December 2023 Front Garden Tour!! #NorthTexas #zone8b

Join me for my December Front Garden Tour!! We have had a rather warm fall here in North Texas Zone 8b (formerly zone 8a), with the exception of a few freezes and many nights in the low 40’s! The garden is looking pretty great as a result. Some plants are still going strong, while others have gone to sleep. I also have some beautiful Christmas lights and decor in the front yard, so stick around to the end to so the Christmas magic!

Hello everyone welcome to grow roots this is Shannon and welcome to my December 2023 front garden tour I am starting from a different location today because I have things in my way uh so you’ll have to excuse me a little bit I’ll have to S step a little

Cuz there’s this very large Christmas tree decoration that we have going on we have our nativity scene and um my husband is huge on decorating for Christmas and I you you’re just seeing the back side of it because right now this is the front garden tour but if you

Stick around to the end I will show you all of our Christmas decorations and then also I have a um a full video for you at night of what our Christmas decorations look like and so I will link that in the description below or in the

In the top as well uh if you want to see our Christmas decorations but I know a lot of you really are just in it for the garden tours and so that’s why I’m starting right here where I can um I think the garden is looking actually really really good for this

Time of December today is okay it’s what December 16th today um and for mid to late December um the perennials are looking pretty good the hydranges are looking amazing some things have gone to sleep and I will show you um so yeah here we

Go so I am going to start right here at my three tier planner this time um because this is where I have access I just wanted to point out there is a red Spotlight back there that’s part of our Christmas decoration so uh if you’re wondering what that red light is it’s

Our Christmas decor but um going down here I had penalized mums planted here earlier this season feel free to watch my earlier garden tours March April May they were awesome uh but I took them out uh long story short but I explained in my other videos so feel free to watch those about

Why I took my penalized mums out but in in its place I put variegated laiia and I’m pretty excited about that the Lop does really really well here in North Texas it’s uh it withstands the heat it withstands drought pretty well I think um and it blooms purple flowers so

It’s absolutely beautiful and I’m excited to see that just kind of all around the three- tier planter um down here somewhat as a placeholder just for color right now I planted purle heart cuttings here earlier this season and they are doing pretty good I’m I’m noticing now that I get

Closer I’m noticing that they’re starting to Peter out we’ve had a few freezes we’ve had some cold temperatures um so you know they’re expected to do that they are perennial here in North Texas however in the winter they die back and then they’ll come back in the

Spring but right now it’s a beautiful pop of color especially with these uh variegated laia PE um little wispy leaves I just love it there’s also a little trade to scan as Arina down there it was it’s my house plant cuting that I put in there this

Season just to kind of fill the space and they’re still going strong but again they will die back they are an annual if they are left outside here in North Texas on this second tier here I am loving how this is turning out I um this is a perennial dianthus called pinks

Mountain Frost pink twinkle um it’s got a little flower for me but I love the silver gray foliage here and um I probably will transmet that in the spring because I need to revamp these I need to get new coconut fiber uh liners and revamp the soil because annuals were

In there and all so this is in a permanent spot just for the winter as a placeholder I got these on clearance and so I popped them there because there was space I also have some pansies uh right there I have uh just some they’re labeled as annual dianthus right there

That I just picked up uh maybe from Walmart you know just in the four PX I picked some up just for some color and I’ve also added some pine cones I think they look so cute especially for the winter time um these were from a pine

Tree I think it’s a LW Lolli pine tree if I’m not mistaken in our neighborhood and I take walks past it frequently and it’s giving us these amazing pine cones right now so I picked up quite a bunch um to fill in for my containers and I

Know the owners um they’re just fine with it so yeah some pine cones and then up on top is not looking as great but uh this was my balloon flower that has now gone to sleep for the season uh but I also have some pansies they just were covered up by the

Balloon flower for quite some sometimes so they’re just now getting exposed to the Sun and so they’re just now kind of growing and kicking it into full gear so here’s a bud that we’ve got coming here but I’ve got some more pine cones as well and I’ve got the Jasmine Vine uh which

