Camellia japonica ‘Lady Clare’
Azalea Leaves
Old Allium Blooms
We had Second Thanksgiving today. If hobbits can have second breakfast, I don’t see any problem with Second Thanksgiving. There were sixteen of us at mom’s house this year, which is pretty close to the limit for her dining room table. There was more than enough food, of course, with plenty of leftovers for everyone to take home.
I took a little time in the afternoon to go out in the yard and enjoy some Thanksgiving-season color. First up is a Camellia japonica ‘Lady Clare’ in the back yard. There is currently just this one bloom on it but it is absolutely covered with huge buds and before Christmas it will be in full bloom. How can you not love a plant blooming this time of year?
The second photograph is not of a flower, although it certainly competes with flowers on color. It’s a little roseate of leaves on an azalea bush in the front yard. Many people think of azaleas as a one-season shrub, blooming for a few weeks in spring and doing nothing the rest of the year. That’s certainly true of some but many of them have leaves that turn all sort of shades of red for the winter. To my way of thinking, those are to be preferred over those that simply stay green. Look at all the color in those leaves!
For our third and final photo, we have something that is flower-related, although not a flower itself. These are the pedicels from allium umbels, or, in layman’s terms, the flower stalks from the ball of flowers on an ornamental onion.