Landscape & Gardening

What’s Fruiting Now

The wildlife has already started to feed on the grape-like fruit clusters.
The wildlife has already started to feed on the grape-like fruit clusters.

The Leatherleaf Mahonia (Mahonia japonica ‘Bealei’). Well… It’s still winter officially, that is until tomorrow, but there’s ripe fruit ready for the pickin’ in my front garden. This shrub bloomed in January, but since I photographed and wrote about its blooms last year, I didn’t want to bore you with a repeat of what you’ve seen before. In fact, this year I have not bothered to photograph any of my winter bloomers until now, since their annual cycle has been covered at least twice before on this blog.

Landscape & Gardening

My First Two Winter Bloomers

(top) Leatherleaf Mahonia (Mahonia bealei); (bottom) Camellia
(top) Leatherleaf Mahonia (Mahonia bealei); (bottom) Camellia

The Leatherleaf Mahonia (Mahonia bealei) started blooming two weeks ago. I like to call this plant the Grape Holly, because beautiful blue-purple-grape-like berries replace the yellow flowers during the spring months. But this is not correct, because there is a Mahonia from Oregon that owns that name. Mine originates from China.

My Camellia shrub’s formal name is unknown to me. I have to be vigilant from December through February and keep it protected from below freezing temperatures, but this winter has been mild so far. This is the first time that the buds are pure white without any burned edges.