October 2020 in the Northern Hemisphere

[cohan]

I'm sure many of you have much more going on in the garden than I do, but for zone 3,  we've done pretty well to have so much still going in October! It's been seasonally mild (mid teens to 20ish days), with a welcome few dry weeks (rain in recent days)-- though looks set to shift this coming week to single digit C days. These shots from Oct 02-05
1- Small Acer, maybe amurensis..
2-Self sown local wild Campanula rotundifolia (alaskana) in the garden having a second go
3-Cyclamen purpurascens-- these have been flowering since July, and as usual get a second good flush in Sept until a serious freeze or snow cover.. my camera will not get the right colour hard to shoot the whole patch, too, too many weeds around...lol
4-Cymbalaria pallida-- I don't think they ever fully stopped flowering, but a good second peak.. ignore the dandelion leaves-- I pulled them after noticing, but then the second shot had lost the light

[cohan]

Roses still going-- they also kind of flower all season, here and there, but a stronger showing late, as well..
1- rose with Parthencissus
2-rugosa cultivar/hybrid with Symphytum

[Mariette]

Rose & Symphytum look lovely together, Cohan!

In my garden, the asters are now mercifully covering the gaps left by the drought. Most of them are seedlings, but the red one on the left is A. n.-b. ´Royal Ruby´.



Asters in the background with Nicotiana sylvestris.



A seedling with leucanthemum ´Bröllopsgåvan´.



Symphotrichon laeve ´Les Moutiers´



Seedlings with Zinnia ´Envy´.



A. n.-a. ´Violetta´with seedlings.



A seedling with the autumn-coloured Paeonia suffruticosa ´Godaishu´.

[Yann]

Autumn colors everywhere in north, i like that.

Not far away the house it's mushrooms time, i stayed 3h under pines and chestnuts before a heavy rain made me run as a....Forrest.

You can clic on photos because the forum's resize engine blur a lot (it can be changed if an admin see this message)

[Leena]

Yann, you had a really nice autumn walk in the forest:).

Cohan, it has been the same here this autumn, warmer than usually. It is now almost mid October and there still hasn't been frost. In my memory this is the first time the first frost comes this late. I remember in the 90s it used to come in late August or early September, and the past ten years it's been late September when the first killing frost came, but never before this late (the forecast says next week temperatures will drop). There are still many asters flowering in the garden, and I even still get tomatoes from the garden.

Mariette, you have so pretty asters, I especially like seedling with leucanthemum and the darker pink/red in the picture with zinnia. It is nice that even with the summer drought the asters grow so well in your garden! 'Violetta' is very pretty colour, I have it also, and it is now opening it's flowers. It may not have a long time to flower before frosts but I like it very much.

Couple of pictures from my garden taken yesterday. Cimicifuga 'Pink Spike' with white tall unnamed aster, and in the second picture white 'Niobe' and blue 'Blaue Lagune', both short and compact asters.

[Herman Mylemans]

Alstroemeria 'Indian Summer' started to flower in July and is still going on.

[Gabriela]

Beautiful fall pictures all!
Yann - seems like you stumbled upon the mushrooms kingdom

I am always amazed by the fact that Aster n. angliae appears to be more cultivated outside of its native range (same goes for other NA species). I also must do better in this regard. Violetta is absolutely gorgeous!

The Canadian Thanksgiving holiday always comes with a feast of colours, fall Crocus and Colchicums. My C. speciosus has been decimated by chipmunks this summer unfortunately but I relish  in the few Crocus banaticus and the others. No frost so other plants are still flowering or reflowering.
C. banaticus, Colchicum 'The Giant' and Waterlily.




A reflowering Daphne, grown from seedex (as blagayana which is not)

From the woods; the American beech with golden leaves now while many Acers have already lost theirs.

[Leena]

Gabriela, your woods are such good autumn colour.

I am always amazed by the fact that Aster n. angliae appears to be more cultivated outside of its native range (same goes for other NA species). I also must do better in this regard. Violetta is absolutely gorgeous!

I would love Aster N.a, because it doesn't spread too much and has very sturdy stems, but here only a few cultivars have time to flower before frosts. Most of them are too late. I have had 'Violetta' now for five years, I think, and mostly it starts to flower in September, but this year for some reason it is starting only now. A friend of mine (from whom I got it) grows hers in sunnier garden than mine, and her plant was earlier even this year, so it is a very good aster and such beautiful colour.

[Hoy]

Seems you have a lot of plants still in bloom, all of you! Here at the summerhouse most plants are summer flowering so not many left now.

1) Begonia grandis ssp evansiana.

2) Rosa, possibly Chinatown

3) Ceratostigma willmottianum

4) Went for a walk today ans saw this rose. grown like a tree!

5) This defoliated ash shows the prevailing summer wind!

[johnw]

xGordlinia grandiflora just keep flowering.  Many more buds to open, they're beautiful in their own right & look like half-sized pingpong balls.  johnw

[Carolyn]

John,
I had to google this one! it looks an interesting plant. Does yours have good autumn colour? What size is the plant and how many years to flowering? A photo of the whole plant would be a useful addition.
I am tempted to give it a try....

[johnw]

Carolyn - I don't recall any autumn colour, it doesn't seem to heed the approach of winter.  I'll verify colouration though.

About 3 years ago Philip MacD brought me an unrooted branch from BC & I cut it up and managed to root one rather easily, the others I transplanted too early.  Flowering in its 2nd year it's now over 6ft tall and grows like mad if the summer is warm enough. Flowers here open in sunny weather then stay open.

I'd send you an armload of cuttings if I lived in the UK.

john

[Carolyn]

Thanks John, wish you lived in the UK then! Six feet in a couple of years is quite a lot. it will be interesting to see how big it gets in a few more years.
A couple of nurseries here are listing it. Their photos show the older leaves colouring up in autumn.
I am currently in the middle of re-doing part of our garden. We have had 2 enormous very old lime trees removed and I am waiting for the tree surgeon to return with his (hopefully) repaired stump grinder. Meanwhile I have treated myself to several nice acer palmatum, an amelanchier and a prunus serrula. A Gordonia, being evergreen, would make a nice addition - but I need to wait and see how much space i will have left. i don’t want to over-plant (which I always end up doing!) 

[Mariette]

I am always amazed by the fact that Aster n. angliae appears to be more cultivated outside of its native range (same goes for other NA species). I also must do better in this regard. Violetta is absolutely gorgeous!

The colour of ´Violetta´is similar to some other varieties, like ´Helen Picton´, for instance.  Unfortunately all but one show floppy gowth in my garden, I wonder, whether this is the same for others. Since I grew more than one clone there are some seedlings, but still have to wait for one with better manners.
@Leena: the seedling You like is such a lurker, too. In fact there are two seedlings looking identical.

Fortunately, there are not only asters in flower. 







And the emerging leaves of Arum italicum ´Chui´look exciting, too.

[ruweiss]

The fruits of Poncirus trifoliatus are inedible, but the colour is very welcome
in this season.
Seeds of Iris foetidissima are quite colourful and also useful for flower arrangements.