In a Vase on Monday - Forgive me Cathy.

Cathy at Rambling in the garden, the host of In a Vase on Monday, encourages us to find something from our gardens or foraged nearby to bring inside to enjoy.  Today I have a confession.  Before participating in this meme, I seldom cut flowers from my garden to bring inside.  For years, this silk arrangement sat in the foyer during the summer and has been there for the last month or two.

I've had this thing for at least 25 years and it's been borrowed for a couple of weddings and some other events as well.  Now that it's autumn, this will once again go live on a closet shelf.

The replacement is this thing that's been around for almost as long.  Each year it changes a bit but not so much this year.  The vase was purchased 21 years ago for our first Thanksgiving in this house.  The contents have mostly come from my garden but remnants of arrangements brought by relatives on Thanksgivings past are also present.  Some of last year's gourds had dried nicely and were painted gold this summer for this post.

There are also some dried hydrangeas in the entry with grass seed heads.

This year, I intentionally didn't go to the Glass Eye Studio sidewalk sale as I have enough glass!  The glass pumpkin collection is hanging out on the dining room table for a few weeks until it must be cleared to make space for Thanksgiving dinner.

Forgive me, Cathy, for not bringing anything new inside to enjoy this week.  To see Cathy's vase this week and find links to those of others, click here. 

A Sunny Summer Day at Squak Mountain Nursery

While autumn has its charms, I already miss the warmth of summer.  The nights are getting cold, the furnace has kicked on for the first time in months, most of the tuberous begonias have been reduced to a powdery mildew-covered mass of goop and falling leaves cover the garden paths and must be skimmed from the pond a couple of times a day.  Let's forget all that for a few moments and take a warm summer stroll through Squak Mountain Nursery.

I'm feeling warmer already. 

What a fun arbor!

Let's check out the Garden Shed.

Silk Brugmansias  Hmmm. 

Faux bois planters. 

Stuff a go-go.

This chandelier would make a fabulous Monday vase!

There doesn't seem to be an end in sight for the cactus trend. 

 Into the greenhouses

I remember feeling a bit sad seeing this huge house, previously stuffed with annuals now taken over by baby poinsettias. A nice worker told me that I should come back in October when these would all start showing color.  At the time that seemed far away and already the time is upon us.

Back outside, the strong fragrance of roses wafted.  It was 'Kiss Me' whose fragrance was so strong.  Hopefully I'll get it in the ground one of these days.

Happy weekend all.  Hope you're able to get outside and play. 

Where Are They Now? Winter Digs.

Back in the time known as B.G. (Before Greenhouse) the tender plants were stored in three areas of our house, dormant brugmansias & musas in the basement, other plants in an unfinished room upstairs or in the stained glass "greenhouse" which was part of the back porch.  Now in A.G. time, that space has mysteriously filled up and those areas are now back in service although not as crowded as they once were. 

I can throw a space heater in here if it gets really cold.

Experimenting this winter,  I've also put some plants that are hardy to cold but not wet, in available space under the roof of the side porch.

 A few bromeliads have been brought into the house for the winter but most will spend the cold months in the greenhouse. 

Look, there's still space on that chair for a couple of abutilons.

The green cart gets pulled out and will hold a couple of brugmansias.  I've taken cuttings of several large plants which will stay outside this year. 

All that remains to come in is the large Ensete ventricosum, the aforementioned brugmansias and abutilons, tuberous begonias (basement bound) and, only for the coldest part of the winter, a couple of cordylines.  Maybe it's time to stop living so much in zonal denial.  On the other hand, being able to walk through one's home without being thwacked in the face by some plant or other is overrated, don't you think?

Wednesday Vignette - Grateful

As the days grow shorter, cooler, wetter and busier, I sometimes forget how very fortunate we are to live in this magical climate.  Warm enough to grow palm trees yet with autumn evening temperatures cool enough to bring on nice autumn colors like the gold of the coral bark maple in the background, always my first tree to start changing color.  In out climate, we can grow a wider variety of plants than anywhere else on the planet other than tropical rainforests.  I must remind myself of that repeatedly during the winter when I gaze longingly  at the garden blogs of my Californian friends!

Always changing, transforming, evolving, nothing stands still for long.  

Speaking of change, one of my favorite garden writers, Ann Lovejoy, recently posted this on her blog.  Well worth a read!

Wednesday Vignette is hosted by Anna at Flutter and Hum.  Click here to see more. 

Dances With Agaves: The Migration Has Begun

The small collection of a few non-hardy plants has grown both in number and size over the years.

2011

2012

2013

2016

2017

 2018

On Saturday, I had a free day to start moving the succulents inside for the winter.   This picture was taken in July and I was surprised that the plants had grown even more during our hot dry summer.  That's what you get for repotting, feeding, and watering plants.   It took the entire day to move all of these to various spots for the winter.  Where did they all go?  Stay tuned for another post.

Next spring, I'll severely cut back the foliage behind this area which blocks a bit of sun and perhaps find a different place for the Trachycarpus fortunei currently in a large pot. Evergreens that were stashed in other parts of the garden for the summer now fill part of the area. I'm experimenting this year with leaving Agave 'Mr. Ripple' and an aloe whose name I've forgotten outside for the winter.  Mr. Ripple's pot is now pretty big to be moving around and it's hardy to 10-15 degrees.  It had pups that I potted up and will keep inside for insurance. 

There are still some plants outside that need to come in for the winter but the Danger Gardenette is tucked away for another year. Have you started your plant migration or are you smart enough not to bother with such silliness?

In a Vase on Monday - Pumpkin Spice

Can you believe it's October already?  The first leaves are beginning to color up and litter the garden so that every morning looks like the day after a ticker-tape parade in celebration of the summer that was and the spiders are busy spinning webs across every pathway. Out in the countryside, fields are littered with bright orange orbs.  Rainy days have returned and there's no pretending that summer will last forever; it's definitely autumn.  Opinions are mixed about pumpkin spice flavoring but I'm a fan so this mug jumped in my shopping cart recently.

Fortunately, the garden still has a few blooms.  Abutilons, a spent hydrangea, alstroemeria, and pelargonium blooms join some canna seed pods in this warm and spicy concoction.

A glass pumpkin joins the arrangement. 

The chicken pope, created by Christopher Hoppin, a gift from friend and neighbor, Sandy,  usually gets moved from this spot to make room for vases but today, he decided to stay and enjoy a little pumpkin spice himself.  He's fairly heavy and I was too lazy to move him.

Have a blessed and pumpkin spicy week all and don't forget to click over to our host's blog, Rambling in the Garden, to see what Cathy and others have found in their gardens to bring inside this week.