Monday was a delight. It was bright and sunny and felt more like the beginning of spring than the middle of fall. I was drawn outside onto the balcony. Drawn to the garden I’d given over to hibernation.

While brown had replaced the once-green foliage in most of my planters, and naked dry stems stood where there previously was a profusion of blossoms, I was pleased to discover that there were a few flowers mixed among the ruins.

The petunia baby duck was still covered with its small, pale yellow blossoms; the lobelia is flourishing prolifically; and, the Nigella — which didn’t start flowering until late summer — was still cutting an impressive true-blue silhouette against the skyline.

Also, my nasturtium has begun to reveal lovely multi-colored blossoms of yellow and orange that I don’t remember seeing during the summer, and my cat’s flat of grass was greener than ever. (He was overjoyed to become reacquainted with it.)

All the precipitation that’s come with the frigid weather has kept the soil in the planters moist without the necessity of watering — cold comfort when most of the flowers can’t survive the low temperatures. (Don’t you just love irony?)

Seeing the survivors got me so stoked that today I beat a path to the local home and garden outlet and picked up a few inexpensive flowers that are a bit more cold tolerant and have decided that I’m going to put together a small-scale display that will take me through the Thanksgiving entertaining season.

So stay tuned, I’ll post an update later in the week after I put in the new additions.

In the meantime, tell me which cold-withstanding plants are still thriving in your garden if you, too, live in the frostier climes.

For those of you who live in hot spots, tell us which plants do best in the worst of the heat.

[The top photo shows my Nigella standing tall against the backdrop of lobelia and petunia baby duck and the second photo shows the nasturtium.]