swirling frost flowers. especially the one with wings. The precious rose is beautiful!

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  20. I am not looking forward to next week's cold! I'm hoping to get a few things done outside tomorrow - hopefully the rain will hold off until evening!

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  21. That Verbesina is amazing...I've never seen such a thing. I love the little Cardinal at the end, he looks like he's patiently waiting for snow!

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  22. Those frost flowers are lovely! When I first started reading your post, I thought of your April first post, but decided to trust you instead of looking them up.

    Enjoy your garden work. I'm starting my count down to spring.

    I just did another post on Fremont's clematis that shows a photo of one in bloom.

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  23. I am facinated by the frost flowers. While I have seen many frosted flowers never a frost flower. I hope you have a great weekend.

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  24. Your frost flowers are lovely but I guess they have a short vase life.

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  25. Those frost flowers are incredible! I wish we had them here!

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  26. Gail girl I have to break this to your gently since you are in such a good mood .. frost flowers are CANADIAN .. they only "visit" you guys down south to be nice ;-)
    hehehehehehe !
    Love the moon shot !
    Joy
    wink wink

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  27. I had forgotten about the frost flowers -- those are the coolest things ever! We've been enjoying perfect weather too until today, when we got some snow.

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  28. Nice photos, that NASA shot is pretty cool!

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  29. Lovely flowers, and frosty colors. We had a really nice frost yesterday, but I had to work, so I missed some opportunity. This morning however I did get a few shots.

    I too am looking forward to spring gardening.

    Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

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  30. A belated good morning to you, too, Gail! Your frost flowers are amazing--it would be worth it to me to get up early and pull on my winter coat just to see these wonders. So you're tearing out the forsythia hedge? I'm eager to see what your plans are for this area. Dreaming and planning for spring is about the only gardening I'll get done for awhile--my garden is covered with 7" of snow today!

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  31. Hi Gail! You WOULD be the one to receive frost flowers! (I've never seen those before, but they are Amazing!) :-) You SHOULD receive frost flowers, btw!

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  32. I love the moon picture - it's proximity to that planet always happens at this time of the year and I love it.

    Nice to see you back and sounding so happy :) xxx

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  33. Hello Gail, I too love your frost flowers, but I also love that shot of your beautifully coloured chairs shining through the twany colours of the dying-back perennials. Wonderful!

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  34. The frost flowers are fascinating - I have not heard of anything like that happening to a plant. There is always something new to be learned.

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"Insects are the little things that run the world." Dr. E O Wilson