I had forgotten I planted some Eranthis hyemalis in the part of the garden near the house. One of them has pushed up a flower bud. No sign of any more so far, nor the ones from last year.

Compare with last year.

Weather

The average temperature was 5.6C with a minimum of -2.3C and maximum of 12.8C, and there were 3 frost days when the temperature dropped below zero. So overall it was warmer than November and December. It rained on 17 days, with a total of 32mm of rain, so quite dry.

Last year it was much colder with an average temperature of 3.8C.

Flowers

There is not a lot of difference to the end of December although of course the Primroses, Hellebores and Cyclamen coum are more advanced.

The white Hellebore is doing very well this year:

---

The new red one is flowering quite well but is much smaller:

Snowdrops

I can't say the snowdrops are thriving, be interesting to see how many there are this year. Some are just starting to flower:

New shoots

There are lots of tulips, daffodils and …

The first signs of the Anemone blanda have appeared.

This is exactly the same day as the first sighting last year, but earlier than 2018 where the first sighting was the 4th February. They typically flower until at least the end of April.

The yellow Primrose to the left has a distinctly lighter center than the primrose that was planted in early January 2018. I see from a web search that they take about 20 months from germination to first flower, so there is just about enough time for this to be an offspring of the one I bought. On the other hand it may be just a coincidence and it arrived some other way, since there were other primula in the garden originally although all either cowslip or polyanthus style.

Compare with last year.

Weather

The average temperature was 4.7C with a minimum of -1.8C and maximum of 12.1C, and there were r9 days when the temperature dropped below zero. It rained on 18 days, with a total of 28mm of rain, so much dryer than November which was the wettest month of the year.

Every plant that is in flower at the end of the year

Well here we have a picture of every kind of plant that was in flower on the 30th December.

Primroses

There are several primroses in flower

Winter jasmine

Rudbeckia

Helebore 'Mont blanc'

Helebore 'Christmas spirit'

Lewisia

Helenium 'Mardi gras'

Sidalcea 'Elsie Heugh'

Cyclaman coum

Not a great photo, but included for completeness

Violas

It seems to me that last year, there were flowers surviving much later than this year. The Penstemon that I grew last year, survived but did not flower - I saw one flower, but did not get a picture.

Weather

The average temperature was 5.6C with a minimum of -3.4C and maximum of 11.2C, and there were 7 days when the temperature dropped below zero. It rained on 28 days, with a total of 140mm of rain.

Flowering early in the month

Sedum

The flower heads last year were really small, but this year much larger - I would say more normal size. Perhaps the dry weather last year was the problem.

---

Salvia

The shrubby Salvia's were still in flower in the early part of the month. Here is Salvia 'Day glow'.

---

Lewisia

The Lewisia continued flowering throughout the month. This is really out of season for it as …

My first six on Saturday for a while, on the off chance that you are wondering what that is all about then head over to The propagator blog for lots more slices of Saturday garden life in six easily digestible pieces.

After a week of darkness and rain it cleared up for the weekend for a change. Of course the sun was combined with some frost, it's the 8th day this autumn that the temperature has dropped below zero.

There is far less surviving colour in the garden last year, I was just looking at pictures from last year, and the autumn flowers lasted right into December, whereas this year there is very little left.

Cyclamen

Every year I get one of the tender Cyclamen and plant it for the splash of colour. This year I decided to keep it in a pot as I thought I could make it …

A first frost this morning, its very calm and sunny, probably more rain tonight though. It has rained every day this month so far.

1. Viola

I got a tray of these earlier and they are still flowering nicely.

2. Salvia Amethyst lips

This is like S. 'Hot lips' but with a dark purple colour. Its possible that the colour is more stable as there are no all-white flowers on this plant, whereas there are on my 'Hot lips'.

3. Alstroemeria 'Summer breeze'

This has been great value this year. It has flowered continuously since I got it, and is still going strong.

4. Cotoneaster leaves and berries

The leaves and berries of this Cotoneaster are almost exactly the same colour. In the background there are the orange berries of the Pyracantha.

5. Winter jasmine

I cut this back a fair amount, hoping that it would put on some new …