Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for October 2010!
Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 5b garden October has so far brought us bright sunny skies, at least two days with record setting high temperatures, and very little rain.
Yet it is keeping its usual promise of ever shorter days, cooler nights, and changing leaf color.
When I look back at the bloom day post for 2009, I see two plants that haven’t done as well this year, and have no blooms today – Endless Summer® Hydrangeas and Kalimeris pinnatifida ‘Hortensis’, also known as the Oxford Orphanage Plant or Double Japanese Aster.
Ironically, the asters shown above, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, were the ones that I dug out in early July and transplanted to another garden bed. These are passalong plants from my aunt, so I am happy to see they survived.
Another aster doing quite well, blooming by the front walkway, is Symphyotrichum oblongifolium ‘October Skies’.
Both types of asters were cut back by about half around Memorial Day, which encourages them to branch out, not up, making them less likely to flop over and increasing the amount of bloom on them.
In a nursery bed in the back yard, waiting for a permanent spot elsewhere in the garden is Dendranthema ‘Cool Igloo’, a trial plant from Blooms of Bressingham.
I did nothing to it and it managed to bloom quite nicely all on its own.
Elsewhere in the garden, the marigolds, Tagetes sp. have survived with no extra water.
I don’t know why people think of marigolds as a summer flowers. In my garden, where I direct sow the seeds for the marigolds in May, they never really start blooming well until mid to late August.
Finally, the Knockout® Rose, Rosa ‘Radsunny’ is still putting on a great show.
It’s been blooming since spring and is still going strong. It’s a keeper, even if you are like me and don’t grow a lot of roses.
How is your garden blooming this month? Are you ready for a killing frost, the end of the show, or is fall the beginning of your second gardening season?
Whatever your circumstances and however your garden looks during these October days, I hope you’ll join us for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day this month. All are welcome!
It’s easy to participate. Just post on your blog about what is blooming in your garden on the 15th of the month and then leave a link in the ‘Mr. Linky’ widget below, plus a comment to give us a hint as to what we might in your garden in mid-October.
By the way, for those who have been participating in bloom day since its beginning, I believe this is our 45th month to do this!
“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” – Elizabeth Lawrence
I think my best fall so far. I've been busy digging up the rest of my gooseneck loosestrife. I plan on replacing w. good fall blooming annuals next year.
Carol, thanks so much for hosting! It's always such a pleasure to see what's blooming in your garden and everywhere else in the world… Love those asters! Next year, I'll have more of them myself.
Fall is the best gardening season in San Antonio. Lots of summer plants are still blooming, and those that need the cooler weather are also in flower. It's like two seasons in one.
Hi, Carol;
Thanks, as always, for hosting this fun monthly tradition. I don't have a ton blooming but it's still fun to participate. Happy Bloom Day!
Love that 'October Skies' aster; color is great but cutting it back makes it such a nice full bush instead of flopping like my asters are doing. I will have to remember to do that next year.
Thanks for the opportunity to post what is blooming in my garden. Not as much as last month, but some color none the less. Fall brings the changing leaves which helps give a Northern show.
Your knockouts are lovely and so are the asters.The marigolds up here are performing like yours, bright and plentiful. I agree, they are flushing right beside the mums.
Thanks for the opportunity to enter my "What's Bloomin' – October '10" post on your Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day 🙂 Still lots going on in my north Texas garden. And some Monarchs got the memo about Bloom
Day, so they flew in just in time for a photo op! I hope you enjoy the tour of my October garden.
Thank you for coming up with this wonderful idea. Your 'Cool Igloo' is HOT!
I am from a tropical country so my blooms are a little different.
Lovely blooms to share … your Rosa 'Radsunny' is simply beautiful! 'Cool Igloo' is an absolute stunner … wherever it ends up in your garden it will be a highlight. Love the asters!
Hi, Carol. Thank you very much for hosting GBBD, an exciting monthly event for us garden bloggers. You still have a lot of blooms this time of the year and they are lovely. I come an equatorial country where we have everlasting summers.
