No Shortage of Blooms Here!

I love fall!! Everything about it. .except that it means winter comes next. .which I HATE. .except for some occasional snows, which I like!  While wandering around the yard earlier this week I found that there seems to be no shortage of blooming flowers, grasses and berries as the season comes to a close!  The gardens are looking good with the cooler weather.  Thought that I would share a few pictures of what things are looking like around here!

Cami and I went "adventuring" on Monday.  I have been working on the new flower bed with horrible soil between the house and the new waterfall/creek bed.  I already love this layout SOOO much better with the extra room to work.  My idea was to scatter some of my coolest limestone rocks and add succulents around them to grow.  It is hot there. .it's on the south side of the house and the house has aluminum siding!  I have already transplanted some things into the bed from other places in the garden.  But the purple flowers above were transplanted from our pasture.  They are liatris, or blazing star.  Unbeknownst to me, there are at least 5 kinds listed in my wildflower guide--and I have it narrowed down to one of 2 varieties.  We dug up 3 clumps, catching nearly all of the thick taproot.  They went immediately into the soil and we watered them in.  I think they will be very pretty there in the late summer/early fall if they survive the transplant--sometimes prairie wildflowers don't transplant well.

We also found a bird nest that I had noticed beneath the tree by the mailbox about a week ago.  Apparently no one is needing it right now, so Cami picked it up and brought it back with us!

Here's some Autumn Joy Sedum.  It is a faithful bloomer this time of year.  My mom taught me that you can just snip some stems and stick each one into the ground.  They root easily and take off well. .I have tried it that way too, and it works great!

This is liorope--or monkey grass.  I really love the varigated variety.  It does well in sun or partial shade--as it is in here.  It has pretty little purple spiky flowers in fall.  This one is tangled up with my dreaded bermuda grass.  ARRRRG!

This is another variety of sedum--it is a varigated kind.  I found it for half price at Brady nursery last year.  I didn't take a picture of my purple emperor sedum--I keep breaking it with my hose.  Poor stuff.  But I just keep sticking the broken stems back into the earth, and they continue rooting!  They have a purple stem and foliage with similar colored blooms.  They are blooming now too, but the stems are pathetic and laying on the ground!

My pyracanthus bush has been planted for about 8 years.  It is about 5 1/2 feet tall, and I LOOVE the orange berries in the fall.  I cut a few stems the other day to add to a decoration for my picnic table.  I'll let you know if the berries will hold their color or not--I haven't ever tried it before.

The 1/2 price silver lace vine is finally going to town in its 3rd season, and has nearly reached the top of this trellis.  My hope is that next season it will loop itself over the top.  It has been blooming now for about 6 weeks, and is very pretty!

Here are some late planted zinnias.  I don't remember the names, but they are the most brilliant red/orange color you will see! 

These little guys are my pride and joy. .because I started them in my greenhouse from seed last spring.  The purple coneflowers are finally big enough to bloom, and they are lovely!  I have left the seedheads on all my other coneflowers as food for the birds, so they are pretty ratty looking right now! These new plants just started blooming about a week ago, which was a surprise to me, since often times periennials don't bloom the first year.

This is another greenhouse success. .Rudbeckia, or black eyed susans--variety Hirta.  The blooms are smallish, and I really hope that next year they will be taller with bigger blooms. .but most of the transplants have survived, so I can't WAIT for the show next summer!

Finally, a shot of my west flower beds.  You can see the cloud of orange and yellow cosmos.  They have happily reseeded themselves for the last couple years.  The double knock out roses are getting big too, and have bloomed all summer.  I was really lazy about cutting off the dead blooms--and was advised that they would bloom more if I did, I just didn't have time.  The ornamental grasses are looking their best right now too--but that may just have to be another post sometime this month.  The mums are starting to turn on their glory and in a week or so will be putting on quite a display!

I'm sure trying to soak up the beauty before old man winter shows up to stay!

Don't forget to stop a minute and enjoy your own views!