Early Winter

Woke up to this slight frosting of snow the other morning. It was gone by noon. Seasons come and go here from my perch at Pink Gardens.

One of my Christmas cactus blooms in front of a ceramic beer stein, a bowling trophy of my Dad's from the year I was born. 

My angelwing begonia is going strong, 12 years old now. In the winter the flowers open to a pretty salmon pink as above. In the summer when it's outside it's almost dark red.

This purple tradescanthia is spending the winter rooting in water. Was surprised to see it blooming the other day in this northern-facing kitchen window.

The top of the Victrola today features Prince Albert in a can, a 1963 Falcon sports coupe, a photo of my grandmother as a child with her older sister and brother, and assorted other collectibles.

My geraniums are doing very well this winter in the attic. The plants are losing leaves and getting "leggy" stalks but they'll be fine. In the spring they're cut back and replanted in the containers around the property.

StillColour

Flowers on this purple leafed Tradescanthia only last a day, but there are many buds to lengthen their blooming season.

This gorgeous dahlia has only had a few blooms but they've all been stunning.

Yellow lantana has done very well this year.

My favorite blue morning glories are doing very well this late October. We may get a frost tomorrow night which will be their end, so let's hope not!

Even with half in the shade a red rose is still as beautiful.

The purple tradescanthia and yellow lantana look great planted together in the Victorian cast iron pedestal planters. They were spectacular  this year with geraniums, vinca, perilla, bright green sweet potato vine, and a few other annuals.

A nice row of glories!

"Banarama," the large yellow variety of dahlia in the garden has been a prolific bloomer.

Deep magenta rose changes to this gorgeous salmon-peach as it opens.

Blue morning glories bring the typical Autumn clear blue sky right down into the garden.

Tiny magenta Tea rose bloom is on its way out but it's still beautiful.

Unexpected Fall Colour

Some of my favorite autumn flowers are asters. They come in all sizes and shapes and colors and wait until mid to late September to present their multi-petaled flowers to the world. This is a gorgeous purple aster in bloom right now at our local East Wharf beach. The plants are quite large, fully flowered, and attract hundreds of slow, pollen-filled bees making sure they have as much food as possible to bring back to their hives for these col, fall nights.

"Morning Colour"

Fashion alert in the morning glory aisle! Beautiful green-detailed insect seems almost like a piece of jewelry.

 Hidden Glory, Crouching Camera...

Tiny tea rose bud is barely an inch wide, yet a perfect place for morning raindrops to collect.

This September Morning

I walk around the yard every morning while my flowers are blooming. I need to do it earlier than usual when the morning glories start flowering. They're all done for the day and closed up by about 11am. Above, a gorgeous new dahlia. I don't know the variety. It must be one that I saved from last year from the 4 four plants that never bloomed. It's a bright, fiery orange and pink.

 A yellow honeycomb butterfly bush, Buddleia x weyeriana

My palest dahlia this year. Nice against the brighter colored dahlias and zinnias next to them.

Pink dahlia. This is a very compact bush, only about 18 inches tall but has put out plenty of flowers.

Reaching for the sun two varieties of dahlias look great together.

These are two varieties of dahlias, too. That's why I like growing them so much. For one family of flowers they're so incredibly diverse in color, texture, size, shape, everything you can image. The leaves all look pretty similar though!

The one sunflower stalk that reached maturity has had a dozen flowers. They're not too large, but the bees love them anyway! 

 Nice pair of pink Morning Glories today.

These are the colors that are flowering right now, various shades of pink and purple. There should be blue ones very soon.

Sunflowers in the distance and two pretty purple glories.

Morning glory leaves are heart-shaped!

Little blue wildflower blooms on a vine-like stem and takes over after the day lilies are done and their leaves dry up. One doesn't cancel the other out with their roots either so I let them both coexist in the same space.

Bright orange zinna. They flowers are small but the stems are tall and really producing flowers right now.

Pink zinnia and friend. There are hundreds of bees in the gardens at all times. It's great to see, but I know their position in our world is precarious at best.

"Gordy's Chairs, 2014"

A cute little impromptu photoshoot at my dear friend Jane's house. . . A couple of "chairs" made from the tops of a champagne and a Proseco bottle. They were crafted by a close friend of Jane's during a recent vacation. Add in a flower from Jane's garden, a backlit polystyrene cutting board, and a windowsill, and, "Voila!" A garden fresh little sitting room for the "Borrowers."

• A favorite series of books from my youth, the Borrowers, stories of the teeny tiny mouse-sized people that live in your homes "borrowing" things they need. They live behind the walls and under floors and are the sweetest, most inventive characters in fiction, lol. Here's a cool collection of their tales. I read them all when I was about nine or ten years old. I might read 'em again! The Complete Borrowers, here

Endless Summer. I Wish

I walked around the yard on Thursday and made an impromptu flower arrangement. Liking to get at least two purposes out of everything I posed it around the apartment for an equally impromptu photoshoot. Here, in front of my 1930s moveable butterfly toy, Tinky Winky hangs around admiring the flowers.

  

In front of a portrait I've created of my mom at the age of 2. It's in a vintage frame with glass and I've matted it with dried flowers. I like the mix of old and new flowers here.

This variety of dahlia is called "Pumpkin Spice" but I think "On Fire" would be better. It's gorgeous in person, and it actually grew with its back to the sun, not facing it. It don't need no stinkin' sun, lol!

Lone Cosmos plant came up on its own this year. It's right in a corner of the enclosed garden, perfectly positioned.

Large "Banarama" dahlia will be open in a day or two.

This cream dahlia is planted in front of that magenta one. I have four more plants to flower, but so far I have several different pinks, two yellows, this cream, and an orange one. They're all different shapes and sizes, too.

From the same plant, this particular one has more than a dozen flowers right now.

Like a Celestial Alignment, these dahlias and a distant sunflower stack on top of each other from this angle.

Keeping with the space theme, these dahlia blooms remind me of those Hubble photographs of many galaxies together. Some are in focus and others aren't. The light from that faraway sunflower took longer to reach my camera, lol

 A pink morning glory has appeared! Here's in the morning shade.

In the sun!

The back of this morning glory, equally as interesting as the front. Bright pink is new this year.

Such a beautiful deep purple morning glory! So I have three colors this year, pink, purple, and blue. Well, there are wild white ones near them in the woods, but they're almost impossible to transplant. They grow at the bases of the wild roses with have so many thorns they're not worth getting near, lol.

 The back of the purple glory has a very vivid shade not visible from the front.

I have one sunflower that made it to maturity this year.

Pointing to the future.