Black Container at Wolfe's

This is the only thing I took a photo of today. I actually made a special trip to take it.

Tiny Little Scottie

I'm really impressed with the colour of this so far... a real lemony yellow.

Windy Day

The leaves are all coming down. I found Hannah sleeping on the deck and covered with leaves. Of course, when I got the camera she sat up and they all fell onto the chair. Both decks and all the gardens look like this today.

Romeo

Looking for treats!
I'm zonked and off to bed... will call you later tomorrow.

Yet Another...

...beautiful fall gardening day.

You might recognize this one...

Let me tell you a story about this obedient plant.  It all started when you were here on May 7th of 2005.  You and I went shopping and planted the first 4 plants for our new garden: bugleweed, columbine, sedum, and this obedient plant.  After a couple of years, it wasn't doing well over by the fence and I moved it into the back garden.  Well, it just went nuts in the garden so I moved it to a little cleared spot in the woods till I figured out what I would do with it.  This past spring, when Kelly was creating the woods garden under the trees, he tilled it under and buried it.  A couple of months ago I noticed something growing that looked suspiciously like the white physostegia growing a couple of feet away, but a darker green.  When I moved the white stuff to the 'henge, I dug up this other sprig and moved it too.  Turns out it is the pink obedient plant reincarnated.  It's really hard to get rid of these!  In the 'henge they have a little dug out spot surrounded by rock, so they can't go nuts, but I should have white and pink blooming together next year.  The End.

Fall Fieldwork

Fall has arrived in the Valley. It was another beautiful day and everyone was out in the fields.

Construction Update

New garden on the right was completely filled in before the day was over.  All the stores seem to be out of bagged mulch so we went to a local garden centre and bagged up some of our own.  It's going to take more mulch than we've got to fill that big area though.  Once the leaves start falling we'll start shredding and that will make the mulch go further.

Penny

Trying to ignore me. She was ignoring Samantha 2 minutes before which is why her ear is full of Samantha hair. Samantha rubs even if you ignore her.

Mixed Up Primrose

The last time I saw this trying to bloom was in January.

Monkshood Starting to Bloom

Finally!

A beautiful day :)

Cat Face

Better than a bug face?

Cornel made it, almost

At least it should make it because we're supposed to have a nice weekend.  This is quite a dark red.  On another note, two of your delphinium up front have buds!

Another Face

The broken mushroom face.

A Few Blooms Left

I still have a few glads blooming out front.  It was a gorgeous day here.

My New Planter

Made by Bill.

Lots of Layers

This is Brookside Snowball and I've been waiting for this for a long time.  It definitely has more layers than any of my other dahlia blooms.  Tomorrow will be sunny so hopefully I'll see more of it.
Giggles has buds but it might be too late :(

One Opened Inside

This was a slightly open bud when I brought it in the day before the frost hit. It managed to open inside but is starting to look a tad wilted so I thought I'd better get it posted. It is a completely different colour in sunlight.

Delphinium Patch

These are all the darker shades of delphinium that you sent last year.  Obviously I'll have to spread them around in the spring and I'll have lots.  Notice your red dianthus blooming in the upper left.  It's really doing great!

This is what I did today...

Computer work. In fact, I worked on the computer so long, I almost forgot to take a photograph! Think I made it in time though and I am done the list... will email it to you :)

Getting Ready to Bloom Next Year

My yucca looks wonderful at this time of year.  And you wouldn't know it's growing in a pot buried in the garden!  This is the time of year that I start appreciating my rock garden again.

Bowl of Blooms

If you can believe it, all three of these are 'Gerrie Hoek'. I think the cold started to make them open before they had time to colour up because none of the earlier blooms on the plant were white in the centre like two of these are. I kind of like the white with pink edge but it really doesn't look like that in the garden!

Pleasant Surprise

I hope you aren't sick of looking at Kasasagi!  This bloom is so much more yellow than the others, yet growing on the same stalk.  It'll be interesting to see how it ages.

Unsafe Sex

These two bees probably didn't anticipate their lovemaking to be posted on the web!

...and so it ends

Frost hit last night.

Still Under Construction

I was standing at the top of the Flipflop Steps looking down, which you can see in the bottom right.  So you would go down the steps and turn left to enter the henge.  The area all along the top of the picture, roughly edged with rocks, will be all for planting.  You can see the patch of Ally's daylilies in the upper left.  Also notice that creeping Jenny is doing fine in the rock (upper left).

