After a wet and mostly warm December, the last few days have been crisp, cold and cloudless. The first morning of 2016 proved perfect for grabbing pictures of new snow on the Cascade and Olympics.
The garden didn’t disappoint either.
Later this morning I decided to sort through my 2015 pictures and post a few.

Olive: Olea europaea ‘Arbequina,’ September, 2015

Rosa ‘Hansa’ July, 2015

New buds on branch of red twig dogwood cultivar Jan, 2015
What a great year in review! Your garden is an inspiration.
Amazing view of those mountains. Something we never see in this part of the world. And that’s a particularly nice Hellebore variety.
I think that Hellebore is Helleborus x ballardiae ‘Cinnamon Snow,’ one of my newest and reliably upright (so far) in habit. At the Flower and Garden show in Seattle this month Hellebores were everywhere in evidence. I bet lots were from Oregon growers and all had (seemingly) kicked their nodding habits! I wonder if other gardeners notice newer upright cultivars becoming less so as the years go by? I’m keeping an eye on the newer varieties, which seem to have the nodding habit bred right out of the plants DNA.
Gosh, now I feel like I bought the wrong kind of Hellebores.
I have plenty of droopy ones too ; -) And I like them as well!