Ric, I think the welcome sign was for Lisa.

My Amaryllis 'Sophisticated' just opened and I love it!!



This is the first time I've every grown this one and I wasn't sure what to expect, but the red is so vivid, and I love the shape of the blossom.

'Double Dream', one of my all-time favorites, is now in full bloom.

Catmint20906 said:My Amaryllis 'Sophisticated' just opened and I love it!!

• Amaryllis (Hippeastrum 'Sophisticated')
• Uploaded by Catmint20906

This is the first time I've every grown this one and I wasn't sure what to expect, but the red is so vivid, and I love the shape of the blossom.

'Double Dream', one of my all-time favorites, is now in full bloom.

• Amaryllis (Hippeastrum 'Double Dream')
• Uploaded by Catmint20906

Very pretty but I especially love that first one.

thanks, Rita!

Marilyn said:I took this photo on Christmas Day....

One of my holly berry plants (forgot to take photos of the other one). Meant to take pic of the whole plant and will take photos of the other one when it stops raining in a few days.

• Ilex
• Uploaded by Marilyn

Edited to add that today I heard a lot of American Robins right outside our living room window, when I looked at the holly (above), at the time this afternoon, it only had about 5 berries left on it.

When I took the photo, it was loaded with ripe berries and looked like this (photos from Jan. 2012)....

e:

Sounds like the robins had a nice meal!

They wanted to get all of them, so the Mockingbirds wouldn't.

So you have some plump robins hanging around your house now!

Happy New Year to all ...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Years all! May the new year bring health to your home and wealth to you pocket. Did anyone remember to burn their bayberry candle?

oh no, I don't even have a bayberry candle any more! (does burning one on New Year's bring something good?)
Thanks for the good wishes, Ric--I love the 'wealth to our poor empty pockets' part!!

Eric4home said: Happy New Years all! May the new year bring health to your home and wealth to you pocket. Did anyone remember to burn their bayberry candle?

I don't have one either. When I was growing up the tradition was to put bread and salt and fish scales on the table overnight on New Years Eve for New Years Day. This was supposed to keep you wealthy and healthy in the new year.

So before new years we had to go to the market and buy some scaly fish. We cleaned them, dried the scales and then New Years fare was usually fried fish.

A bayberry candle burned to the socket
brings health to the home
and wealth to the pocket.

aww man and I don't have either scaly fish or a bayberry candle!

there are a lot of chinese (lunar) new year traditions that I've learned over the years on Katie's behalf--like eating long unbroken noodles signifies a long life, and oranges bring good luck and wealth.

'Hercules' just opened!
This is a new one for me this year--it's a very lovely pinkish red. It's sort of like 'Double Dream' as a single instead of a double!

Happy New Year!

Don't have a bayberry candle and didn't know or remember the tradition to put bread, salt and fish scales on the table overnight on New Years Eve for New Years Day.

Hope Dean and I still are wealthy and healthy in the New Year anyway. At least, healthy, since I know we aren't going to be wealthy.

I hope to remember to get a bayberry candle for New Years Eve 2016, but I'd have a hard time to get Dean on board with the tradition putting bread, salt and fish scales on the table overnight on New Years Eve 2016.

Catmint,

What kind of flower is that? Beautiful color! Is that an indoor or outdoor flower plant?

edited to say....

I just noticed that it is Amaryllis (Hippeastrum 'Hercules') Amaryllis (Hippeastrum 'Hercules')

My Snowdrops are still blooming and/or are in white colored buds, even after days of the lows being in the low to mid 20's.

I'm wondering if we should close some of these comment threads and start new ones for 2016. It may be intimidating for some newbies to jump into a thread that has thousands of comments already.