Thanks for hosting another wonderful GBBD. As always your blooms are lovely and intriguing. I am unable to locate the Mr. Linky so putting my URL below.
http://www.lahoregardening.com/2010/10/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-october.html
Thanks for hosting Bloomday, it's great to see what's happeing around the world. I love your Asters, a friend has just started a nursery specialising in them and I intend growing more next year, the ones I have are finished already but there are lots of other things flowering.
Thanks for hosting GBBD Carol and letting us get a chance to seee whats growing elsewhere around the world. I've still got quite a few blooms in my scottish garden and the asters are really only starting to flower now.
No complaints about too-dry weather here in PA this month. I wish I could share some of our rain with you. At least the asters performed well to brighten this Bloom Day for you. Have a good one! My post is up at October Bloom Day at Hayefield.
Hi Carol, thanks again for hosting this, I have come to really look forward to seeing what is going on in gardens across the world! 'October Skies' is looking lovely, wish I had room for more Asters. Interesting what you said about the Tagetes – mine didn't start flowering until late May, but have just kept going, which I didn't expect at all. Lovely though! A real workhorse plant.
My first post on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Thanks for hosting.
My first post also on GBBD. Thanks for sharing. Hope to add more photos.
Hi Carol,
It's good to see your Tagetes. The smell of these reminds me of Guy Fawke's Night here in the UK (5th November), as it was then that we used to pull them up, as children, some of them still flowering. As you say, they flower much longer than just the summer.
My post is up. Thanks for hosting GBBD!
Hi Carol ~ it sounds as if your October is behaving very much as is ours up to now. I keep seeing 'October Skies' and I am sure that it is going to be included on the wish list soon 🙂 Thanks for hosting as always – it is much appreciated.
Carol, I love the color of 'Cool Igloo', it's an interesting contrast to the typical autumn garden colors. And that Knock-out rose still looks so fresh, mine didn't fair very well this season – too much heat and not nearly enough rain. Happy Bloom Day!
Hi Carol, I am inspired by your Cool Igloo, it looks great! October Skies is fabulous here too, but didn't get cut down in May. From now on it will, yours is a blue frothy delight! The yellow knockout rose is gorgeous as well. Add another to my wish list. Happy 45th! 🙂
Frances
Hello Carol: Your asters are looking great. I love the little Rosa.
Carol, those asters are beautiful. They really add color to the fall garden.
Eileen
Carol, Good morning and thank you for hosting~ I'm doing a Blog Action Day with my post~gail
Again, thanks for hosting us all on GBBD! I too am very happy with the Knockout Roses — mine are pink but I want some of those yellow ones. The ones I have performed all summer, even in the blistering heat and dry we suffered through during July and August.
http://healingmagichands.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-october-15-2010/
I'm thinking about changes to my garden, and those asters are most tempting.
I'm celebrating dahlias today with a sidelong look at water issues for Blog Action Day too
Thanks for hosting another Bloom Day – can't wait to see what's blooming in everyone's garden after this wacky season!
Thanks again for hosting this super MEME. Your garden looks great! I was wondering how many folks still have some blooms in the garden. I'm in mostly shade, so I always have slim pickens. Still, I love this group and love the window into other gardens.
David/ Tropical Texana
P.S. Don't passalong plants seem to do the best? I noticed you have one in bloom. My very best summer blooms are from passalongs.
David/ Tropical Texana/ Houston
Don't know why I've never thought of pinching the asters Carol! I do it with mums, phlox, and tall sedums – time to add asters to the pinching group.
Your asters are beautiful, and I've been very impressed with your Radsunny. It's beautiful, and clearly a fantastic bloomer.
Thank you for hosting Bloom Day!
Hi Carol,
I like that 'October Skies' aster. My marigolds haven't been blooming as early as my memory thinks they used to, either.
