Bloomday, October 2012

I am a cheater and I freely admit it. Most of these pictures were taken last week, while I could still pretend it was summer. While there was blue sky behind the Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebrinus' blooms.

Which kind of matched the flowers on the Acnistus australis.

And the foliage on the Blue senecio, which is blooming!

I do promise that all of these flowers are still blooming today, on Bloomday, but I simply had to capture the warmth of the sun, before the sky turned grey. Here’s a little more “heat” in the form of Abutilon hybrid 'Fairy Coral Red'…

A very orange, but somewhat shy (facing the wall) Canna...

Grown as an annual in my zone 8 garden Anigozanthos (Kangaroo Paw), once again proved it was money well spent.

Dyckia choristaminea 'Frazzle Dazzle'

The bloom spike emerged so crispy I feared it was dead, but then the soft yellow petals proved otherwise.

Clematis tibetana var. vernayi (yay!)

Kniphofia hirsute

And a new to me Grevillea 'Neil Bell'.

A summer-ish flower, still going strong. Hibiscus syriacus 'Red Heart'…

A new bloom on the psychopathic Hydrangea, which is making it’s final Bloomday appearance as it will be going bye-bye soon! (I’m suddenly very excited about this)…

Euphorbia 'Excalibur,’ reblooming…

Callistemon ‘Woodlander's Hardy Red’ with a random late bloom…

Eucomis pole-evansii, blown over by a strong wind but blooming on in a vase indoors.

Mahonia fortunei 'Curlyque' is blooming a little early I thought, but a quick check reveals it was also in flower for last October’s Bloomday.

What a sucker am I? Well I do love Astelia, but I bought this one at Cistus recently simply because I couldn’t get enough of that crazy bloom spike…

The little Orostachys iwarenge (Chinese dunce caps) are so cute with their soft blooms.

They've kind of lost their pronounced “dunce cap” shape but I don’t mind.

Finally the stereotypical blooms of fall… Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

Hakonechloa

And Chasmanthium latifolium (Northern sea oats), seed heads as flower stand-ins.

So that’s it for blooms here…what does everyone else have blooming in October? Visit May Dreams Gardens to see for yourself...