Looks so cool with that wreath hang at the very top of that Tris I think it just looks so awesome but it is supposed to be Evergreen here in North Texas um it’s hasn’t been the case for me in the last three seasons we always tend to get

Like um down to about five or zero at some point although we’re not supposed to here in zone what is now Zone 8 B but I’m the last two out of four years we’ve gone down to zero or negative 1 so this um this Vine will not stay Evergreen in

Those conditions it will die back all the way down to the roots which it did for me last year too so but anyway it looks beautiful there I still have this amazing Lantana it is starting to go bye-bye it is labeled as an annual it is pink bandanna Lantana

This is one plant in a fairly small pot might I add it’s quadruple the size of the pot probably and I really wanted to transplant it somewhere I just didn’t get around to it and figured while it’s still going strong for the most part I’ve still got lots of blooms down down

Here where it’s been a little bit more protected from the few freezes that we have had um and the top is dying back but I’m just going to leave it if it comes back for me it comes back if it doesn’t it doesn’t it’s marginal here in North Texas although they’re labeled as

Annuals um they’re supposed to survive in zones 9 through 11 I believe where Zone 8 B so you know who knows could be I have my limelight hydrangea standard which is I got the bloom I cut the blooms off of it because they were pretty much falling off um the lantana

Is kind of popping into it but it’s starting to go uh to sleep I’ve still got vinka that’s kind of going strong it’s a little bit protected in this area so it’s it’s done better than the other vinka that I have down here I have the sunshine lustrum which is

Also this is an evergreen shrub it’s unbelievable I love love love it but I did trim it back fairly close to the end of fall and so the tops are just a little bit what do you call them singed maybe burned by the that Frost I don’t know but it still looks

Unbelievable it’s awesome especially for fall color it still gives us this yellow so I love it I have a couple pots down here I had a shopping trip where I got tons of plants on clearance and so I have some in pots here um this is I believe Lemon Ball

Sedum I have this is just an annual dianthus from Walmart again that’s a pansy look at that that is just your normal pansies that I picked up from Walmart um and the same thing here this is a pansy and that’s a dianthus and then this is Lemon Ball Sedum which is a

Perennial for us so I used to have may night salv all here and I I decided to get rid of them they were so they were a lot shorter the foliage there you go um than what needs to be in front of this large shrub I need a more mediumsized plant to

Go there so I knew I was going to pull them forward and Transplant them here but not all of them made it unfortunately this one’s fine it’s it’s doing fine I have a bunch of them here so there’s three of them right here I I

Wanted it to be that way I wanted a bunch here on the border and then I transplanted 1 2 3 you can see that one didn’t make it this one’s borderline this one did not make it and then I let’s see I know I’ve transplanted one there

But it died back really fast so that’s four that four or five and then there’s two right there that uh that’s borderline anyway because it’s a part-shade environment right there so those two actually did okay these that I did here did not make it and then this one didn’t make it so I

Don’t know that’s really interesting because it’s in the more shady locations I don’t know those in the shade made it these I don’t know we’ll just have to we’ll have to play it by ear but I I do kind of want them to be more clumped together as opposed to in a

Straight line anyway I think that plant does better that way so yeah it’ll be it’ll still be pretty even though not all of them made it but in its place I have here a perennial Salia called hot trumpet it even has is this a Ploom Spike for

Me I do believe so we’ve had a warm fall so it’s actually getting ready to bloom for me look at that yes it sure is that is so cool anyway I love the lime green foliage on this with the bright red um I think it’s going to be beautiful and

Then I also have another another perennial Salvia Salvia gregy it’s going to get massive my neighbor had one many other people have them in the neighborhood and they get massive but these beautiful pink flowers it’s still going strong for me these salvia are just rock stars here in Texas um here I

Have a perennial dianthus that I grew from seed last spring it’s never flowered for me it’s um it’s the the by anual type and apparently I didn’t realize this it doesn’t Bloom its first year but it’s been almost a year I am waiting for these to bloom in the winter

