Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - October 2017/Poetry Sunday: Autumn Flowers by Jones Very

First, a poem about the beauty of late-blooming flowers.


Autumn Flowers

by Jones Very
Still blooming on, when Summer-flowers all fade,
The golden rods and asters fill the glade;
The tokens they of an Exhaustless Love,
That ever to the end doth constant prove.
To one fair tribe another still succeeds,
As still the heart new forms of beauty needs;
Till these, bright children of the waning year!
Its latest born have come our souls to cheer.
They glance upon us from their fringed eyes,
And to their look our own in love replies;
Within our hearts we find for them a place,
As for the flowers, which early Spring-time grace.
Despond not traveller! on life's lengthened way,
When all thy early friends have passed away;
Say not, " No more the beautiful doth live,
And to the earth a bloom and fragrance give. "
To every season has our Father given
Some tokens of his love to us from heaven;
Nor leaves us here, uncheered, to walk alone,
When all we loved and prized, in youth, has gone.
Let but thy heart go forth to all around,
Still by thy side the beautiful is found;
Along thy path the Autumn flowers shall smile,
And to its close life's pilgrimage beguile.

~~~

And now, here are some of those late-bloomers from my zone 9a garden in Southeast Texas.




The coral vine is at its best just now.


Marigolds that have bloomed all summer continue to brighten my days.



Lantana.


And more lantana.




And still more lantana.



Hamelia patens with bumblebee.



'Coral Nymph' salvia.



'Coral Nymph' with pink Knockout roses and porterweed.



Porterweed alone.




Rudbeckia black-eyed Susan.


Turk's Cap.



Moonflower.



Jatropha.



Duranta erecta, golden dewdrops.




Bronze Esperanza with bee.


A bank of blue plumbago.




And, of course, what would October be without a few chrysanthemums sprinkled in. 

Even though many of the summer flowers have faded, we find that each season does have gifts of its own. As the poet wrote:
Let but thy heart go forth to all around,
Still by thy side the beautiful is found;
Along thy path the Autumn flowers shall smile,
And to its close life's pilgrimage beguile.
I hope that autumn flowers are smiling at you this Bloom Day. Thank you Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting us once again.

Happy gardening. 

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