January 2021, Bloomday

Real flowers though, that's what is covering the Arctostaphylos x 'Austin Griffiths'. They are small but mighty when it comes to making the flying garden visitors happy.As for the humans passing by on the sidewalk; Austin's dark bark and muscular structure makes them happy enough to pause and admire—maybe even stop to reach out and touch, and massage those limbs.
I know small white flowers will follow these scarlet buds on Leucothoe fontanesiana 'Rainbow', but I kind of prefer this stage of their development.
It's the hummingbirds that alert me to the opening of the tiny florets on the Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Nanjing Gold'. I swear they actually pry them open with their tiny beaks. Only a couple have opened all the way, but they're visited frequently.
I've given up trying to track how many months in a row the rosemary has been blooming. It's just ALWAYS in bloom, not a bad thing.
The Euphorbia rigida is such a fun plant to photograph. I never tire of it's many stages of bloom activity.
Interestingly the Tetrapanax papyrifer buds have not gone completely limp, even with a few days of below freezing weather. I hold no hope that they'll actually bloom, but it's nice to see they still have structure.
The Mahonia x media 'Charity' is almost done with the blooming for this year. It's still being visited by the hummingbirds though as they enjoy every last bit of nectar.
There are many hellebores around the garden on the verge of flowering. In the front garden here is  'Onyx Odyssey'...
Walking around to the back garden, Helleborus x ballardiae Pink Frost is the most advanced hellebore I could find.
Edgeworthia chrysantha ‘Akebono’ is always a little behind 'Nanjing Gold', but even these buds are getting fatter.
The buds on Magnolia laevifolia are still quite small, but they do catch the sun and shimmer.
As do the slightly copper-tinged undersides of the shrub's leaves.
Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae buds keep this nodding pose right up until the chartreuse bracts are ready to show themselves, usually sometime next month.
Fatsia japonica 'Murakumo Nishiki' has mostly crossed over to the fruiting side of things, as the blooms have all been worked over.
Ditto for this Schefflera delavayi, I must admit I was surprised to find fruit, I hadn't even noticed this one was blooming.
Mahonia x media 'Marvel'
Close-up of the blooms and small banana-ish fruit.
The tiny berries on Mahonia eurybracteata 'Soft Caress' are definitely being enjoyed by some creature—they're disappearing.
Stachyurus salicifolius inching closer to the big show, when those tiny buds open to reveal soft-yellow flowers.
And finally, from the basement garden, Aechmea recurvata 'Artichoke' is sending out some brightly colored blooms.
As always Garden Blogger's Bloomday is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens, thanks Carol for the continued inspiration to track the state of the blooms. I suppose this is also where I should confess I am posting a day early, Bloomday is the 15th...so wait until tomorrow to click on that link above and see what blooms others are sharing!