Christmas Time at Our House and Garden

Just want to pop by quickly to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and share some pics from our house and garden on this wonderful day!

We didn't have a Christmas tree for many years, but this year I felt like having one again. I went with a white, gold, and silver theme and tadaaaa..., here is our tree in all its glory!

All our ornaments are glass and I really like the warmth and festiveness of the colors.

Highest temperatures today are forecasted to be 71 F/21 C and lowest 38F/3 C, so our evening will get pretty chilly for California circumstances. I am looking forward to liting the fire in the fireplace tonight and getting cozy with my husband on the sofa, which these days is covered with warming sheepskins,...

...and simply enjoying the twinkle lights of the Christmas tree and the warm glow of the ornaments.

This is the view out of the window of our dining room on a foggy cold morning. This is as close to a white Christmas as it gets here in Southern California.

Instead of a big bouquet, we are having just one single white rose to beautify our house, but this rose is so special and precious to me because it is from our own garden.

I loved adding just subtle touches of Christmas to certain areas of the house like these gilded pine cones on a vintage silver plated tray. Who needs more to feel festive?

 I love the "icy atmosphere" in this photo.

This three tired tray, that I found for free on the street in Santa Fee, New Mexico, a few years ago, holds some pitchers of my brown transferware collection and got dressed up for Christmas with a few more gilded pine cones and silver decorative birds.

Out in the garden, there are still a few roses blooming, like this soft apricot 'Chandos Beauty'.

I was never lucky with Paperwhites so far, but each year I plant a few bulbs in a different location hoping for the best.

Looks like I finally found a spot in the backyard that they like.

We had our first winter rain just a few days ago and the roses covered with raindrops always look so magical.

It always amazed me how strong the fragrance of the paperwhites is. Even in our low humidity it wafts and brings joy to the olfactory senses.

Now, does this rose not look like clad in jewels? This is 'Climbing Devoniensis', a Tea Rose, which is so dear to me.

I planted only six paperwhite bulbs, but they brought me so much joy this year already.

Love my roses, even as they fade away. To me, this photo captures the melancholy perfectly that goes along with the winter time. The pictured rose is 'Le Vesuve', another Tea Rose.

I hope, I could convey a little bit of the Christmas spirit in our house and garden during my favorite holiday of the year to you in this post and that you enjoyed it.

May you find some joy, peace, quiet, and happiness during the holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,

Christina

PS. If you want to see more photos from our house and garden please visit me on Instagram. Unfortunately, timewise I am not able to blog that often, but I am posting a photo almost daily there!

I am linking up to
Between Naps On The Porch - Metamorphosis Monday  //  Rustic & Refined - Dishing It & Digging It  //  A Stroll Thru Life - Inspire Me Tuesday  //  Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays  //  A Delightsome Life - Home and Garden Thursday  //  21 Rosemary Lane - Share Your Style  //  Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson - Share Your Cup  //  Eclectic Red Barn - Thursday Favorite Things  //  Shabbyfufu - Style Showcase  //  French Country Cottage - Feathered Nest Friday  //  Rattlebridge Farm - Foodie Friday and Everything Else  //  Shabby Art Boutique - Create, Bake Grow & Gather  //  How Sweet The Sound - "Anything Goes" Pink Saturday  //  Rustic & Refined - Dishing It & Digging It  //

Early Spring In The Front Yard

The front yard, particularly the walkway to the front door, is already looking really nice! Of course, there are always things that can be improved, but in the moment I am pretty happy with this part of the garden. Let me take you for a quick garden tour and show you around!

I am especially pleased with this little corner bed, which is closest to our front door. From the left to the right: Daylily 'Gentle Shepherd', salvia 'Mystic Spires Blue', rosa 'The Prince', Martha Washington geranium 'Regal Elegance Purple Majesty', Martha Washington geranium seedling, white cyclamen, variety unknown. Most of the front yard was fertilized and mulched at the end of the winter and that really made a difference in the vigor of the plants this year. Let's have a closer look at what is growing in this bed.

White flowering daylily 'Gentle Shepherd' is said to be slow to bulk up, and that is true for mine, but at least it is growing happily and has made one new fan. I can't wait to see it blooming for the first time this year. Do you notice the small plant to the left of the daylily?

Here is a close up of it. That is a paperwhite narcissus! I didn't get them in the ground before February, which is way to late to plant them according to the book, but I could either let the bulbs die or put them in the ground then and I decided to give it a try. There are about fifteen bulbs of paperwhites in the front yard. I am curious to see how many will come up and maybe even bloom.

Rosa 'The Prince' looks as good as never before. I am really hoping for a great spring flush.

I still love my hand painted Portuguese jar, but it is covered a little bit more than I would like by the Martha Washington geranium 'Regal Elegance Purple Majesty'. Maybe I should prop the jar up a bit, so that it is more visible. The geranium is doing great and I expect to see many blooms this year. It has a truly wonderful dark purple color.

