08 October - Rose and Forget-Me-Not

I took this photograph near the end of October.

Phil hacked down the rose bushes between the garage doors in early July, when our cold and foggy summer was causing them to drop their leaves.

I thought for sure they wouldn't be back until next spring, but as soon as our Indian summer started near the end of August, the roses sprang back to life.

Beneath this rose, you can see a forget-me-not in bloom.

08 October - Portulaca

We planted several portulaca mid-summer, and they have done quite well during our Indian summer.

I think I bought ten or twelve six packs from the nursery off Ocean Beach. I'll buy twice that many next year, as they do surprisingly well during the cold and foggy summers, though I'm sure they'd've preferred we lived anywhere in sunny, hot Sonoma County.

081026 - Heirloom Asters

Here are several photographs of the asters we had in the gardens this year.

Before this spring, I had never forced seedlings inside and had great success with these. I placed some soil in the bottom of a plastic cheese container with a clear lid, sprinkled seeds over the soil, splashed some water into the container, sealed the lid, and set the container on a table in the dining room, which gets great afternoon light.

Within a week, I had dozens of seedlings. I let them grow to half an inch, then transferred them into six packs in the gardens.

Unfortunately, during our cold and foggy summer, most died.

The bottom three photographs show rare heirloom asters I purchased online. They grew to about a foot tall, and the flowers were about the size of quarters. I preferred these over the other asters you see in these photographs. Those were very squat and had stringy-looking flowers that didn't last long.

I'm going to grow more of the heirlooms next year and start them indoors a little later in the year, so that they can take advantage of our long Indian summer.

081026 - Amaranth

I took these photographs today of our two amaranths.

Earlier this year, I read online that a university in Minnesota planted their amaranths in May; and since our calendar summers are so cold and foggy, I decided to follow their lead.

I planted several in six packs in the nursery at the top of the backyard.

Unfortunately, the nursery became overgrown with the red dahlia and buddleia before I knew it. I was only able to save one six pack's worth of seedlings, and these are the only ones to have thrived once I planted them in the gardens. The flowers are up to eighteen inches long and feel disturbingly like a cat's tail.

Next year, I'm going to do a better job caring for the seedlings and hope to have a dozen or more in the gardens, especially since they've shown they do so well late in the year.

08 September - Salmon hybrid Asiatic poppy

This was the second time this year that our salmon hybrid Asiatic poppy went into bloom.

This last summer, the flowers were massive on very short stems.

These flowers were much smaller atop very long stems, making them more graceful and beautiful.