I Enjoy Year 'Round Blooms

Carol, of May Dreams Gardens, hosts Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day the 15th of each month.  She has quoted Elizabeth Lawrence, who said, "We can have flowers nearly every month of the year."  Well, I may not have any outdoor blooms right now, but I do have some flowers from summer that I can enjoy, because I dried them.  I also have a few indoor blooms, and lots of flowers on items around the house.

I didn't keep up with harvesting the lavender this year, but did get some hung.

Here's a wider view of where the lavender is hung, along with some yarrow.  I love the ad from I think, the 1940s.  I have had fun finding the towels from the ad to display.  The words on top say, "Even a man can do a good job with Martex Dry me Dry."  The ad also states the towels are from 25 to 50 cents each.  I paid more than that for them.  Here's a link to other posts I've done on some of my collections.
 

Here is another way I enjoy flowers year around.  I like to change these out from time to time.

In the past, I've posted a number of the blooms I have on the walls.  Some, just lean.

 I almost took a different photo of this, but decided to be willing to show I sometimes have some clutter. I think these hydrangeas are from 2010, because I don't think I got any dried this year.

 Here are some blooms from this year.

I didn't dry as many straw flowers this year, because I liked how they looked outside.  Still, I am glad I got some.

Another source of winter blooms are the lovely books on gardening, of which a tiny part of my collection is shown here.

 This begonia did not bloom this summer.  I'm glad it is now.  It's a nice touch of color in what is now the grandsons' toy room.

I have 3 holiday cactus plants that are about finished blooming.  Still, they are nice and colorful.

The other two are in the garden window in our dining room that we put in what used to be a bedroom.  It looks like I need to do some cleaning in here.

I have had 'Naomi' the longest, and can remember the name, maybe because it is the name of a person.

It's January, and I'm always happy when the days are getting longer.  I hope the rest of winter goes by quickly.  In a couple months there may even be some outdoor blooms.  In the meantime, the seedheads are fun to look at, and seeds are available for the birds to eat.  Already, some of you in warmer zones are getting some hellebore blooms, so the countdown to spring is under way!

'Black Jack' sedum:

Ironweed:

I love the look of the empty pods of the hibiscus with the blue sky in the background.

Joe Pye Weed:

Wild Quinine:

The strawflowers I didn't get dried, in the shadow of my legs:

I hope this finds you well.  There are lots of colds and such going on around here.