Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - October 2016

What's blooming in my zone 9a garden on this October Bloom Day? Here's a sample.


Convolvulus 'Blue Daze' has been in bloom all summer and now well into the fall.


 'Molineux,' a David Austin rose, is at its best in the fall.


Red cypress vine, an old-fashioned plant that is a favorite of butterflies and hummingbirds.


This purple porterweed is being visited by a Long-tailed Skipper butterfly.


Bronze Esperanza is still in bloom.


As is its yellow cousin, popularly known as "yellowbells." If you are guessing that this plant is a member of the very large pea family, you are correct. The family resemblance is right there.


'Cashmere Bouquet' clerodendrum.


Tithonia, aka Mexican sunflowers, are visited almost constantly throughout the day by butterflies like this Gulf Fritillary.


The blooms of the almond verbena are not particularly showy but their heavenly scent permeates the part of the garden where the plant lives, especially in the late afternoon.


Well, they aren't blooms but the fruits of the ornamental peppers are colorful.


Duranta erecta, golden dewdrops, continues to bloom.


'Lucifer' canna blooms bring a bit of fire to their spot in the garden.


Butterfly ginger, more blooms that perfume the garden with a wonderful scent.


Cephalanthus occidentalis, aka buttonbush, a native plant much loved by butterflies.


Cape honeysuckle offers its orange blossoms to migrating hummingbirds.


'Black and blue' salvia is a favorite of mine.


And I do love the weird little blossoms of the shrimp plant, Justicia brandegeeana.


Firespike is an autumn bloomer that is coming along a bit late this year. So far, it only has buds. Its long-lasting flowers should still be with us on November's Bloom Day.


The Justicia 'Orange Flame,' though, has been in bloom all summer and continues to send out its "flames."


The blooms of Texas sage, Leucophyllum frutescens, are triggered by rainfall, and it doesn't take much. Earlier this week, we got a brief shower of a few hundredths of an inch. Next day the shrub was covered in these flowers.


My old species canna continues to send out blooms regularly.


The purple beautyberries await the attention of the mockingbirds and robins that love them.


 Pink coral vine graces this garden fence with its blooms.


A few cosmos blooms continue to brighten their corner of the garden.


But on the muscadine vines, the grapes are beginning to turn color, confirming that autumn really has arrived and many of this month's blooming plants will soon be ready for a rest.

Don't forget to visit our host, Carol of May Dreams Gardens, to see the list of other bloggers participating in this Bloom Day and thank you for taking the time to visit my garden.

Happy Bloom Day!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rude people

I spent some time in a doctor's office waiting room today waiting for my husband. During much of my hour-and-a-half there, the room was very crowded with strangers. I had brought my Kindle and was trying to read Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. It's a novel of manners about the way people treat each other and about their expectations of each other. It reminds me somewhat of Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series. It has the same gentle, meandering feel to it. Anyway, I was trying to concentrate on my book, but at some point, it just became impossible. On the opposite side of the room from me several rather elderly - that is to say older than me - people were seated, and, as always seems to happen in these circumstances, one of them, a woman, had a loud and abrasive voice and manner and she insisted on telling the others her life story and especially her medical history. A couple of other people there entered eagerly into the spirit of the...
Read more

Poetry Sunday: Citizen of Dark Times by Kim Stafford

This poem is from a collection of poetry written by Oregon poet Kim Stafford after the presidential election of 2016. It was his effort, he said in an interview, to find the "flavor of unity" in divisive times. It seems particularly appropriate at the moment. Citizen of Dark Times by Kim Stafford Agenda in a time of fear: Be not afraid. When things go wrong, do right. Set out by the half-light of the seeker. For the well-lit problem begins to heal. Learn tropism toward the difficult. We have not arrived to explain, but to sing. Young idealism ripens into an ethical life. Prune back regret to let faith grow. When you hit rock bottom, dig farther down. Grief is the seed of singing, shame the seed of song. Keep seeing what you are not saying. Plunder your reticence. Songbird guards a twig, its only weapon a song.
Read more

My new Kindle

I love books. I love the feel of books, the smell of books, the heft of books, the look of books - their perfect symmetry. I am, as the phrase goes, an "avid reader." I've always got at least one book going and several waiting on my "to be read" shelf, so I consume a lot of books in a year's time. I am a fairly eclectric reader, although my favorite genre is mysteries, and specifically, historical mysteries, but I read a lot of other stuff as well, both fiction and nonfiction. My devotion to the printed page has been unwavering and I've never even considered getting an ebook reader. Until earlier this year. I got a Kindle for my husband, the technogeek, for his birthday, and after watching him use it and seeing his enthusiasm for it, I decided that maybe I should try it, even though I'm decidedly NOT a technogeek. I did try it and I was hooked. So, Santa, that jolly old elf, knowing that I had been seduced by the Kindle, stuffed my Christmas sto...
Read more