The new year is underway with cold temperatures and dreary skies. Today, the best place to be is inside by the blazing hearth with a warm drink in hand. It is also time to look back at 2015 and choose my annual "Best of the Rest." These are last year's garden photos that for various reasons did not make it onto my blog, but perhaps they deserve a look. So here they are; enjoy the 2015 tour, and see if you have any favorites!
January:
These photo was taken at a friend's house on a typical gray January day.
A January sunset behind the woodlands.
February:
Hellebores are among the first bloomers of the year.
Flowering quince (Chaenomeles) blooms for months, beginning in late winter.
March:
These hellebores are near my kitchen door. They also bloom for months.
Yellow forsythia is a welcome sight, along with early daffodils.
April:
April showers make the grass wet!
Native azaleas are a lovely sight in the April woodland garden.
'Orchid Romance' is a pretty floribunda rose in the front garden.
May:
'Penelope' is another favorite rose in the front garden.
A May view from the patio.
Confederate Jasmine, Trachelospermum jasminoides, grows over the iron arch by the patio. I look forward to its fabulous fragrance every year.
Pink petunias grow by a purple pot containing Carex oshimensis 'Everillo.'
This Jack-in-the-Pulpit was growing in a garden in North Alabama..
June:
Rosa mutabilis, or Butterfly Rose, is one of my favorites.
The garden is mostly green as summer deepens.
This fuchsia bloomed for months in the woodland garden.
July:
This pretty butterfly was resting on my patio table.
August:
This photo was taken at Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
A nice arrangement at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
September:
What would I do without Impatiens? These common annuals add a boost of color in shady places.
A fun project this year was a wheelbarrow garden.
I put a pot of 'Dinosaur' kale by a white azalea for a pretty picture.
October:
Clockwise from top left: 'Tamopan' persimmons look like little pumpkins hanging on a tree; Oakleaf hydrangea; Aging Agapanthus bloom; A glass ornament twists in the wind.
I am trying to grow variegated ivy up this metal tuteur.
Reflections in the lake at nearby Aldridge Gardens.
This birdhouse is beside a trail in the front garden.
An anole lizard stayed for a while in my wheelbarrow garden.
November:
A November view through the front garden.
Japanese maples 'Orangeola', on the left, and 'Waterfall' are growing in the woodland garden. Both have beautiful fall color.
December:
Burford holly produces an abundance of red berries.
A dwarf Burford holly is still a very large shrub!
I hope you enjoyed my 2015 leftover photos! Happy gardening in 2016!