November GBBD: End of the Season?

Every Midwesterner knows that November can be an unpredictable month. Often gloomy with gray, wet days that never end, this is one month I've often wished could be wiped off the calendar. Last year, however, was an exception. I remember planting bulbs, warmed enough by the sun that there was no need for a jacket, all the way till Thanksgiving. This year November has been a welcome surprise and relief after an unusually wet and dreary October. Although we have had frosty mornings, the sun usually brings the temperature up to a comfortable warmth. For example, yesterday I sat through yet another disappointing Illinois football game wearing only a sweatshirt and jeans.



The cold of October has brought the garden nearly to an end. Yet there are a few things still to enjoy for this November Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day:





There are the usual suspects for this late in the season, like the fall pansies sitting on the steps.

Or the potted mum carelessly planted in a container to replace the dying zinnias and heliotrope.

Or the lavender mum in the shade garden partially obscured by the dried feathery plumes of the heuchera.

More typical scenes in my garden, though, are like this one. Some of the Victoria Blue salvias are still showing some signs of their vibrant purple of early autumn, but most are fading to a silvery hue for the winter.

The hydrangeas are wilting and turning brown, but "Let's Dance in the Moonlight" is determined to give one last colorful hurrah before ending its season. I know you're probably tired of me showing yet another photo of this plant, but this fall I have been enthralled by the hydrangeas that have been almost as colorful in their final days as they were in their summer prime.

Looking for something--anything at all--still blooming in the shade garden one morning, I was sad to see that the Brunnera "Jack Frost" had finally succumbed to the frost. Or so I thought . . .

The next day, after a few hours of warm sunlight, I was surprised to see a full recovery! "Jack" is typical of what it is still blooming in my garden--what I call the "hangers-on."

Still hanging in there, protected on my back porch, is the Desert Rose begonia. This is one of the few plants that will be taken in the house for the winter--I've never had a begonia do so well for me as this one.

Another hanger-on is the "Homestead" verbena. It seems to actually enjoy the cooler weather, but here in zone 5 it is an annual so its time is limited.

The lamium, specific name now forgotten, is another plant unfazed by cool temperatures and is still setting blooms. If covered with leaves, it wil usually stay green all winter.

A few stray petunia blooms are also hanging in there, along with the helichrysum. Someone asked me about this plant on a previous post. It often goes by other names, such as licorice plant or mouse ears, and it is one of my favorite accent plants in containers.

Another tough plant is the sweet alyssum. I think all of these re-seeded from last year. They were getting rather leggy this summer so I gave them a "haircut," which gave them a new burst of energy for this fall.

There are a few surprises for this time of year, though. This is the first year I have planted lemon verbena, purchased early in the season from the local Herb Society's plant sale, and I don't think I've ever featured it here before. According to information on the Missouri Botanical Garden website, lemon verbena, Aloysia triphylla, reaches a height of 2-4 feet. Not to brag, but my plant is at least 5 feet tall! (Wish I'd moved that trampoline out of the background, though.)

However, the website also mentions that it has showy white flowers from June to September, but mine never bloomed. I'm not too disappointed, though, because this plant has done so well otherwise and provided much more than blooms. Every time I was in the Butterfly Garden I couldn't resist pulling off a leaf or two and taking in its heady lemony scent. While it can be used in making teas or desserts, I have only dried the leaves in hopes of making some potpourri. Unfortunately, while lemon verbena is a perennial in zones 8-10, it won't survive in my zone 5 garden. But I am going to attempt to root a cutting, and if that fails, I'll be back at the plant sale in the spring for a replacement.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the new lush greenery and pink blooms of the Achillea, or yarrow. This is a tough plant that is one of the first to bloom in the spring and one of the last in the fall.

But I was surprised to see these little violas blooming in the pot of now-spent dianthus. Did I plant these in here last spring and they've come to life again? Or did I throw out the dead spring blooms in this catch-all pot? Sometimes there are advantages to being forgetful.

Yes, the season is winding down, and for the next few months, I'll have to use some ingenuity to come up with a Bloom Day post at all. I'll enjoy the garden for as long as it lasts, admiring the seedheads of the daisy "Becky" and discovering right next to these dried up blooms . . .

A brand new "Becky" bloom!

You may have noticed a common theme throughout this post--throughout my flowerbeds are leaves, leaves, and more leaves.

Sometimes, though, it pays to pull back a few of those leaves to discover a final surprise underneath--a few primroses are blooming again! This can only mean one thing--only a few more months until spring!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is the brainchild of the always entertaining and energetic Carol of May Dreams Gardens. For more Bloom Day posts from around the world, be sure to visit her.

GBBD July: It's all about the Coneflowers...

Today is that special day of the month, Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, and I am so glad! It seems for the past few weeks I have been focusing on other people's gardens that I haven't shown much of what is blooming in my own garden. So put on your walking shoes, and let's wander around to see what is brightening up my little corner of the prairie.