Judging by the leaves this is another Martha Washington geranium (it is growing to the right side of the one in the photo above), but I haven't planted it. I guess it is a seedling or the Martha Washington geranium 'Regal Elegance Purple Majesty' has found another way to propagate itself. I am anxiously waiting to see what the bloom color will be.

My white cyclamen is blooming generously. It grows for years in this container and blooms reliably each year. A happy no fuss plant. You can't ask for more.

Opposite to the bed shown in the first photo of this post I have two other Martha Washington geraniums growing in blue containers. The name of the variety is 'Regal Elegance Rose Bicolor' and it is also a very lovely one.

I wasn't aware of it before I took the photos, but this one has set buds already. It only will take days for them to open and I am looking so much forward to seeing them, again.

This is an incredible narrow and therefore difficult to plant bed called "The Hell Strip" to the left side when you leave the house. It is doing well so far, too.

In the very front corner of the photo above I have planted stachys monieri 'Hummelo'. The snails are going after it like crazy and didn't give the plant a chance to grow new leaves. So I put out Sluggo (the little white kernels), an organic snail deterrent, to keep them in check.

I have a second salvia 'Mystics Spires Blue' growing in the "Hell Strip Bed" opposite the salvia 'Mystics Spires Blue' in the corner bed featured in the first photo of this post. This one receives more sun and warmth and the plant is much more developed than the other one. Both salvias grow through obelisks to prevent them from flopping over later in the season.

This is a kind of miniature pelargonium, which I cut back only in February. Sorry, but I can't remember the name. Hope it will come back properly. It also lives in the "Hell Strip Bed".

The middle of the bed that runs along the walkway to the house is planted with two roses 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' to the very right and left. I had added two verbena bonariensis between the roses and the Pygmy Date Palm last year in autumn, but one died almost instantly, the other was struggling for the longest time, but seems to have grown in now.

Here you can see the verbena bonariensis more closely. I tried to find a replacement for the one which died, but so far no luck at the local nurseries. 

You walk up to this island bed as you leave the house and walk towards the street. A pretty Pygmy Date Palm lives here. At the feet of the palm is blue flowering penstemon planted. It is struggling because of the root competition with the palm,...

...but since I have fertilized and mulched the bed, I hope I can get one more year out of the penstemon, but eventually it has to be replaced. 

Right before you leave the house you pass by this scene. To the left there is rosa 'Pretty Jessica' planted and to the right rosa 'Marie Pavie'. The latter is full of buds, even though you can't see it well on the photo, and is about to bloom very soon. The white flowering pelargonium in the container on the column looks pretty ugly with its brown leaves.

Close-up of the white pelargonium. I never could get it to look better than on this photo and I don't know the reason why it constantly is making these brown leaves. After two years of trying I am seriously thinking to get rid of it and replace it with another Martha Washington geranium 'Regal Elegance Rose Bicolor', that I still have on hand.

Looking at the middle part of the bed running along the walkway to the house from another direction. I like the height that the obelisk adds to the bed.

View from the street towards the front door. The front yard is mainly green at this time of the year, but I like it this way.

Besides the cyclamen and the white geranium, the dianthus 'Floral Lace White' is the only other plant blooming right now. I thought dianthus would be an annual, but they came through the winter like a charm and were flowering more or less prolifically since they were planted last spring. Pretty amazing!

This last shot shows the walkway to the house as you enter it from the street. Do you see the white dianthus that I just discussed blinking through the trunks of the Pygmy Date Palm?

To me it looks like the front yard is off to a very good start into the season. Now I sit back and enjoy watching things filling in more and wait for the roses and other plants to start blooming. Life is good!

See you in the garden!

Christina

I am linking to

Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden
Rose Garden Malevik

Roses, forcing Paperwhites and a new Project

Unfortunately my mom, who is living in Germany, has developed a serious health problem and I decided to fly to Germany on short notice to support her in these difficult times on the Thanksgiving weekend.

There is a lot to do and to organize to help my mom, who has been released from the hospital on Monday, and therefore so far I have found very little time to blog, but at least tonight I want to put up a Periscope video about my own garden that I recorded on the 19th of November.

As usual I had to show some roses ('Pope John Paul II', 'Moondance', 'Snowbird', Pretty Jessica') that were blooming at that time, I am talking a little bit about rose care and growing own root roses from bands into strong plants that can be transplanted into the garden. I also give you an update about my Paperwhites that I am forcing in Hyacinth glasses and tell you about a new garden project in the front yard that I am working on.

I hope you enjoyed watching the video. Forcing bulbs, like Paperwhites, Hyacinths and Amaryllis indoors has a long standing tradition. After I completely blew it last year, this year at least I could muster to try to get some Paperwhite bulbs to flower. I am curious: Are you forcing any bulbs indoors to overcome the winter blues or even for Christmas? Please, if you have a moment of time, let me know in your comments. Thanks!

See you in the garden!

Christina

I am linking to Rose Garden Malevik