What a pretty site as I sit here looking out the window at the snow on an overcast, dreary winter day :0)

And why do you think this happened @floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK?

Are you sure thats not Rijnveld’s Really Late Sensation’?

Why? Well, it's a very early variety, known to flower around Christmas in mild winters. And it is mild so far.

What a hopeful sight. After a disgustingly early start to winter here in Pa we are one day into a thaw, and the snow has receded enough to let the fall blooming snowdrops show again. I was seeing pictures months ago from the UK, here they are still in bloom... assuming the snow doesn't hide them!

I ask "why" as I guess I, more often than not, 'overestimate' the weather in England/UK as it pertains to coldness. Blooming as I see above, in (early?) December, one starts to think if there has been enough of a cold spell to even allow for flowers so early (I just looked it up ie vernalization).

I imagine the cold period happens the previous winter. Our coldest temps are usually after Christmas. It's 10° today.

the cold period happens the previous winter

I never considered that.

It's 10° today

Almost as high as we had yesterday. And yet a few days prior it was -14C. It is these temperature swings that make it difficult for zone pushing perennials to survive.

My mild winter (so far) manifestation was watching a resident hummingbird feeding from the flowers of my pineapple sage yesterday!! That didn't start blooming until mid November and is still going strong.

No frost here yet but it has dropped to the upper 30's a couple of nights. I still have cuphea and pelargoniums flowering and the nasturtiums have reseeded themselves for the third time this season.

I still have cuphea and pelargoniums flowering and the nasturtiums have reseeded themselves for the third time this season.

That is so cool.

@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9), speaking of the NW , a family member sent me this pic from Vancouver Island a week or so ago...not sure what I am seeing, not sure if these are all potted or actually inground but I do spy flowers.

I'd guess winter pansies, wallflowers and decorative kale. A typical winter bedding scheme. Planted out, not in pots.

Good eyes floral! I see the pansies & kale - we have them everywhere around here in winter. My here is the other Vancouver in US & SW WA state - same coast but warmer than Vancouver, BC.

A typical winter bedding scheme.

But what makes this scene not typical is that it one would not see it for almost anywhere in the rest of Canada for December.

(Actually @gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) this picture location is actually "warmer" than Vancouver BC ie Victoria BC)

I should have said typical for moderate maritime climates. The picture could easily be somewhere here looking at the weather, the bright green grass and the plants. I even see a Union Jack vessel in the background. 😉

Yup, I kind of knew what you meant by the word "typical".

I am thinking that the climate of Victoria BC Canada might be very much like lots of England. We visited the city a few summers ago and I was in awe of the public and private gardens that I toured.

(Btw, 'floral', I am way impressed with your visual acuity...quite impressive)

'Rijnveld's Early Sensation' typically starts blooming for me in late December here in central North Carolina, a nice pick me up during the short days around the winter solstice and I planted it intentionally for that purpose. In 2020 I had first blooms at Thanksgiving which felt a little bit weird.

@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9), are you seeing similarly ie "Wintering Flowering Cherry" in bloom right now ie pre Christmas?:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1F8xtFW3Wp/

Don't know about GG but there are lots of winter cherries out round here. They've been blooming for a few weeks now. Some even started before all the leaves were off.

@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK given you started this thread with blooming daffodils I am not surprised that you also see cherry blossoms.

And more evidence of the further moderating of the English/UK climate:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg14zxdxr1o

"And more evidence of the further moderating of the English/UK climate" - accessible link to growing olives in The Fens of eastern England.

So is the proliferation of fully established Phoenix canariensis in more and more parts of the British Isles. There's a fascinating discussion of it elsewhere on the web. There are some in even more improbably locations at 53N or beyond, like the Merseyside coast, but I'm posting this one in Dublin because it has a long history of prior captures, showing how well it is growing.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/7M7ExV19MjAVq1Rx7

Meanwhile here's a picture I took of one in Savannah, Georgia, looking burnt after an advective freeze in the winter of 2023. This is 1500 miles/2400 km farther south than Dublin!!!

For decades prior the only P. c. in Ireland was known to be a lone specimen in Cork. And I believe in Britain, only a handful of fully trunked ones could be seen at Tresco, in the mildest climate in the entire British Isles. Now, it looks like they will become a common feature of most coastal landscapes of England and Wales, all the way up to the Scottish border. You can be sure, for example, they were once tried at Portmeirion, but failed to establish in the long term, due to winters like 1963. And one does wonder (without seeming to be a spoilsport) whether another winter like 1963 could ever happen again...just as someone with my eastern US garden of exotics has to fear another winter like 1985. One of the themes that emerges in the Quest-Ritson's 'The English Garden Abroad' is that many of the subtropical gardens of southern France and northern Italy, at least, were affected by hard freezes that occurred every 30 or so years.

In defense of proud southern Georgians and their climate...good luck growing an almost pure Washingtonia robusta like this anywhere near the British Isles. It would simply never get the heat it needs!

(I bet this one in Brunswick is one of the furthest north on the east coast; any others I saw in Georgia or SC looked like filifera hybrids. Being on the SW corner of a large building has surely helped it. It's a shame this chap is getting to the point where 'natural removal' will become an inevitability...there's a reason Miami and the rest of Florida doesn't have the 100' palms of Southern California!)

Victoria BC is about as British a city one is likely to encounter outside of Britain!!

We visited the city 3 years ago and had a wonderful time. We sometimes muse about moving there but I think we are a bit too old to change horses midstream.

Not a common sight but it seems there are several in the south of the UK.Washingtonia growth rate in southern England at 50-52N - DISCUSSING PALM TREES WORLDWIDE - PalmTalk https://share.google/sviKcBl1F6wh6vx88

A friend sent me this pic today from her garden in Victoria BC; gloating I am sure as tmr night I will be experiencing -15C/5F:

(2 months before I will see our SD in the backyard)

Here too. Plenty of snowdrops around.

watching a resident hummingbird feeding from the flowers of my pineapple sage

Hey 'gg', I have been meaning to ask you if you see 'hummers' during the winter? I ask this as my Victoria friend says that he does (Anna variety).

And now the crocuses have started ...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/what-on-earth-plant-hunt-9.7066302