I know everyone has flung themselves headfirst into Christmas and all that wintry loveliness but autumn is still with us for a couple more weeks. I know I am fortunate to live in No. California where the blooming season starts early and lasts a long time but I can already see our garden winding down. We've (haha – you know I mean Rick) stopped deadheading the roses so they can settle down for their winter rest. And most of our summer flowering shrubs are hanging on to their last couple of blossoms.
We had a terrific wind yesterday that blew most of the lingering leaves off the trees. Isn't funny how the leaves have lined themselves up in the lawnmower tracks.
My impatiens are still going like gangbusters. Both the ones in the pot at the end of the walkway and the ones in the three-tiered planter.
Once we dip down into the low 30's these will be gone. We are supposed to get down to 37° F tonight. Rick covered up one of the begonias. I'm thinking I might need a greenhouse situation on the backside of the garden shed to over-winter the begonias and the fuchsia.
The camellias have started blooming to give us a couple of months of flowers while the rest of the garden sleeps.
We do have some lovely camellias in the garden. I'm not sure what this one is – it was here when we moved in. My favorite is Nuccio's Pearl followed very closely by Debutante.
That milky white sky always reminds me of late autumn.
Here's the last of the fall color in our yard. I kept meaning to take a picture of our pistache tree when it was vivid orange and red but it was so fleeting. You can barely see that bench during the summer. It is surrounded by gladiolas and foxgloves. Not a fan of gladiolas (funeral flower) but Rick loves them and lord knows he accommodates me often enough.
Here are the last of the fuchsia blossoms. They always remind me of ballerinas. I can remember having them in our yard growing up and getting constantly scolded for "popping" them before they had a chance to open. Did anyone else to that?
