44*, feels like 37*, 36% humidity, SSW 14 mph wind
There are bloggers out there that are shamelessly flaunting their December flowers. I would LOVE to be able to do the same, and had I stayed in CA, I could easily have done so for we had purple bearded iris that would bloom now, along with pansies and sweet peas. However, this is as close as I can get. These mums were still somewhat pretty a few weeks ago, but after a couple weeks of hard and prolonged frost, where highs maybe reached the mid twenties, have left them looking quite dead. It was nice enough these past couple of days that I wanted to run out and clip it all down, to do SOMETHING outside. But I restrained myself. I will leave them. WHY? Because I am hoping that perhaps all that dead foliage will somehow protect the roots for next year. When you live in zone five, and you don't get any snow, the chances that plants survive the winter is drastically reduced. This mum wasn't labeled as 'Hardy' so I have to keep my fingers crossed, for even the hardy ones sometimes don't make it through our winters, especially without snow. Snow is insulating, believe it or not.

Today I joined the Arbor Day Foundation http://www.arborday.org/ . I chose the bird attracting trees for my yard which comes with a RED OAK!!!!!, grey dogwood, and other trees that make good bird habitat. I will probably order some more trees and shrubs separately from them. Of course they won't arrive until spring. Baby trees are so fun. I mean it takes a lot of patience to wait for them to grow, but I see it as a long term investment and I can wait for them to get big. I don't know why I've never checked out their website before (its very nicely done!) or why I never considered them as a source for affordable trees. But, If you can't afford the big trees like they have at my local nurseries ($$150 a tree or MORE!) then this is a good alternative. Of course, I haven't seen the health of the trees yet so I can't give you a thumbs up or down yet but you would think an organization that promotes trees would have some healthy plants to sell. :)