From faithful garden correspondent (& amazing photographer) Marvel:
You asked for pix from sunnier times, so I scouted a few flowers for you. First up, our early Queen, the young tree peony. Can’t take a bad photo of these wonderful flowers.
The crocus are our earliest Spring flower (I t-h-i-n-k they beat the camelias) — so fragile and fresh, enlivening and otherwise drab understory.
The borage and a scattering of colorful lettuce brighten up a newly-wakened Spring bed.
There are several pieris around the house — I love the bight coral hues and Japanese lantern blooms on these mature plants.
Out front there are some well-established rhodies and azaleas — it’s not a particularly shady out there, but they’ve done well for years and years. It amazes me that their tightly-wound buds can live through the sometimes-freezing temps (and snow) in Winter and still produce yards and yards of fragile blooms come Spring. Tough ones, rhodies.
Finally, being Oregon, we have to find SOMETHING to like about the rain, else we’d go mad! I like it just fine.
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
Steeplejack (phone)
@Anne Laurie:
I think you mean “faithful garden correspondent.”
Anne Laurie
@Steeplejack (phone): That does it, I’m going to bed.
CarolDuhart2
Fall is coming in very slowly in my part of the world. Could anyone post pics of beautiful fall foilage in all it’s true glory?
Keith G
Love peonies.
@CarolDuhart2: One of the greatest losses caused by my move to the Texas coast, all those years ago, was moving away from all those wonderful stands of deciduous trees around my native Great Lakes. In the side yard of our family farm was a single red maple standing directly opposite a kitchen window. It’s brilliant crimson leaves announced the change in weather.
OzarkHillbilly
As always Marvel, beautiful pics. I hate you and your perfect garden ;-)
@CarolDuhart2: My wife finally fixed my computer last week and I will be sending Anne some autumnal pics next week.
rikyrah
Good Morning?,Everyone?
Hillary Rettig
Awesome pictures, Marvel!
Rain = mushrooms
opiejeanne
Beautiful photos, Marvel. I love peonies.
CarolDuhart2
@Keith G: So you moved where, so I am told, there are only two seasons: Winter and everything else (including road construction).
Ready for Indian (probably really Native American) summer to be really over. I have new sweaters and a coat I want to test.
amygdala
Wow… so beautiful, and a lovely way to start Sunday morning. Many thanks.
I’m photo-impaired enough that I could take bad pictures of the peonies, alas.
ThresherK (GPad)
We are close to turning on the heat here. Looking at crocuses reminds me of a biopic’s last scene where the subject remembers important parts from their life (the movie) before passing.
satby
Good morning everyone! I slept late, just woke up. And a wonderful start to the day Marvel, thanks!
On my day off this week I was able to transplant all the 30 irises, some bulbs, and a daylilly from my old house, as well as a clematis and a azeala that never thrived there. I still have a few daffodils bulbs to go (thanks, Watergirl!) and a few shrubs, but I’m so looking forward to next spring and summer when I have a garden again.
tybee
the sounds of fall around here are chain saws and leaf blowers, literally from dawn to dusk, and the beeping of heavy machinery backing up to grab another pile of tree trunks.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I’ve got a clematis blooming right now. 2nd or 3rd year in a row it has bloomed in Oct. And yes, it blooms in May too.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly:
Have you mentioned this to your doctor?
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I visited my former neighbor in MI last Wednesday and she mentioned she had one blooming then too. She said it normally only bloomed in the spring. The one I transplanted came originally from next to the smashed garage in Chicago, I tried to salvage the flowers in the bed next to it before it was demolished. And now I lost them at the old house anyway, but I knew where the clematis was and brought that with me.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’ve got an appt on Thursday.
debbie
The flowers are beautiful but making me wish for spring already.
Immanentize
Hello, All.
It is leaf pick up week in my town. They happen every other week until Thanksgiving. So it is all trimming and raking here on out. The drought claimed a Kousa dogwood that has to come out, I have to trim yews, and the yard looks like camouflage with brown and green spots distributed evenly.
Wonder what the winter will be — rainy like last year? Or 10 feet of snow like the year before? Fuck Mike Pence.
Raven
Nice pix. Gearing up for the dog parade.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: You know what we want.
satby
@Immanentize: raining in S. Bend now, so no more bulb planting plans for me, I leave for work in one hour. ?
Elizabelle
@tybee: Are you on or pretty close to Tybee Island? Visited there in September; loved it. Tybean Coffee Company, and the North Beach Bar and Grill. Plus the beautiful beach. Am told you can swim in mid-November: is that so?
