A tradition that Brother Tim and I have honored through the years is to take an inventory of what’s blooming on the fall/winter holidays. So, for Thanksgiving, the below blooms are some bright spots that I’m thankful for.
The yellow snapdragon in the pot just outside the front door is still blooming a bit in the wet, cool weather. It hasn’t been cold yet and nowhere near frosting. I went quite a few years having neglected Antirrhinums as garden flowers, but they are workhorses and they bring an optimism that few of the borderline hardy perennials possess.
Not a great photo (it was pouring rain all day, so I was worried about getting the camera wet), but this is the seed-grown hardy geranium that I started last winter. It is still trying hard to bloom after about five months of putting out flowers.
The arboretum rose on the Jeff Tangen arbor is still blooming. I couldn’t smell it through all the rain, but my memories of the fragrance are still strong from its summer-long blooms.
I think the rain was affecting my photographic abilities. Here is a late dahlia. The flowers of dahlias change colors with the weather–they get mellower and more pastel as the weather cools.
A better photo of the same dahlia flower.
I think these are the annual form of dianthus, but they are sticking around through the cold and wet.
Brother Tim and I both like the single-flowered Matricaria cultivars best. These stalwarts are throwing a few blooms here and there.
Probably the biggest surprise in the garden is the wonderberry blooms. These plants don’t seem to have any clue that winter is just a month away.
The strawberries are all breathing a sigh of relief for the cool/wet weather.
Fuchsia “Machu Picchu” blooming in the greenhouse. This has been a favorite of mine for nearly thirty years. The original plant came from Brother Tim many years ago.
A few Streptocarpus flowers are poking up in the greenhouse. The plants look ratty, but the color of the flowers is a welcomed contrast to the green, yellows and browns as winter approaches.
Mom’s Cymbidium blooming big in the greenhouse. There are three or four more orchids with spikes in various states of expansion.
This Euphorbia from Brother Tim keeps expanding and blooming in the greenhouse as it goes.
Fantastic flowering maple (Abutilon megapotamicum) from Brother Tim. I pruned the mother plant last year and stuck all the trimmings into a pot and they rooted…so now I have two pots of these great plants!
Another picture of this festive flower.
Persicaria capitata has a few blooms in the greenhouse. I want to try this plant as a hanging basket, as the leaves and growth pattern would be perfect for that.
Another rotten photo, but this is documentation of the blooms of a scented pelargonium.
Plectranthus blooming in the greenhouse. The flowers are intricate, white with maroon mottling on the lips.
A holiday cactus blooming in the greenhouse. This bloom isn’t quite open–I should be able to get a better photo in the next few days.
Another Machu Picchu pic–you can see some Botrytis on a leaf. I noticed a lot of it around the greenhouse today, so will go in this weekend and do some clean-up and get another fan going for air circulation.
A cheery Verbascum in the orchard garden.
Not flowers, but worth noting: Prime Ark blackberries trying very hard to ripen before frost. I don’t think they’ll make it, but their effort is impressive!