This is the beginning of the third year of my blogging and participating in bloom day. I posted lots of photos again.
Thank you again for hosting this wonderful party! I'm jealous — we are about 2 months away from our first freeze and I could use one to kill off the ragweed! Your garden is lovely — as usual!
Dear Carol, I really appreciate your hosting of GBBD, thank you! I am not a weekly blogger and this gives me the incentive to post at least once each month.
My marigolds have been stunning this year. I started them from seed indoors and they bloomed all summer. I envy your asters!
Pam x
Thank you Carol!
I love your Dendranthema 'Cool Igloo' I may have to add it to my garden next year. I appreciate knowing what the pretty plants are. Many of the mums in my garden were planted before I kept records so I don't know the names. Some of the mums just appeared from nowhere.
Thank you again for hosting GBBD, and WOW to 45 posts. Sounds like we are having a similar fall with warm temps and clear skies (other than one week of biblical rains). On first thought I confused your Sunny Knock Outs with gardenias thinking they would not grow in your zone. I stretched the rules of GBBD and showed what was blooming last weekend in Shenandoah National Park – I knew you wouldn't mind.
You've got to love those Symphyotrichums, they're such troopers. I remembered to pinch the tall New England asters this year, but forgot to pinch 'October Skies,' which has billowed to over 3 feet tall. Remind me next spring to pinch it too. I sure wish it would rain too. Thanks for hosting GBBD.
Love the asters! What a wonderful gardening year it has been…. L
Hi Carol, Thanks for hosting GBBD. This is my first post here and it was so much fun to look through the various gardens! Happy Gardening!
Who knew that October GBBD would be such a blooming great one?!
wow – 45 months! Not that long for me, but I think I've participated long enough to check out what I posted last year too. That should be interesting. I wouldn't say it's a new season now, but there's definitely excitement in the air (especially since there are fewer mosquitoes!), garlic to be planted, mums ready to bloom, leaf changes…ok – maybe it IS the beginning of a new season of gardening!
Beautiful asters, I have had two killing frosts, the second last night so even the asters have finished flowering. Enjoy you blooms before freezeup.
Those asters are beautiful, and I think you have amazing color for a Zone 5 garden in mid-October! Your knockout rose really is a knockout. Marigolds are more of a winter plant here where I live, intended to be planted in fall, right all with the likes of snapdragons and pansies, all of which hate the summer heat.
So fun to see what's flowering this time of year when so many of us are focused on the fall foliage!
Thank you for GBBD. You're so right about tagetes; my experience with them (esp t.lemmonii) here in southern CA is
Marigolds + October = 🙂
45 months of bloom day, how cool! I always enjoy seeing what you have blooming in your part of the country. Those Asters are amazing, I can't believe all the flowers. I love that rose too.
Here the fall season color is just starting to change and leaves barely beginning to fall, our first frost is usually about another month from now.
Carol, I'll do a little rain dance for you – it worked for us though we could still use more… Isn't it interesting to see what has survived and gone on to bloom gangbusters – hooray for aster 'October Skies'! Happy 45th GBBD! (I'll have to count back – I'm up there somewhere I think…)
Happy bloom day Carol- It would be nice to have asters in the fall like you do but I never do. They seem to like spring better. Every year is a different year int he garden, as you note by the failure of the H to do well this year. The garden is always full of surprises.
Wonderful idea 🙂
You are so right about the Marigolds. This is their time to shine. Mine also self-sow, especially in my window box. For next year I might try starting some seeds early. I wonder then if they would be early summer flowers. Thanks for hosting Bloom Day.
Hi, Carol. My viburnum is finally blooming and I'm finally joining your wonderful party. Thanks for hosting.
I've planted 2 asters this fall – and hope to add others next spring. I'm rather new to asters, but like the blue-colored ones very much!
I'm so late – so many postings! How many bloggers can I visit this month! Let's see… Thanks as ever, Carol!
