January 14, 2012 --- winter aconite

Please excuse the bad photo. I could do something to get rid of the shadow, but if I do that, I lose the blue of the berries. How I wish I knew more about photography! I really want the berries to appear as they are--sapphire blue--because they grabbed my attention as I walked back from the shed tonight. These ground-hugging berries appear among the linear foliage of mondo grass in winter. Blooming near them, in the garden, is winter aconite--the yellow flowers I've also dropped into this vase. They've been blooming since very early January, which isn't all that unusual for them. They are absolutely my most reliable early-blooming thing, and yes, even in the middle of winter, they do signal a turn toward spring. In the garden, they look sort of like ground-hugging buttercups (although their foliage, which I also love, looks like the tops of miniature palm trees).

The winter aconite I grow is Eranthis X Tubergenii.