Coyote Crossing

Apparently, this little guy that MoeMoe was chasing last week uses the top of our yard to cross every day.

'Yvonne'

In Judy's garden today.

Dahlia Orchid Beauty

OK so I got the names mixed up, but I knew it was something white.

Nigella 'University Mix'

The seed pods are as interesting as the flowers in both purple and blue. The blue age white and the plants are covered in blooms still. I love this plant, the foliage that looks like netting is totally unique to anything else I have in the garden. I am repeating this next year in more than one place.

Dahlia 'Preference'

It's a little ragged but I wanted you to see the colour.  There's another bud that should open by the weekend so hopefully that won't be so chewed up.

Egads!

Wet, cold and rainy today. This is what I found when I wandered through the Front House Garden with my camera. Every single direction I turned, there they were, on the 'Baron Katie'. I left them alone because most of these blooms are waterlogged from all the rain and almost done. I was thinking it might keep them off the more perfect blooms in that garden.

Blooming on the Ground

Other than the fact that they're about 5 feet lower than they should be, they've been blooming like crazy since Earl knocked them down.

Bad Time of Year...

for this to be taking its' time to open like this. No frost yet but it is really cold today. More rain as well. I had to run into the city and it took most of the day. Feeling a bit grey myself today, feeling like I didn't get anything done and the fall list of garden chores is growing. Going to crash earlier and hope for sun tomorrow... both outside and in my brain ;)

Star of the Garden

Hard to beat this hibiscus for making an impression out front.

Guess the Hydrangea

This is actually 'Blue Bird'.  All the flowers flip upsidedown and turn pink as it ages.  By far the longest blooming hydrangea I have.

Deadheading Error

She gets to live in a vase now. Oops! Isn't she pretty?

Possibly Last

Possibly the last of the 'Raeann's Torch' to open. We had sun today and a little wind so it is drying up nicely but it is getting cold out there now. Noticed I have been spelling this wrong all along... there is no end e. Going to fix the posts on flickr and the blogs.

Mystery Glad

Now I'm puzzled.  I remembered this as purple with white markings.  Instead it's fushia or even dark pink with no markings.  It's been chewed on from lying on the ground and really should be in the ring garden next year.  I have 5 like this but the rest are buried under Snow Fairy.  I'm going to have to go back through old photos and such and solve this mystery over the winter.

Rain, Rain, Rain... and now Wind

Three days of weather has wreaked havoc on the 'Gerrie Hoek'. The unstaked 'Hot Lips' and 'Raeann's Torch' are doing fine. The tallest bud up front and centre is 'Sandia Showboat' which will open this year if we can keep the frost at bay.

Dahlia Update

Kasasagi looks really striking from further back but I can't seem to capture it with my camera.  The yellow is becoming more pronounced as it continues to open.
Here's what else is in bud now:
Little Scottie
Cornel
Orchid Beauty
Brookside Snowball
Preference

Mass of Purple

My aster may not be as compact and uniform as it would be if I'd pinched it, but I kind of like it like this - a big bush with beautiful flowers that move around in the wind.  Earl mussed her up a bit but she's still blooming like crazy.

Undamaged Flowers!

My first Gladiolus flowers that are not destroyed. This one is Passos. I have a patch of them that are damaged and this patch that seems to have escaped.

Dahlia 'Glow'

As you can tell this one still has layers and layers of petals to open.  A nice bright red!

Really Big Bee

His friend is regular size.

Alpen Cherub Finally Makes an Appearance

I'm beginning to realize that the bigger the flower, the longer the bud takes to open.  I haven't measured this yet but it must be at least 3 inches.  Nice bright white with faint yellow around the centre.  Had to climb in among the glads to get this because it's facing the road.  Now I have my own collarette ;)

Another One Beat the Frost

'Ferncliff Fuego' opened. As did 'Wine & Roses' but the first flower on that is missing petals and there are 3 more buds so I am going to try and wait for the next to open before posting. Of course, since they take forever to open, I might not make that goal ;)

My Moment Today

I got a laptop and notice I already have a flower wallpaper... priorities.

Kasasagi

One thing I think we've both been experiencing about dahlia this summer - the waiting game for the blooms to open.  This is really tiny - perhaps 1.5 inches across.  There are 2 small blooms today and lots more buds.  I'll take a better picture when it opens more.  Alpen Cherub and Cornel are both partially open; Glow and Orchid Beauty aren't far behind.