There is nothing new blooming in the danger garden this october, just a repeat of september. So I had to get creative…
Your blooms are so beautiful! Great idea for hosting this GBBD, a great way to link up with the world's gardens!
Such a beautiful time of year here in Austin 8b zone! So much is still growing and blooming. The garden is happy!
October is one of the most beautiful months in the Bay Area – so glad we could participate in our first bloom day this month! Thank you for hosting – we've found so many interesting blogs thru your links!
Once again I have to say, I love brown and gray. There are red, yellow and white flowers here in southern California, but it is the subdued colors that I love most at this time of the year.
Thank you Carol, for inspiring me. I am afraid that my garden in not very impressive right now, but it has caused me to ponder this and plan for next fall! Thank you again 🙂
Forty-five months–that's amazing! Congratulations, and thanks for being such a faithful hostess, Carol.
Love your 'October Skies'–it really is quite a bloomer and so shapely. I agree about the 'Radsunny' roses; I've been really pleased with the two I planted this spring.
The leaves are turning, but blowing off almost as quickly. A good rainstorm might take many of the leaves away…but I think I'd take the rain right now:)
Somehow I was thinking things would be winding down for the year in your garden, but it was a nice surprise to see all the color you have–Enjoy your October blooms!
I'm a little late for the party, but am glad I still made it! Looks like so much still going on with everyone despite the weather extremes of this past year! See my post at: http://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2010/10/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-oct-2010.html
If I keep finding new must-read blogs here, I don't know when I will find time to do anything else!
Did this growing season give anyone else whiplash? It's hard to believe that things will freeze and die within just a few weeks… and there's so little left in the kitchen garden lure me out there. Seed-starting season is only 4 months away!
I love the color in your garden. Makes up for the lack of it in mine this month!
We've already had our first freeze (26F) but there is still quite a bit blooming, and the trees on the hillside are to die for! Come see October blooms at Cold Climate Gardening.
I can't believe your roses are still kicking it this late in the season! Great pics 🙂
I have more blue asters than anyone else this Bloom Day.
Carol, Thanks for hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day; I love this monthly ritual. I added asters to my garden for the first time this year, and I'm encouraged by how much they've already bloomed. I'm looking forward to having big, bushy, beautiful plants like yours in future years. -Jean
Thanks for hosting. This is my first post on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and it was a lot of fun.
Hi Carol ~ I just found you via Annie's Annuals…but it is the NIGHT of the 15th and too dark to take pictures. By any chance could I be one day late posting? If not, happy to wait until next month. What a FUN idea you have going here!
Thank you to everyone for joining in. I'm honored you all contribute each month. Yes, absolutely, late posts are fine!
"Are you ready for a killing frost, the end of the show, or is fall the beginning of your second gardening season?"
One of the great things about garden blogging in general and GBBD specifically is how we've been introduced to plants and climates in gardens all over the world. I'll venture a guess that five years ago you didn't weren't aware that so many people looked forward to fall as the beginning of their second growing season.
I'm sure you would have been happy just acquiring a theoretical knowledge…no reason to punish you with Texas-like hot, dry days. I think you are having it worse this year than we are.
And yet, as usual, all your plants seem dripping with flowers. The asters are especially gorgeous.
Tee hee. I was all ready to be early with this for a change, and then I saw you were going to post it at midnight Eastern…which was still an hour away. So I went to bed, and forgot til tonight. Lots of colour still hanging around in my garden, and obviously in many others around the blogosphere. As always, many thanks for hosting this event, Carol.
Thanks for hosting this bloom day again. It's always good to pause and see what has come out of all the digging and planting. Thanks also for the picture of the Knockout Rose. That looks like a beauty. I tried a different Aster this year (Tartarian) that looks like a winner, though much wilder looking than yours.
It still looks good at May Dreams, despite the lack of rain and the impending onset of winter.
Carol, your October garden is bursting with beautiful Asters! The 'Cool Igloo' is such a lovely color.
I always have late blooming marigolds too. They're a bright spot in the fall garden.