They typically do so please Bloom for me but it’s it’s beautiful there I do like the just the Fage alone I have a day ly here that is a beautiful um it is a coral color and it’s I divided my one da that was located over there I divided it

And so this is its uh it’s baby or it’s Division and it’s doing fine and again the May night Salvia there I picked up another day on clearance and for the life of me I cannot remember its name and this tag got this tag got broken hemalis I don’t

Know the common name but it is a red dayy with a yellow throat I think it will be beautiful so yeah I do have a video of all of these clearance plants um so if you’re interested in what the name of that is I’ll pop that video up on the

Screen and you can click on that and watch it and then here’s another Salvia gregy and then here’s another hot trumpet Salvia as well and and again it’s getting ready to bloom that’s so cool okay so I’m going to try to get out and I’m going to try to show you my

Pansies and Dusty Miller okay so I picked up these pansies and Dusty Miller um in mid October at Green Acres and they were itty bitty itty bitty plants and wow look at this these Dusty Miller are huge and they’re doing fantastic and gosh these are Matrix pansies I don’t recall the

Exact variety I have a tag in here somewhere but Matrix pansies are what these are and they’re stunning I love pansies I don’t know about y’all but I just absolutely love them and I think they’re amazing color when everything else is going to sleep these guys are

Waking up and I love to add them um in the border and honestly most of the time my pansies make it until I take them out because I I’m I’m wanting to put in my summer annuals I mean they’re still looking good through what maybe late

April early May we’ll see but um yeah they I mean pansies just do really really well here in North Texas at least for me and um I just think they’re they’re huge I mean here’s my hand and look how big this plume is I mean it’s just they’re stunning uh you can see

That they do better here which is more full sun than they do over here which is shaded just a bit from this Christmas tree decoration and then also the Vitex tree which has now gone to sleep okay so I’ve just kind of crossed over onto this side here but yeah you

Can see the panies are just a little bit smaller over here they’re getting less sun and the dusty miller is the same as well um I have another uh coral color day lily right there um again there’s May night Salvia that I transplanted there and there and then there’s good

Old Lambo my garden sheep let me see if I can get around this tree okay here we go um yeah so we’ve got a lot of leaves the Vitex has lost of its leaves and so you can barely see I got to get in here and

Clean this up just a little bit but this is my burgundy glow auga I have another type of ground cover that is variegated vinka major I’m really excited both of these will Bloom purple in the springtime hopefully um more burgundy glow auga over there and more variagated vinka down

There looking back behind the Vitex tree is My Endless Summer hyrin jar wow look at that look at that glow I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it look like this so there was something about the temperatures this year that made the Fall Foliage in north Texas just unbelievable and My Endless Summer

Hydranges were absolutely part of that look at these the Deep maroon color that the the bloom heads formed and then just this burgundy foliage it’s just stunning I can’t even believe it it has done this before but not to this extent now this is some kind

Of insect damage for sure that I’m just noticing I have no idea what this is the only part of the plant that’s affected everything else like looks fine I have no idea but I mean that’s okay it’s absolutely beautiful andless Summer Hydrangeas a lot of people think that we cannot grow them

Here in North Texas but we absolutely can if you plant them in the right spot this one loves being shaded by the Vitex tree it’s covered by most of the summer and um now in the winter it’s actually getting quite a bit of sun but it’s doing great as long as the temperatures

Are cooler it is fine with a little bit of sun but um not in our In the Heat of our summers y’all have to you have to plant them in the shade they can only get a little bit of Morning Sun with our heat um in the summer

So just showing you a little bit of the Vitex tree and the winter interest that it produces with uh the dead blooms I just really kind of like it it’s done for the season it’s dropped all of its leaves um but it still just looks pretty cool

Right there it is um the Sun is setting I am losing my light but uh anyway I’ll try and hurry this up but oh look at that look at that hydrangea oh my goodness okay okay moving on to my porch there is a green tint on everything because we do

Have it’s part of our Christmas decor our green lights are shining and I am losing light but I just wanted to show you the Endless Summer hydren that I have on my porch I call it Big Daddy it’s 11 years old um just absolutely spectacular oh we got a Mr

