Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - November 2016

Welcome to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for November 2016.

Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6a garden in central Indiana, we just woke up to the first freeze of the season a few days ago. This beat the old "latest first freeze record" set in the 1940's by about four days.

This means my bloom day post for November features some  seed heads covered with heavy frost.  They are the ghosts of the growing season past.

Do you recognize Joe Pye Weed in the first picture?  I plan to cut off those seedheads in the next few days. I love Joe Pye but would not care to have its flowers all over the garden.

The same is true of the goldenrod.

I enjoy goldenrod in late summer and early fall and so do many pollinators, but it would not be good to have it all over the garden.  Those seedheads' days are numbered.

I'll let the seedheads for tall sedum stand through the winter.

It provides a nice landing pad for snowflakes in the winter time and I've never seen it self sow.

It's funny how that first freeze stops everything in its tracks, including these autumn crocuses.

Some of those buds might open up when the sun hits them and warms them up, or not. Shrug. We gardeners in temperate climates with four seasons must grow to love and accept our seasons including winter. No flowers last forever and that's okay. We would grow weary and tired of them if they did.

I made one last check for buds on the Christmas Rose, Helleborus niger, before heading inside.

I'm hoping for some winter flowers around Christmas time or earlier from this hellebore because if I don't get blooms from it, I'll be bloomless outside until possibly February when the  snowdrops and witch hazels wake up.

But inside...

There are always blooms on the Crown of Thorn plants.

I have two of these euphorbias, one with yellow flowers, the other, in the background, with pink flowers.

Nearby, Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender' is blooming.

The blooms are much lighter, nearly white, which makes me wonder if this was mis-labeled or if it just has faded blooms when it blooms under low light conditions like those indoors.

Or is it copying the nearby Thanksgiving-Christmas cactus?

And that's what's blooming here at May Dreams Gardens.

What's blooming in your garden today? We'd love to have you share what's blooming in your garden with us for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. It's easy to participate. Just post on your blog about whatever is blooming in your garden, then come back here and leave a comment to tell us all about those blooms and then put a link in the Mr. Linky widget so we can find you.

And remember always...

"We can have flowers nearly every month of the year." ~ Elizabeth Lawrence