October color

The roses are still in bloom.  I have a couple of rose bowels in the house containing the most fragrant Gertrude Jekyl which is a David Austin English rose.

The plants on the deck are about finished blooming.  I have not replaced them with Chrysanthemums or pansies.  I probably won't do this either.  As soon as it rains these plants that look great coming out of the greenhouse turn to brown mush. 

This is the Tibouchina 'Royal Dreams' shrub on the deck.  It has one leaf that has changed color.  This is a very showy plant, but tender.  It has to come into the house over winter.  I shall put it into the library, so that none of the other plants get any outside bugs it may have on it.  It can be pruned back quite a bit, so it bushes out more with more of the Royal Purple blooms on it.  When I bought this one it was a tiny plant in a tiny pot.  It is now about 4.5 feet tall and looking very healthy. 

The michaelmas daisies are in few well behaved clumps all over the garden.  Aside from the tree leaf colors they are the best Autumn plants.  I have seeds saved from some of the plants and hope to put them into pots to grow.  I have some seed from the wild sweet peas that I hope to get growing in the woodland area.  There is poppy seed, delphinium, hollyhock and lily of the Nile.  I have 4 bags of topsoil to put into the pots where I hope to grow these seeds.

This is the firethorn, covered with berries, this year.  The germander is finished blooming and will be cut back in the early Spring.  I like to leave the perennials foliage on over winter.  The robins are going to happy with this feast of berries later on when they ripen. Early Monday morning I was sitting at my front window watching all the birds.  We have the Colquitz river across the street from us.  It is rather wild area that is not made into a 'park'.  Its wonderful habitat for the the wild life. I saw deer in the deer pasture.  There were Canada geese, 2 big blue herons, a whole bunch of robins, tit mouse clumps, and numerous other birds.  In the back the humming birds are constantly at the feeder.  I wonder if they fatten up to over winter here.
I have transplanted my recent purchases of perennials and bulbs.  There are a few good 'butterfly and humming bird' plants.  This woodland area is covered with good mulch.  When I emptied the last bag of this mulch, I found that I have more of it under the bag of fine cedar bark mulch.  So, if I should need some good compost there is a bit there.  There is also the old compost bin to empty, also.  We are to have about a week of perfect gardening weather, so I must get out.