So on this, the coldest day so far, this little guy finally decided to bloom. It’s a self seeded Meconopsis cambrica, which usually blooms in spring and early summer, but for whatever reason this seedling decided all out of season to do it now. It has been really sunny the last two days, but frigid. Here at 2:00 in the afternoon and the ground is still crunchy, and there is ice floating in the birdbaths. I don’t think the temps are much over 40 today… Still, this is a bright promise of spring, for the start of our long, cool grey Seattle winters.
Other plants are also opening their flowers- Mahonia x media ‘King’s Ransom’, and a new flush of flowers on Clematis cirrhosa. Winter is truly here.
In exchange, the frost killed back the flowers and frost bit the foliage on several of the less hardy Salvias, especially all the S coccinea cultivars, and the Phyllis Fancy though the buds look ok, much of the foliage is curled and blackening around the edges. The two remaining Cuphea ignea outside seem to be doing ok though. I covered the one in the rockery with a skirt of leaves hoping to give the base some protection, in case it wants to come back next year, lol.
Definitely time to put the garden to bed for the winter…
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