Here in my Zone 6b garden, most plants are starting to quiet down for the season. I’ve got some beautiful fall colors happening, and a few hangers-on from late-summer blooms, but the real action is drawing to a close.
This currently-unidentified white rose has the longest bloom time of the half-dozen or so that bloom on my property — this year, anyway. It was the first rose I saw in June and is the last to bloom this October.
Dortmund, the climber that got hit hard by the Polar Vortex this past winter, is setting hips. Not as many as last year, since it got killed nearly to the ground and didn’t bloom nearly as prolifically this year, but still.
While most of my sedums are starting to fade into that rusty, dry sort of maroon color, there are a few of a different variety that are just starting to show their gorgeous pink colors. Most of these didn’t bloom well, thanks to being choked out by an overzealous trumpet vine, but this one just pops.
The pachysandra seems to be confused about when it’s supposed to bloom!
It wasn’t until I went around to take October Bloom Day photos that I realized — after living in this house for a year and a half — that I have at least two different varieties of lamium. The variety at the top of the photo flowers pink and has darker, more contrasty leaves, while the purple-flowering variety at the bottom of the frame has lighter green leaves. I love lamium as a ground cover, and I don’t mind one bit that it likes to spread.
The hydrangea paniculata out back has turned that beautiful autumnal pink that it does.
The dogwood tree out front has put on its fall colors, too.
(I’m a little concerned about the health of this tree, as I can tell it has at least two dead main branches. I don’t trust myself to cut them, though — I may call in the professionals this spring and have them take a look.)
The burning bushes have started their fiery transformation.
After seeing some of the fall blooms from other participants in Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, I think I may have to introduce some colchicums (aka autumn crocus) to my garden. Asters might make an appearance someday, too, but I’m not as in love with them as I am the colchicums! After seeing how many different varieties of chrysanthemums there are (i.e. not just the standard yellow one that’s in my back yard), I might branch out into some of those, as well.
I’m steeling myself for the long, dark, cold days of winter. Last year, I counted down the weeks until I knew I’d see blooms in my garden again. Maybe, this year, I can try to live in the moment and enjoy the fall and the winter for the downtime that it is, for me and for the garden.