Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - October 2014

Autumn crocus, Crocus speciosus

Welcome to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for October 2014.

Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6a garden in central Indiana, I am pleased to introduce a new bloom in my garden for mid-fall.

Please give a hearty GBBD welcome to the Autumn Crocus, Crocus speciosus.

It's nice to have crocuses blooming in the fall. 

Just like in the spring, the first one bloomed and I was excited. Then one day I walked out the back door and all of them seemed to be blooming at once.  I could hardly contain myself.

These autumn crocuses, which are magical according to the garden fairies, are as easy to plant as the spring blooming Crocus species. Just plant the corms and forget about them.

When they bloom the following year, these Autumn Crocuses will lure you into taking many, many pictures of them, just like the spring Crocuses do. It's as though they make you think they are the last flowers you will ever see.

Of course, they aren't the last flowers I'll ever see, but they are the tail end of new blooms for my growing season.

I find it hard to believe another growing season is almost over.  We haven't yet had a first frost, even though our average date for a first frost is around October 10th, but I'm expecting one next week.  Then before I am ready, no doubt, we'll have a killing frost and then it will all be over.

Brrrrr... let's not talk about all that just yet.

As we stand on the edge of the growing season, ready to fall off the cliff into winter, what a gruesome image, there are some other blooms in my garden to enjoy.

The asters are still putting on a good show and are still attracting butterflies.

Aster with Monach butterfly

The butterflies are all flitting around amongst the butterfly bushes, too.

Shrubs add color to the garden in fall, just like trees

Though, in this garden area, called The Shrubbery, the real stars right now are the colorful shrubs, which are just reaching their peak of autumn color.  The two tall shrubs in the back are Cotinus coggygria. On the left is 'Golden Spirit' and on the right is 'Royal Purple'. The reddish shrub is a lilac, Syringa meyeri, but I can't say it is always that red. It's as pretty as I've ever seen it.

Nearby, the shrub rose, Rosa 'Meiboulka', sold as Oso Easy^® Cherry Pie, is loaded with rose hips and one bloom.

Rosa 'Meiboulka' 

Those colorful rose hips, which echo the color of the blooms, will be around for most of the winter, providing a spot of color in an otherwise dreary landscape.

Over in Ploppers' Field, I did notice I was a bit remiss in not weeding out fleabane,  Erigeron annuus.

Fleabane, just a weed but kind of pretty

I should really pull it out before it sets seed, but it is probably too late. No doubt there were earlier blooms and the seeds have already been sown for next year.

And so it goes in my garden. 

The toad lilies are no longer hopping, the goldenrod is not as golden as it was in September, and all around I have decisions to make on whether to cut back now or leave well enough alone until spring.  

One such decision is already made. I will definitely not cut back the Christmas Rose, Helleborus niger.

Helleborus niger, a flower for winter

I'm relying on its blooms to carry me through winter until once again, the crocuses are blooming in the spring. It's a lot of pressure to put on one plant, but so be it.

What's blooming in your garden in October?  Join us for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and show us.

It's easy to participate. Just post on your own blog about what is blooming on the 15th of the month in your garden,  then come back over here and leave a comment to tell us what you have, and then enter your name and the url to your bloom day post in the Mr. Linky widget.

If you have any problems with commenting or with Mr. Linky, send me an email and I'll be happy to help you out.

As the garden designer and writer  Elizabeth Lawrence once wrote, "We can have flowers nearly every month of the year."

She was right, you know.