January's prelude to spring.

I planted the amaryllis in the white pot first and it took forever to come up. Then I planted in the one in the blue pot and it came up right away. I meant to stagger them, but now I have two at the same time. There are worse calamities. (They don't live outdoors...I just thought they'd like some direct light for a couple hours.)



Cistus skanbergii usually has one or two flowers on it all year, but all the sudden I have a dozen this morning. By early spring it'll be covered with little flowers. Should that be Cistus x skanbergii? I'm too lazy to reach under the bed for Sunset.



Next year I'll make a small pot of the strappy black ophiopogon and bright green ipheion. Don't you think that's a nice, easy combination? Bright green and black? And the ipheion makes that little blue star-flower.



The little seedling back there is Heracleum lanatum (Cow parsnip)--a native I picked for habitat interest (that is, to attract bees and butterflies). I tucked a few seeds here and there and then sowed some in pots for good measure. Now I have five of them coming along. Which is fine, but they're biggish plants. I'm not sure how that's going to work out.



Small narcissus of some sort. I've already forgotten what to expect from these.



Two kissers kissing. Very spring-y.



Noticing how old you look. Very winter-y. I'm getting puffy! And where's my chin going? Come back, chin!

It's hard to take a picture of yourself kissing.