Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - October 2014

I'm trying to hold off the dread that comes with writing the last Bloom Day post of the year. Pretty soon I'll be seeing nothing but gray skies and dirty snow but for now, the fading blooms in the garden are keeping my spirits alive. And hopefully at this time next year, I'll have a lot more to show for the end of autumn after making some recent strategic perennial purchases.

Onward!

The back yard

Ipomoea lobata, an annual vine, grows along my fence

The old reliable Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

Caryopteris x clandonensis 'Iforgettheexactname'

The allée

Geranium 'Rozanne' and my Energizer bunny, Coreopsis 'Moonbeam'

Not flowering but lovely foliage from a hibiscus

The Pharm

Annual I overwintered for Neighbor M (and then took some). Can'trememberus 'Thenameii'

Butternut squash is still blooming

The end of the Russian sage

A bee on the Gaillardia

Aster 'October Skies' along the front wall. The dead looking stuff to its
right is creeping phlox.

Aster 'Alma Potschke' surrounding an echinacea seed head

And that's all she wrote for 2014 Bloom Days! Thanks to May Dreams for hosting.

Chanticleer - Part 3

I'm wrapping up my tour of Chanticleer today. My first two posts on it can be found here and here.

Following the path from the Ruin Garden we came to a potting shed and this rather large cold frame. Can you imagine having such a space to keep your plants in the winter? Put this on "Things I Really Want in My Next House"!

See the step stool in the middle of the picture?

The potting shed and the cold frame signaled we had arrived at the Cut-Flower Garden. Laid out in a series of rectangles, it just kept going on and on. Can you envision having the luxury of all of these flowers to cut and bring inside to enjoy?

There are fifteen pages of plants listed on the Cut-Garden Plant Guide.

Next to the Cut-Flower Garden is the Vegetable Garden. J and I talk about what we'd like in a home if we ever move out of the city. He wants a driveway. I want a space large enough for a veggie garden like this.

Bench in front of fence-growing veggies

From the nonstop color of the Cut-Garden we walked just steps away to Bell's Woodland. Opening in the spring of 2012, this is the newest addition to Chanticleer Gardens.

Plant list box shaped like a hornet's nest.

To traverse the stream, you cross a bridge created to look like a downed beech tree.

Beech tree bridge

Image courtesy of Sorta Like Suburbia

The plants are still maturing in the woods, but even so it was a tranquil place with pops of color here and there.

Following the path through the woods, we were led past the Tennis Court Gardens once again and back to the beginning where we started.

I'm really glad that J and I explored this garden. It's different than what I'm used to from my trips to Longwood - it seems more experimental - more wild - but really creative in its own way. It also has an air of relaxation with myriad places to sit and take it all in. I look forward to returning in the spring when everything will look very different but likely just as beautiful.