Love those 'Radsunny' roses.
Happy Bloom Day!
Ok, I was really late (Oct. 16) in posting, but through the magic of technology, it looks like my blog was posted Oct. 15. Thanks, Carol, for conducting our monthly landscape evaluations.
Oops! I forgot to link yesterday. Thanks for keeping me in line – I love the monthly record GBBD creates, and I'm sure I wouldn't keep up with it on my own.
Carol, thanks for hosting…sorry for being late! Have a wonderful weekend:)
It's great to see all the wonderful gardens here, including your very own May Dreams Gardens. Gives me something to strive for. My blooms are a bit sparse this Bloom Day but my post is up, and a happy Bloom Day to you all!
The "October Skies" aster is aptly named! Really pretty. My marigolds are flourishing now, too. Sorry I'm late, but my GBBD post is now up. Thanks for hosting!
Oooh, asters! You've reminded me how beautiful they can be at this time of year.
Looking forward to visiting other gardens through this great meme.
hi carol, love the asters you have blooming (i must plant some here soon)! i'm totally slacking on my gbbd post, but i have a pretty dahlia to show for it, even if it looks like a wallflower. thanks for hosting, once again!
I may be a day late, Carol, but I've never missed the GBBD. Just got back from North Carolina where there's a lot in bloom.
Hi, Carol, I am a couple of days late, but thanks again for hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day! 🙂 It's a great way to see what's happening month to month! 🙂
Hi Carol! My post is late but the photos were taken on time. LOVE your asters! I just bought a tiny pot and can't decide where to put them. Happy belated GBBD!
Ok, I wonder if I'm the last. At least I got it here this month. Well, it's spring down here!
Cheers
Terry
I definitely need more Asters!
Hi Carol, I was just reminiscing about my first blog post 3 years ago. You were the one that encouraged me to get started blogging. This was such a good step for me. I have learned so much from other gardeners from all over the world. Of course you are still one of my main reads. Thank you so much again. I am also glad you found Mr Linky to help you keep this meme organized. Cheers and Happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.
P.S. I love that yellow rose. It is one that even I could probably grow.
I am amazed,as always, at the participation of this great meme. It is the change of seasons that really stand out with these bloom day posts. Thanks so much for hosting this every month!
That Dendranthema is unknown here, so i love it very much and if only it can be grown here i will be the most happy. Marigold is much suited here, i think, as i presented in my post. They will almost become invasive if not guarded. Is it okay if i post late, i am new in this Meme, found it late also! thanks.
That Dendranthema is unknown here, so i love it very much and if only it can be grown here i will be the most happy. Marigold is much suited here, i think, as i presented in my post. They will almost become invasive if not guarded. Is it okay if i post late, i am new in this Meme, found it late also! thanks.
That Dendranthema is unknown here, so i love it very much and if only it can be grown here i will be the most happy. Marigold is much suited here, i think, as i presented in my post. They will almost become invasive if not guarded. Is it okay if i post late, i am new in this Meme, found it late also! thanks.
I still miss New England Asters, Carol – especially Hella Lacy. But at least I don't have to spell out Symphyotrichum novae-angliae for a blog post. (My only aster is frikartii… still allowed to be Aster)
You garden is all blue and gold – my Austin October is mostly red. The GBBD October post went up yesterday but I forgot to come and talk to the Mr Linky. Happy late GBBD to you, dear friend.
Hope we both get rain!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I love those asters, I've got to get some of them in my garden!! I have been posting what's blooming in my gardens all summer and I just came across your blog today!! Now I will share my link with all of you too!!
http://getbusygardening.blogspot.com/2010/10/whats-bloomin-in-october.html
-Amy (Get Busy Gardening)
I thought that I had added my blog to your list, but I hadn't. I've been enjoying documenting the garden every month for just over a year. Thanks for starting this idea and for hosting the networking center of it. (I started a separate blog on Posterous for the garden.)