We’ve finally had some “killing” frosts, but it’s amazing how many of our rose bushes still have all their leaves and some pretty buds.

Since it’s time to “put the garden to bed,” we’re prepping the garden for winter. Especially important is the pruning of our trees, specifically the one through which our power lines go. We finally were able to get a professional arborist company to schedule a date. All arborists seem to be still working on the damage done last spring and throughout the summer.

Yesterday we hung out our wild birdseed feeder for our winter visitors. It will be nice to see, and photograph, our feathered friends as they return to the feeder, just outside one of our kitchen windows. Of course, squirrels and other rascals will also return, but the most recent feeder we bought keeps them at a safe distance via a wire mesh “cage.”

Today we finished decorating the front-stairs stoop planter. Gone are the begonias, impatiens and petunias—now replaced by cuttings from our evergreens, rhododendrons and hollies.

We may buy one or two colorful poinsettias for our TV-room/kitchen area for some seasonal indoor plant color. Our favorites are the red/pink flowered ones. Actually, we are told that they are not really flowers, but colorful leaves/bracts. The Aztecs used poinsettia bracts to make a red dye for cloth.

According to The National Garden Bureau, the most common problem when it comes to poinsettia care is over watering. We’ll make sure that there are drainage holes in the plant pot and that it is placed in a decorative container that has a bottom layer of gravel.

The poinsettia initially came to the United States in the 1820s via Joel Poinsett, an American botanist and the first U.S. Minister to Mexico. They didn’t become traditional holiday decorations until the entrepreneurial Ecke family started promoting them a century later.

Joel Poinsett died on December 12, 1851. In 2002 The House of Representatives created “National Poinsettia Day” in his honor.

We’ll be sure to open some sparkling bubbly to celebrate! After all, ‘Tis the Season!