October 2008 Bloom Day

Once again, thank you to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day. Please visit May Dreams Gardens for this month's Bloom Day post and comments and visit the other blogs. You'll see some beautiful gardens, and you might even see some asters.

Once again this month, I'm surprised by what's blooming. The trees are changing color, and some of the cherry trees have completely dropped their leaves. Although Fall is here, some plants are still blooming. I think my Hosta 'Gold Standard' is confused - it is one of the first to bloom in the spring/summer, and I cleaned up the dead bloom stalks from my two larger plants months ago. One of the plants must have felt somewhat naked, so it sent up another stalk.

I think the tomatoes are a little confused, too, because they are covered with blooms. They must be liking the warm days and cool nights we've been having lately.  If they keep up, I'll be harvesting little yellow pear tomatoes in December, which wouldn't be a bad thing.

The Victoria blue salvia and the dragon's wing begonias are still going strong, and I expect they will continue on until frost. How can you not love plants which ask for so little and give so much in return?  And the reader will kindly neglect to notice the blue salvia should have been dead-headed some time ago.

The recent border re-do seems to have coaxed a lobelia to bloom just a bit more. Hmmmm. I seem to remember the flowers looking much more burgundy and not so red.

And the Gartenmeister fuschia is still flowering as it always does. This year, the Royal Glissade coleus upstaged the fuschia and at the same time provided a great color echo. I'm not sure how I feel about the combo, which you can see here, but I like both plants, and I'm sure I'll plant them both again.

Although most of the photos I show are from plants in our front yard, where we have more sun, the impatiens out back are still putting on a show amid the falling leaves. They didn't do so well in our drought last year, but this summer had been a good one for rain and for impatiens flowers.

This cute little Penstemon, which was not labeled when I bought it, has bloomed all summer. It's just about 18 inches high and as cute as it can be. Its little speckled flowers have charmed me, and it's become one of my favorites.

Finally, a last look around the border reveals the truth. And I have a picture to prove it. Despite what common knowledge everyone thinks they have, my aster is NOT that big.

Not very big at all.

Happy Bloom Day, everyone. Thank you for visiting!

Comments

[Gail]

Happy Bloom Day my small as-tered friend! Lovely photos, no really they are excellent! The lobelia is a keeper, I like the red; it reminds me of Lobelia 'Ruby Slippers'! Now onto the fuschia which is a really good looking plant! I have never gotten one because there is no way I want to toss away an expensive plant when I can't over winter it in the house (plant eating cat). How do you over winter it? If you ever find the name of that cute penstemmon, would you holler at me, I think it is another keeper plant! Happy Blooms Day! Gail

[lostlandscape]

Thanks for sharing these gorgeous photos from your garden--It's been a few years since I've grown the Gartenmeister fuschia, and your picture brought back great memories of a floriforous and tough little plant that was non-stop flowers for almost three years...maybe time for another plant of it next spring... I do like your coleus with it!

[Carol, May Dreams Gardens]

Thanks for joining in for bloom day. I agree, your aster isn't that big, or at least I've seen bigger!

And I also love it when flowers get confused in the fall and bloom just a little bit to remind us what we have to look forward to next year.