It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.

~John Burroughs

It has finally turned cold, the true feeling of winter is now in the air. Walking in to to my office yesterday morning I could see the early hour handiwork of an special artist whose work is only available certain months of the year. Everything within a few feet of the ground was delicately sculpted with miniature pillars of ice – a heavy frost covered the plants and ground, painting the world with a crystalline white palette. I couldn’t resist and grabbed my camera for a walk-about to see the frosty splendor. Below are some of my favorites from a stroll through a temporary world of frozen masterpieces.

A native blueberry shrub with one frozen leaf (click photos to enlarge)

Southern maidenhair fern

The last delicate phlox flowers of the season

The tiny leaves of what I think is a creeping blueberry

The last leaf on an American lotus droops over towards the water

Grass seeds

There are so many interesting seed heads now and they were all covered by ice crystals, adding another layer of beauty to these minute botanical sculptures.

The frosty detail of a single stem of horse tail is simple, yet elegant.

Horse tail (scouring rush)

My favorite icy hosts were the pitcher plants. Their unusual shapes and colors seem an unlikely companion to a coating of ice crystals, but they manage to pull it off.

Large crystals formed on the top of pitcher plants that have “lids”

The hooded pitcher plants developed a “spinal column” of tiny frost crystals

The ice enhances the details on this hybrid pitcher plant

The hooded pitcher plants have such artistic forms

A shape that could make a sculptor envious

If plants huddle for warmth, this was a day to do it

But the most unusual ice feature of the morning is one I had never seen before…I will share that mystery with you in the next post.