For December’s Bloom Day, I turn to my houseplants.
The Crown of Thorns, Euphorbia milii, is my Old Reliable, never bereft of its perky red blossoms:I’ve found Crown of Thorns to be an easy plant, equally happy in filtered light, bright indirect light, and direct sunlight. A slow-growing succulent, it is happy to be watered lightly once a week. The thorns are scary looking, but easy to work around. The only downside is that it tends to lose leaves from the bottom up, leaving about half the height of the plant bare-stemmed.
In the eight years I’ve had this plant, it has grown from about eight inches high to just over two feet. It constantly bears clusters of half-inch wide light red flowers which fall cleanly off the plant when they are spent. I think they are as sweet as sweet can be!
In early November, as we began to have more frequent killing frosts, I brought inside a chrysanthemum that was well-budded but had not yet bloomed. It began to flower a few weeks ago, and still looks nice for bloom day today:I suppose I could have found a nicer place for it than the floor of the family room, right in front of the heat register, but it does get the best sunlight in the house in this spot. I had thought I would re-pot it when I brought it in, but the soil in the box had already frozen, and there was no digging it out! I really think moving it may have disturbed it too much to bloom this well, anyway! (There’s always an excuse reason for laziness, yes?)
Two of my plants are “almosts” for this Bloom Day. The geraniums I am overwintering under lights in the basement have plenty of buds showing color:I won’t do it now with the house full of Christmas decor, but starting in January, I’ll rotate some of the bloomers up into the house to add some sparks of color through the dreary, gray months of winter.
These Paperwhite Narcissus are very close to opening as well. I potted these up just over three weeks ago, and set them under the basement light until just this morning. They’ll be a nice complement to the poinsettia I bought today. So that’s what’s blooming on the fifteenth of December at my house. Thank you as always to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this meme through which garden bloggers may share their own flowers as well as see what’s blooming all over the world in other bloggers’ gardens. It’s well worth your time to visit!
Today’s Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day coincides with another meme, “In a Vase on Monday”, hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden. I thought I would be unable to make any sort of vase in December, but the beautiful blooming chrysanthemum I showed you earlier inspired me to try!I put on my coat and boots and trudged up the snowy hill into the woods to clip a few evergreen branches. Then I paid a visit to the Barberry at the end of my driveway, and very carefully clipped a few of its thorny branches, choosing some with berries and some redder, newer growth as well. When I came back to the warm house, I cut a few branches of the mum. I put them all together in my favorite little green Venetian glass vase:While the chrysanthemum is not a traditional Christmas color, I think this is a fitting arrangement for this week of Advent, as yesterday was the day to light the pale pink candle of joy.
The wonder of it all is that I shed not even one drop of blood while working with the Barberry!I look forward to seeing what everyone has blooming today for Bloom Day, as well as what people may have found to put in a vase this Monday!
Cathy said:
Lovely flowers all around your house Kimberley! I’m waiting for my Christmas cactus to start flowering. The vase looks perfectly festive! I also went into the woods for materials this week, but it was only rain here and no snow. It makes the vase special when you know where everything has come from, don’t you think? 🙂
Kimberley at Cosmos and Cleome said:
All three of my “Christmas” cactuses bloomed and were done by mid-November this year! Thanks for taking the time to stop by in this busy, busy season! You could have been baking cookies instead, after all! : )
Charlie@Seattle Trekker said:
Such a wonderful bit of beautiful on this cold, dreary, winter day.
Amy said:
I love the vase with the chrysanthemums! We have a pot blooming outside (I’m in Phoenix, so we still have no freezing temps) with some pups in it; but I don’t dare bring them into the hot, dry house. But yours looks so good indoors…! How do you do it? 🙂
Kimberley at Cosmos and Cleome said:
Welcome, Amy! I wasn’t sure how the mum would behave once I brought it in, to be honest, but I am pleased with how it did! I think leaving it right in its planter helped a lot, and I am careful to keep it well-watered since it’s sitting right in front of the heat register like that! Thanks for stopping by!
Donna@GardensEyeView said:
Love the addition of the mums…I am eyeing my barberry for next week.
Kimberley at Cosmos and Cleome said:
Just proceed carefully with the barberry, Donna! Thanks for the visit!
Cathy said:
And it was worth the trudge in the snow as the result is lovely – but I am puzzled by the chrysanths. Are they white – or pink? I love the way people have taken on this challenge – it really becomes an ingrained Monday activity 🙂
Kimberley at Cosmos and Cleome said:
Thanks for stopping by, Cathy. It has become an ingrained activity! The mums open up white, and change to pinkish-purple as time passes.
Gayle Madwin said:
What a pretty December bouquet!
Kimberley at Cosmos and Cleome said:
Thank you, Gayle! Always nice to have someone new stop by the blog!
Nell Jean said:
Crown of Thorns was one of Mama’s favorite houseplants.
Benjamin said:
Beautiful! I need to get a light for my geraniums, too…at present, they limp along, getting sad and spindly until the can get back out into the spring sun 😉
Alana Mautone (@RamblinGarden) said:
Catching up on some GBBD posts. I loved your arrangement in the vase – it was so seasonal. One of my friends has a Crown of Thorns and I’ve thought about trying one – I may just do it.
Patrick said:
Haven’t seen crown of thorns in years. Grew into a shrub in Sydney’s climate. Not a good hide and seek spot. Know what I mean. Wish I had indoor blooms beyond poinsettias but higher ups are concerned about pollen allergies. Let them eat cake…
Pam's English Garden said:
Crown of thorns is new to me, Kimberley. I love its sweet flowers. I will look out for one — always glad to have a house plant that thrives with less than perfect light. Happy New Year my friend. P. x