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| This morning's sudden frigid temperatures. |
We had our first killing frost last night. I'd been dreading it because the flowers were still so beautiful, but we don't get to tell Mother Nature her business.
Some illustrative scenes from my gardens: Before (a few days ago), this morning in frost, and After (this afternoon after the sun rewarmed and destroyed the structure of the plants):
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Before: My delphiniums, starting their third flush of bloom. I was hoping they'd flower more
fully, but I don't think that's going to happen this year.... |
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| Frost this morning... |
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| After: Not so pretty this afternoon. Cosmos totally done. |
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| Before: Another part of my front border, a few days ago... |
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| ...and today. Over and done. |
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| Zinnias and a surprise reblooming iris in my North Border a few days ago.... |
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| ...and voila! Fifty shades of grey this afternoon. |
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| The Rainbow Border a few days ago (sorry about the harsh light -- the longer autumn rays make it hard to take photos of this west-facing border). |
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| No harsh colors this morning, only frosty shades of black & white. |
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| Dahlias and snapdragons and zinnias in the Cutting Garden a few days ago.... |
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| P.F. -- Post Frost. |
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| I couldn't find a recent photo of the four o'clocks, so here's one from back in September. They weren't blooming as much recently, but they still retained their structure yesterday... |
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| ...but not after this morning. I was shocked by their total collapse today. I hadn't seen the rose bushes between the four o'clocks since July, but now they're the only things left standing here. |
There are still a few flowers going: the snapdragons and bachelor buttons are cool-season annuals here and they hardly look touched, but nearly everything else is down for the count, at least for this year (in the case of perennials). Time to pull out the annuals so I can plant some more bulbs in their place.
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| At least a few flowers will keep going inside for a little while. These geraniums looked so floriferous that I brought them into my kitchen to enjoy for a time before putting them in the basement to overwinter. The hibiscus will stay in this spot until next summer. (Sigh. I like the sound of that already: "Next Summer." ) |
Time marches forward and stops for no one; certainly not for the flowers. It's time to move on to different things. Thanks for reading! -Beth
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