Anyway, sorry to hear of all the tree damage.
GregB
Up in western Maine on a working visit. The colors have been outstanding.
Gelfling 545
I’m about to go out and do battle with a Japanese Silver Grass that is trying to take over the earth. It’s not invasive here. It’s just too darn BIG. Only if the rain holds off, though, as power tools will be needed. I’m really pleased that my 2 little $2 garden mums from last year have merged into a 3 foot tall shrublike plant. In previous years I have had no luck with them. I’m also having no luck getting a good photo of them for the garden album.
JPL
The pictures are gorgeous and thank you for sharing your garden photos with us.
Doug R
I hear the remnants of Songda hit you guys harder than us north of the 49th. Even though we haven’t lost power yet, we still burned a few tealights that we picked up at Ikea yesterday. Made in the USA, btw.
raven
@Elizabelle: @Elizabelle: The average water temp in November for Tybee is 69 degrees. There are certainly people who can and do swim in it but most don’t. I surf fish on the gulf coast at Thanksgiving and the water temp is similar. I spend a good time in the water but I’m nits.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven:
Nits make lice you know.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Multi tasking!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Multi tasking nits? Now that is something I’d like to see!
Humdog
I’ve had 5 inches of rain in two days, 3 more expected and 30-50 mile per hour winds. Garden is asleep for winter.
Power went out 3 times yesterday. One of my dogs freaks out when power goes out and cannot be calmed. We do not have tv on all the time so she should be used to silence. I do not know why she freaks then or how to help.
OzarkHillbilly
@Humdog: Battery operated radio?
Elizabelle
@raven: Sounds like a bracing dip.
And dog in costume pics, you hear? Have fun.
MomSense
@raven:
69 degree ocean temps would be bath water for us up here.
Marvel your gardens truly are a marvel. Thank you for the photos.
japa21
@CarolDuhart2: I am beginning to wonder if we will have a Native American summer. Came close to a frost here this week but didn’t quite make it. Considering the temps today and in the forecast, we may not hit freezing until sometime in January and all the leaves will be long gone by then.
OzarkHillbilly
@japa21: We are supposed to hit 88 tomorrow. Thankfully temps are supposed to drop after that.
raven
@Elizabelle: I’m giving my camera to a budding high school photographer.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Be sure to send Anne a bunch so she can start our day right.
Elizabelle
@raven: Right. You mentioned.
So now we are expecting even more pics!
scav
crocus! good reminder, shouldn’t we be thinking about bulb planting? I know I’m after more scilla (both types if possible) and I’m really hoping to convince the boss into glory of the snow (to extend the season of bloom — well, start it earlier). Any other suggestions for little ones? There already are some grape hyacinths and tons of snowdrops.
japa21
@OzarkHillbilly: My son at Fort Leonard Wood is a hunter. These higher temps are not doing him any good.
raven
@japa21: Ft Lost in the Woods.
japa21
@raven: Exactly. Been there almost 3 years and, with recent promotion to LTC will be there another 2-3.
OzarkHillbilly
@japa21: I take it he’s a bow hunter? I was for a few years. Loved it, but had to give it up due to my arthritis.
@raven: I never had any trouble finding it, but then I’m a little lost in the woods myself.
japa21
@OzarkHillbilly: Yes. Bow and this year took up the crossbow specifically to help reproduce the feral hog population in MO. BTW, I see Blount may actually be in trouble in MO. His lead appears to be shrinking and if the GOP turnout gets depressed you can have two Dem senators.
schrodinger's cat
@CarolDuhart2: Probably not. In India, October, the month between monsoon and winter is actually as hot as summer, so Indian summer may not have Native American connotations at all.
tybee
@Elizabelle:
currently water is 72 degrees. a bit brisk for a swim. i’ve been seining in temps down to 65 but did not enjoy it.
JR in WV
We went to the local “Intergalactic Homebrew Festival” last night, great party. Full moon over the ridge, pleasant weather, no mud, campfire, huge pot luck supper, Music from old time mountain string band to scat singing with clarinet jazz.
And beer. I didn’t drink any, doctor’s advice, give my liver a break.
But a great party, people from Kent, Athens, Ohio, many counties of WV, people we see once or twice a year, routinely, more often on special years. Dear friend moving into a new straw-bale home she has built on a new ridge top farm near her old homestead.
Lots of good news. Great time. I am told the beer was great, it usually is. One new friend made a Paw-Paw pale ale, amazing creativity.