Spider they do like to hang out right here because this is where a lot of the bugs go but it’s just wow stunning you can tell I just love hydranges y’all okay so here I have a different type of hydrangea this is a variegated lace cap hydrangea I believe

Had a rough time this is its first season with me and it it this the heat of this summer The the Sun comes in from over here so it gets the brunt of the Sun in the morning and it just had a really hard time with it and it

Defoliated almost completely here’s some of the leaves that are left over that didn’t defoliate but after it defoliated it reiated in the sense that it grew brand new leaves and I did not see a single Bloom from this hydrangea this season I was kind of bummed about that

But for the foliage alone it is a spectacular plant and I love that it it had such a hard time and it defoliated but it came right back for me I mean what more can you ask from a plant it’s just absolutely gorgeous and then these

Are all white can you believe it all white it’s just I just love this plant um and I I had colus in this pot along with some um cascading English ivy and obviously the colus is done for the season for sure but this cascading Ivy I

Learned is perennial in our area so I built a little trellis out of bamboo sticks leftover bamboo sticks I mean they’re old and I created just this little trus that the English ivy can climb up and then I have the same thing going on over here except um I call myself really Frugal

Okay I didn’t have the money for another chalice I didn’t have any more bamboo sticks but I did have this plant stand and I thought wow that that actually would look pretty with English ivy climbing up it right so I uh I put my plant stand in here and I like it

Honestly it’s it’s quirky it’s a little Whimsical it’s a little bit beautiful in my opinion and um and I’m going to be able to like put a stand on this and and more plants I think um I did also put some dianthus down there that I picked

Up again from Walmart just the annual dianthus um and there’s some more pine cones down there but I just really love the way that that container turned out I think that really kind of does it um I always kind of skip over cuz I’ve wanted these are my boxwoods they’re

Doing great they were brand new this season they were little itty bitty itty bitty babies and they’ve grown quite a bit last year I planted alums in between each boxwood and zero of them came up this year zero so yeah I don’t I I want to put some ground cover I

Think that’s what I’m going to do maybe some auga um I don’t know if you guys have ideas of what to put in between these boxwood please let me know I do think it’s it’s lacking a little bit but I do I do love them and um here we go the sun has

Pretty much set for those of you who want to stick around I will show you really quickly um my Christmas decor I’ll start over here my husband loves this Merry Christmas y’all we kind of uh rehabbed it it was kind of broken when we bought it secondhand and my husband fixed

It and we have our little Rudolph snowman Abominable Snowman Frosty everybody loves Mr brain freeze I got a llama that I actually won one year in a gingerbread house contest thing we have our trees that we picked up on clearance last year and we have our big snowman head

Here in the front here these were my containers that had some annual plants and uh now they have ornaments in them with a bow which I think is really super cute and there’s the other one over here is something I’m really super proud of uh by um a gingerbread

House I made this gingerbread house from a little ties Cape Cottage Playhouse and I pretty much did it all my own I am thinking about doing a separate video on exactly how I did it and what materials I used and links to all of those things

But it is super cute the little the kids in the neighborhood absolutely love it I do let them go in and they can play and pop their little heads out the windows and it’s that’s absolutely what it’s for that’s why we don’t have lights on this

Part of the grass there’s a whole little pathway for them so they can come in and play inside the gingerbread house I just love it um there’s our ralie oh we have our little gingerbread street sign as well we’ve got Santa and his reindeer at the North Pole and the absolute reason for

Christmas we could not do our Christmas display without our Nativity my husband works really hard every year on this to make sure that it’s absolutely perfect and up um we have that Star of Bethlehem above it we just this is the reason we celebrate Christmas y’all we have our Merry Christmas sign with

E.l. and Santa and and this tree that my husband built all by himself and there’s our house so yeah thank you all so much um for joining me on this December 2023 front garden tour I absolutely appreciate each and every one of you for watching I hope that you’ll subscribe to

My channel as I do promise to do monthly garden tours of both my front and backyard and other videos along Ong the way I hope you all have a fabulous day bye-bye