As the Season Winds Down

The variegated Impatiens, planted in a dented and squished aluminum kitchen pot I found half-buried in the far backyard this spring after it was cleaned of all brush and briars. People usually do a double take when they see this "planter" in person. The way it's bent and deformed from so many years in an old chicken coop which had fallen down, it really looks like an aluminum purse, lol. As soon as I found it I knew I'd use it as a planter. The bottom was already rusted through in a few places, making for great drainage!

The middle of September and my dahlias are JUST beginning to bloom. I think 5 of my 7 plants will flower. I don't know why they're so late. They were planted in the beginning of June, as always. I can only think that the dirt around the new vegetable garden isn't as rich as that in the front yard where I usually plant them. I'm going to try to winter over the two plants that won't flower. This dark magenta one will be beautiful once it fully opens.

The first dahlia to bloom is starting to put out a lot of buds. With any luck, we won't have an early frost. Dahlias will bloom right up to the first frost, no matter how cold the nights are and how short the days are. I just hope we don't get ONE early frosty night like we did a couple of years ago. It dipped down to the mid 20s a couple of Septembers ago, just for one night, and killed the dahlias. Then we didn't get another frost until late November. I could have had flowers for another couple of months. Let's hope this year that doesn't happen! I love watching the colors change as the blooms mature.

The Cosmos have been late this year too. They're just beginning to flower. They're more than six feet tall, and have 6-8 flowers right now. The three different colored Zinnias in this photo are more than five feet high. My annuals are twice as high as they've ever been, and my perennials are half as high, lol.

Not much of a photo, composition-wise, but I wanted to show the pink Zinnia section in the cutting garden. They range from pale pink to carnation pink to a deep raspberry color, and vary from single petal daisy-like flowers to almost fully-round "buttons." The granite bench can be seen in the background with the orange nasturtiums and the dark purple Tradiscanthia in the planter next to it.