October 9- Happy birthday mom

ctober 9, 2007
I spent the weekend getting the garden ready for winter. The orchids are moved inside. So are the clivia. The amaryllis are all hanging out near the garage, soaking up that last bit of sunshine into their bulbs, hopefully making flowers for next year. I took 6 of the orchid cactus over to a friend’s house to spend the winter in an unheated basement area that will not freeze. The strange thing about all of this was the temperature was close to 90 each of the last 3 days. It was hard to tell it was October, other than the fact that there were leaves everywhere.
The other sure sign of fall was the fact that the bulbs have started to arrive. I planted some lilium, daffodils, more fall crocuses, camassia, and some Italicum arum ( new to the garden). It is also the time to take a final look at the bulb catalogues. What can I tuck in where in two weeks? There is always room for more winter aconite for example.
One thing that is good about this time of year is that there are a whole group of perennials that perk up this time of year. Coralbells ( heuchera), now in so many varieties, pulmonaria, also in many varieities, and hellebores just grow like crazy. The new growth on the hellebores is particularly uplifting. I planted 20 2 year seedlings from Sunshine Farms in West Virginia two springs ago. Several of them bloomed this past spring but I expect all of them to bloom this coming spring. It can make you excited about the countdown to spring.
So what is blooming.
The monkshood has opened and is a keeper. These first pictures show the progression of the opening of the flowers over the last few weeks.
This was taken on September 22.











This was taken on September 29.













This was taken on October 5.












This was taken today October 9













Finally here is a wild monkshood from our Colorado trip this summer.













Here is a picture of the toad lilies blooming all over the plant.












Finally there is the amusing picture of the week. This was the package just after I opened the top. It was from Bluestone Perennials. They package their plants in peanuts and then allow you to return the peanuts to them and the peanuts will be recycled. You then get free mailing for the next order. It is a new toad lily peaking out.