Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for October 2024.
Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6a garden in central Indiana, October has a variety of blooms, though there are few it can really call its own.
August owns some of the flowers, like these hardy begonias, which have been bloom for several months.
Other flowers showed up in September, including asters and Japanese anemones.
Still others belong to summer and are still going strong including zinnias, marigolds, Verbena bonarinsis, and nasturtiums. There are also alyssum plants still blooming, but I think of them as spring flowers that paused for summer and are getting going again now that it is cooler. Same with snapdragons, which have shown new life as the days have shortened.
The one flower that I think truly is an October flower is the autumn crocus, Crocus speciosus, which is blooming now in several areas of the garden. I’ve put it in the center of this collage of pictures of flowers blooming throughout the garden now.
This collage doesn’t feature every flower in my garden right now… missing are Geranium ‘Rozanne’, pelargoniums, snapdragons, annual salvias, butterfly bushes, and gaura, to name a few. But from the top left around, we have mums, violas, pansies, Zinnia angustifolia, signet marigolds, annual verbena, zinnias, nasturtiums, more mums, Japanese anemones, dianthus, and asters.
I’m pretty happy to have all these blooms, considering how dry it has been. There’s a tiny chance we may get a shower tonight, and then the skies should clear up just in time for a low temperature on Wednesday of 33 degrees Fahrenheit. That means we may get our first frost of the season mid-week. But most of these flowers won’t mind. They ‘ll keep going a bit longer, and I’ll do my best to keep enjoying them!
And that’s what’s blooming in my garden in mid-October. What’s blooming in your garden as we approach what is for many of us the end of the growing season?
Join in for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day and show us. It’s easy to participate. Just post about your blooms on your blog, or some social media site, and then come back here and leave a link to tell us how to get to your post, and comment to tell us what you have blooming.
“We can have flowers nearly every month of they year.” – Elizabeth Lawrence
So colorful! I need to get one of that hardy begonia and also, can you believe, I have no autumn crocus! Each year they are sold out when I finally get to my bulb order, which means I need to place one in June. Must set a calender reminder I guess, as I realize how nice they would look with the purple asters this time of year. Happy GBBD!
What a beautiful variety of flowers you still have! My eyes feasted on your pansies. Mine barely got through summer, only to be dug up by something. Our aster is also fading away. Enjoy the rest of the season – we’ll probably be getting our first frost the day after you do.
You have so many beautiful blooms in your garden for October and the autumn crocus are especially wonderful! In the northeast we are now getting temperatures in the low 40’s at night, so it wont be long until we get our first frost. I am enjoying the ongoing blooms for now along with some real fall bloomers such as Montauk Daisy. Happy Bloom Day!
You have so many lovely flowers for October! My hardy Begonias were devoured by deer again this year, like so much in my garden. I may have to break down and fence in the back yard just so I can enjoy what I’ve planted.
Your October garden is very flowerful! Mine is too but then we don’t have frost nipping at our petals. Thanks for hosting, Carol!
Blooms are always welcome in the house, of course in the garden. It’s the daily Joy.
Thank you for sharing and for hosting.
Hi Carol,
We too would like to see some more rain here in Maryland. It’s been such a strange year with a large overall surplus of rain and significant periods of no rain at all. I was very much reminded by your page of the value of Japanese Anemones. I need to add some more…