November Blooms

This will probably be the last month for outdoor blooms here in our zone 5b garden until next spring. There are still a few hardy hangers-on in sheltered spots, in spite of frosts we've had each night this week. Borage seedlings are sheltered near the foundation of our house.  Even so they probably won't last much longer.

I'm not sure I've shown a shasta daisy photo on Bloom Day before.  I always forget about them because they're in a spot where there aren't many other things (yet!)  They're in a very dry spot where the soil is pretty sandy.  In spite of the heat and drought this year, they thrived, and bloomed all summer.  This last single bloom somehow escaped the clutches of bunnies who eat so much of our garden.

 

We've had some good rains this month that helped revive this hardy cyclamen.  The blooms are declining now, but the beautiful foliage will remain until it goes dormant in late spring.  It was great to find the other two cyclamens come back after the rain.  They didn't bloom this year, but the foliage is still beautiful and I'm happy knowing they survived the drought.

If we have any outdoor blooms left by December, they will likely be on this mini-rose.  It often retains its foliage and flowers into mid-or-late December.

Sedum 'Matrona' was extraordinarily long-blooming this year.  These tough plants laugh at drought.

Geranium 'Rozanne' lives in a sheltered spot, and this year she sports three last blooms that, while on their way out, still managed to retain their color after several frosty nights.

Pink mums are still hanging on.  The blooms on the orange mums are all gone - eaten by something, most likely rabbits.  I'm amazed there are any mum blooms left.  The orange ones are always the first to go, and these are probably not long for the world.  Every time I'm in the garden now, a couple of bunnies skitter out of their leafy, insulated garden hiding places.

As the gardening season draws to close here in the Chicago area, we're already busy planning for next season, while tending our basement greenhouse, bursting at the seams with tender plants already blooming again after being cut back and brought indoors last month.  Every sunny window upstairs is lined with even more of them.

Happy Bloom Day, and to see more blooms in gardens everywhere, please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.