December 2023 Backyard Garden Tour | Cooler Weather | Zone 9b Texas Gulf Coast

There are still butterflies flying and a hummingbird visits our yard every single day. There aren’t a lot of blooms, but we still have lantana, cuphea, salvia, Mexican flame vine, and porterweed to name a few. I also planted a few annuals in containers and hanging baskets this month. Down here along the Gulf Coast Snapdragons, phlox, violas, and lobularia do well in the winter months.

Hello everyone and Welcome to our backyard it’s December 29th and I can’t believe it’s already time to do the December Garden Tour one I have to admit I can’t believe I’m doing a December Garden Tour because the garden is looking tough because it’s winter but down here along the Gulf

Coast there’s still a lot that can go on we haven’t Frozen yet um last night it got really cold and tonight it supposed to get close to freezing so I guess we’ll see what I like to do is I like to pan the backyard in the same place every

Time so I can see what the different seasons look like and then I start in a different area typically each time I don’t have lots to show um this time but I do want to include a few things the first thing I want to include

Is the aelia that I have potted I’ve had this aelia oh golly 3 to 5 years now and this is the most it’s ever bloomed it’s now towards the end of its Bloom but it’s just been covered with these gorgeous pink blooms for close to two months yeah I’ve never seen it Bloom

Like this and right next to it I have my aloe vera plant and that has just flourished in the type of weather that we’ve had so that’s been kind of neat to see I did do a video my last video was recently about the containers that I

Planted so I planted um some new containers and I have a Christmas cactus and I will link that video up top if you haven’t seen that one yet I am taking this video in the afternoon the morning it’s just too cold out um and I do have a lot of Gul frary

Caterpillars on my passion Vines they’re all different sizes and they’re just covered they’re just covering the passion Vines which I absolutely love Gulf rillary caterpillars have different colors depending on what stage their caterpillars in and because I have so many caterpillars I really hope we don’t freeze tonight oops can we focus on

That otherwise they won’t have anything to eat so I have been looking through the passion findes and they are all over and they’re all over in size too I’ve got little ones and big ones oops we get him here is he not going to focus probably

Not and in one area you know you can have quite a few um and it’s so wild to see all the different sizes from Big to little and the gulf frary butterflies that have been flying around um they’re a lot of fun they’re orange and they’re delicate they’re a really pretty

Butterfly you can see I have caterpillars all over my passion vine which I love so some some things some of my flowers that have been flowering are my Amante Salvia and my hummingbird that’s still coming loves to visit this Salvia every morning um just it’s been it it’s been producing pretty nicely

Here I do see the butterflies land on um Lantana I do have some Lantana that’s still flowering and I do have some Amistad Salvia that’s flowering not a lot of Gregs missed flower but there is some which they will land on here’s some more of the Lantana and the butterflies really appreciate the

Lantana I’m pretty surprised that I still have some of these Tonia or Mexican sunflowers still flowering and we’re just letting them get to it because no reason to take them down when they’re still flowering like this and in my 4×4 bed which is by um my South fence I’ve got ageratum and

I’m really surprised it’s completely in the shade right now because it’s in the winter time and it is flowering I’m just I’m just so surprised I have kfia or cigar plant that’s still flowering there isn’t a lot of fire bush that is flowering but I still have some blooms there isn’t

Many but there’s still a couple and then let’s see if I can get the cape honeysuckle there I don’t think that was very well in Focus but that’s also appreciated at this time of year when there’s not a lot of flowers the tropical hibiscus has been regularly flowering which I’ve really appreciated

Flowers a little bit more vibrant colors the yellow is flowering orange the pink kind of a hot magenta and the red is typically still flowering it’s red and my potted Mexican flame Vine has been flowering this fall I should say this winter cuz it really didn’t do much in the fall it’s

Been flowering the last month pretty nicely see if I can come in here ah there we there we go and the butterflies have been all over this Mexican flame Vine I expected it to flower like this in the fall and it didn’t but now here here it’s winter and it

Is not flowering like the springtime like it did in the spring and you’ll notice I have a lot of the leaves that are turning this beautiful burgundy color so if any of you know this is the first year that I’ve grown Mexican flame Vine so I do have it

Trist on let me come back here I do have it on a wooden trist and if any of you know what I should do about pruning this it’d be greatly appreciated so this is my shade bed and the remnants if you will and my hum hummingbird every single day visits these yellow

Gorgeous svia which is called Salvia madrensis I’m going to come around the other side I’m in the back of the bed looking out and it’s a female ruby throated hummingbird and I had her last year too and she visits this every day she is back in Here do I do have a lot of Bloom spikes so that’s great and I hope they survive tonight because it’s just blooming beautifully and I I have a lot so she has been loving this Salia back in here and I still have can you believe it I still have colus that’s flowering I

Absolutely love this it’s December 29th incredible so when I come out and do my just coming out and inspecting and looking at everything much to my surprise I’m very surprised when I find Monarch chrysalises and here let me come on the other side so here I have a monarch crysalis

Oh here we go that is on a c a bush insane and these little pods are from my from the Senna Bush and so I was looking at them and surprised to see that monarch chrysalis but you know every little Bloom helps at this time of year for the

Wildlife and the pollinators that are out and even though it’s not warm it’s sunny and so the pollinators are out sunning themselves and I do have a porter weed that still blooms all my porter weed is still blooming even though it has just little portions that are blooming um and the

Butterflies bees and hummingbirds visit Porter weed all throughout the day still December 29th and in this North bed here I thought the blue butter fly clear odendron would be finished blooming and it’s not it’s such a delicate pretty flower and I’ve got quite a few more buds coming love

It so it looks like I will have a few more blooms got some there still putting energy into blooming there’s not a lot to show at the end of December here but I don’t expect to show a lot I do like to do these garden tours so I know and remember what my

Garden looks like and what I have blooming for the pollinators that are still flying so more than anything it’s really for me so thank you for joining me this December I hope you had a wonderful Christmas holiday season and I hope you have a wonderful New Year’s also so thank you for joining

Me and I hope to see you again soon