WHAT'S LOOKING GOOD IN DECEMBER 2018

@noisette47 , you told me you get hard frost, now I think your hard frost must be different to mine
Melia azederach, I've tried it a few times, if it doesn't completely die the first winter it does the second here.
Now I'm not entirely sure if it is about actual cold or more to do with having enough heat to ripen the wood properly.

 

Could be, it shrugs off -12C. Maybe also that the really cold weather doesn't arrive here until the nights are quite a bit shorter? And if there's some sun, it's got strength, even in winter.
I've got 2 trees that were self-sets in a swap plant pot...sown from trees in the Gers but unidentified for 3 years...then they flowered and beaded
It's certainly not about good drainage! Will send you some seed if you like. Chiltern always reckoned that the provenance made a big difference. Will let it stratify on the tree and send with the Lantana m.

 

OK thank for the offer @noisette47
Much appreciated.

 

Intoxicating almond/coconut smell from the gorse on the towans earlier today. Always some flowers throughout the year but right now masses of them.

 

You grown a beard @Zigs?

 

@Zigs - I'll follow that with....

 

The last thing to come into bloom in 2018 is Justicia rizzinii..............
Justicia rizzinii by longk48, on Flickr

It's in a pot in a sheltered spot up against the house. In a couple of weeks it should be looking fantastic.

 

Girt tree

 

Totally different plant shiney, that is spanish moss, a tillandsia, not lichen.

We have got some similar plane trees growing along the Medway in the town centre pretty much, it seems fairly normal for some planes to produce this kind of bole.

 

Cut that down and it would be worth a mint in veneer.

Zigs gets his axe sharpened.

 

It's very common in the Highlands Shiney and more so on the damper west coast where I've seen it hanging 3ft long. As Pete says what we have here is Lichen. The pines and Beech tree in my garden have it but not to a great extent. You can just see it in the image below.

 

I did actually spot some lichen, of that type, in the local park today.
It was about 2 ins square.