November 2005

Here we are, it's early November, the 6th as a matter of fact, and you can see all manner of things still happening in the garden. Along with the last couple of fading Hostas, in this case 'June' and 'So Sweet', we already see the first of the spring flowers poking up: Dutch Iris. Most all the other Hostas have died back, but 'June' in particular seems to want to hang in there. In spring it is the last one to break ground, so I guess it can be the last one to die back in the fall.

Though not really visible in this picture, there is also lots of new growth on the Bearded Iris tubers. We thinned them out pretty good in September and it's good to see all that new growth. Let's hope we get the bulk of them to bloom in spring as well.

As said, most of the Hostas have died back already. On quite a few you can already see next year's growth popping up. Like on this 'Guacamole' here, where we had just the one plant this year, looks as if there'll be at least two, if not three, come spring.

And the Hostas are not the only ones showing next year's buds, these are some new buds on one of the cuttings we took from Peony 'Bowl of Beauty'. You may recall that in October we took a spade to one of our Peonies and potted up about a half a dozen cuttings in various sizes pots, this one here's a one gallon one.

All the moisture we get this time of year, along with the much lower temperatures, are just what the recipe is for continued growth and bloom of our perennial Fuchsias, like these two here: the second one is in the urn style planter lower left corner.....it's the variegated one we acquired in August.

It's not just the Fuchsias that are still going strong, so is the Bacopa in all our baskets and if you look very carefully at the top right corner of the picture you'll see a glimps of purple, which would be the Petunia that still hangs on.

Glistening in the 100% humidity you get with fog, this is the above mentioned variegated on November 19th. About 3 weeks ago we took some cuttings off this plant, dipped them in rooting hormone and stuck them in the ground. Humidity has been so high, between rain and fog, that they haven't wilted at all and at the rate they're going I wouldn't be surprised to start seeing new growth on them over the next couple of weeks.

Talking about recent cuttings, we took a half a dozen or so off the miniature Fuchsia in early October, potted those up and they have quite obviously rooted because they're all showing flowerbuds! I must admit I was a little surprised when I saw these because I haven't seen any buds on the mother plant recently. It continues to show lots of vegetative growth though.

Obviously the norm for fall is fallen leaves and not bloom, but it's quite nice to be able to go around the yard and still see glimpses of colour from the flowers of perennials that thrive in cooler, moist weather. As you see, the Violets are back in flower, though they look as if they have been fodder for the slug population, and while I don't have a shot of it just now, I noticed yesterday there were flowers on some of the Primulas again in the front bed.

It won't be long now before we will see the new shoots on the Hellebores become flower stalks and round about Christmas I would think we'll see the first of those buds open up. It's gratifying to see the results of our attempt to have something in bloom every month of the year somewhere in the yard. While flower colour in the winter months is sparse, it is there and it makes each and every walk in the yard another journey of discovery, even that time of the year.