Everywhere you look these days, the purple coneflowers are in bloom, and my garden is no exception. They have been multiplying like crazy, threatening to take over one corner of the main garden next to the house. Next year I will have to get an earlier start on digging up and transplanting the seedlings, but I don't really mind--they are my favorite plant, and I can never have too many coneflowers.

The same is true of the roadside garden, where they are obscuring some lovely daylilies. Coneflowers are native plants and attract bees, butterflies, and other winged creatures . . . but I've mentioned this all before; if you want to know more about coneflowers, you can read my post from last year's July Bloom Day, where I focused on coneflowers more than any other plant. They also make great photo opportunities since the center makes a nice landing spot for bees and butterflies. Sadly, I haven't seen many butterflies this year, but I've taken dozens of photos of the bees on the coneflowers, including one on yesterday's post.

One plant that also has attracted bees, as I expected it would, is the bee balm, name unknown, but it is a dwarf variety. This plant's blooms have faded, but since it began blooming the day after the June Bloom Day, I thought it deserved a shot on this Bloom Day post.

Another plant that has been blooming for quite a while is the hollyhock. They began blooming about the same time the Japanese beetles arrived, so many of the leaves now look like green lace.

All my hollyhocks are the old-fashioned variety, originally planted by my husband's grandfather or from my grandmother, transplanted from my mother's garden. I don't know why I bothered to collect seeds last year, when they self-seed so easily. This hollyhock plant is the tallest and fullest of all . . . and it's growing out of my compost heap! (Shhh, don't tell anyone what a lazy composter I am.)

Last month the only daylilies I had to share were my Stella d'Oros. Thankfully, I have a few others that are now blooming, but not nearly as many as I would like--I've been envying all the beautiful daylilies I've seen on other blogs, and I intend to plant more, just as soon as I can figure out where! Above is a new one I purchased last year, and the tag is around here somewhere . . . this is another good reason to add labels to your blog posts, because I also can't find the post from last year when I planted it.

Other lilies here have no names; this one was an "accident", I think, in the midst of a planting of Stellas.

Another unknown variety, this deep rusty-red was a passlong from my aunt.

As were these. I find it hard to get the true color of reds and deep pinks to show up in my photos; dark coral is the best way to describe their true shade. Although I transplanted several of these, the rest of the lilies are planted behind the roadside coneflowers, something that needs to be remedied next year, because they really deserve to be seen by passers-by.

Another common flower, the yarrow, is surrounding this large boulder. As the blossoms fade, I just snip them off--no worries about hurting this plant:)

Also blooming for several weeks now, the Coreopsis "Moonbeam" re-blooms after a good haircut.

A new bloom since last month is the Russian Sage. Not a very good photo, but since it's a bee magnet, too, I'll have plenty of opportunities to get a better photo later.

Another plant that I can't photograph well is the Baby's Breath. I always thought this was hard to grow, but this plant has survived and thrived here for several years.

In the shade garden, the hostas are sending up blooms, too. I have many different varieties of hostas, providing a steady succession of blooms.

I know not everyone likes these blooms--after all, it's the foliage of a hosta that is the beauty of a hosta. But I like these blooms, some of them quite dainty, and I think they add some vertical interest to a shady area.


Our Bloom Day hostess, Carol, has asked what differences we are noticing in our garden this year. I think some of my flowers are blooming a little earlier than last year, but overall the biggest difference I notice is that everything is doing better this year. With the regular rainfall we have had this summer, my garden is fuller and healthier-looking than it's ever been. This butterfly weed, Asclepias Tuberosa, is just one example. Not only is it blooming, but it's probably three times the size it was last year. Now if I only had some butterflies!

Nowhere do I notice the benefits of steady rainfall as much as with the hydrangeas. I lost one "Endless Summer" over the winter, but the two older "Endless" are fuller and taller than ever before and rarely wilt in the heat. They have just begun to put out a few blooms in the last two weeks, but many more buds are showing.

The first hydrangea to bloom this year was my new macrophylla, "Let's Dance in the Moonlight." I bought this at an end-of-the season sale last year, so this is the first time I've seen its blooms. This photograph doesn't do it justice--though the plant is smaller than the "Endless Summers," the blooms are much larger and fuller. I think "Endless Summer" may have been just an infatuation; instead, I want to dance in the moonlight a little more with my new love:)

But maybe I shouldn't give my heart away too soon. There's another new beauty looming on the horizon--by the next Bloom Day, I will hopefully have some blooms to show from another new hydrangea, "Limelight."

That's the joy of gardening. While July is the height of summer blooms here, there will be something new next month.

You never know what might be peeking out of the ground next time.

To see other blooms from around the world, be sure to visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Thanks, Carol, for being such a great hostess!