Still Blooming

What’s left blooming in our garden now are just some hardy roses, calendula and the broccoli that we let bloom for the bees (though technically a vegetable).  The re-blooming iris are just producing flower buds which may or may not bloom.  The weather has been staying around 50º F during the day and drops down below 40º F at night.  Last week it dropped below 30º F for a couple of nights and that stunted the growth.  The iris will bloom again if the weather stays above a frost.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

There may not be much left in the garden but down in the basement where the tropical plants reside in winter there is still activity.  I can smell perfume wafting up the basement stairs from a variety of jasmines every time I open the door.  I’m thinking of taking a table and chair from the garden and putting them down there so I can continue the joy of being in a tropical garden in winter.

The Night Blooming jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum) are doing well this year.  I re-potted the largest one to its benefit.  I also propagated a few plants from the main one and gave some to friends.  They perfume the basement now, competing with the Orange jasmine (Murraya paniculata).

Jasmine ‘Poet’ (Jasminum grandiflorum) loves cooler temperatures and started to bloom profusely outside, but it continues to bloom down in the basement.

One of the Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera hybrid) bloomed as soon as it got inside.  This is a hard to kill plant.  No matter how negligent the treatment I give them they never miss producing flowers year after year.

I took this Orange jasmine (Murraya paniculata) photo back in June when it enjoyed sunlight outside.  It still blooms here and there until sometime in the middle of winter when it will bloom heavily again.