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Well it seems that my garden has finally got the message that winter is coming. There are still some stubborn roses sticking around, but they are no longer alive. The cold got to them and they are just there. Actually I’m hoping that I can take some pictures of them with frost or a light coating of snow on them one of these days as I think that will probably look pretty.

There’s also one single clematis flower on the vine at the front of the house. Like the roses it’s dead, but it’s still holding it’s color. I’m sure it fooled a few people that might have noticed it.

Since I don’t have any pictures of frosty flowers or snow covered plants to show you today I’ll have to fall back on pictures that I took earlier this summer.

One flower that stands out is the annual asters that I grew this summer. They were so pretty! Such vibrant dusty rose pinks, purples, blue and white flowers.

They started blooming in late July (if memory serves me) and continued to produce lovely blooms until early October.

The annual Aster plants are 12 inches or less in height so they are the perfect size for a garden border. I planted several of them in the open spaces at the edge of my raised garden beds, beside lavenders and hostas and they looked lovely.

Did you grow Asters this past summer?

There’s nothing like lying down with a snack. Obviously squirrels like doing this too!

I think this is some kind of red squirrel. It’s not one that we have around here in Ontario though! Actually I think red squirrels are either very rare or extinct in this area. We don’t even see all that many grey squirrels, the area is mostly populated with black squirrels.

A friend of ours had open heart surgery on Friday (schedule surgery, not emergency) and we’ve been in and out of the hospital since Thursday visiting her and her husband and seeing other friends there as well. Plus I’m still sick. Darn Crohns - it’s acting up terribly …

So for once, I’m giving myself permission to not do a GTS post. ‘Cause if I do one I’e got to do three … LOL

I do hope that most GTS members are participating today. It seems GTS might be dying down and I think that would be a shame. So please do participate, otherwise let me know and I’ll take you off the GTS list.

Thanks!

The majority of Hydrangeas originate from Asia and North America.

Hydrangea Macrophyllia (Mophead and Lacecap) are common in the Atlantic border states. They have big leaves, and their blooms come in colors of blue, lavender, pink and white. Other common hydrangeas are Paniculata or panicle hydrangea (PeeGee and family), Hydrangea arborescens (Annabelle) and Hydrangea quercifolia (Oakleaf). There’s also Hydrangea anomola-petiolaris (climbing hydrangea). You can find this last hydrangea growing on the northern side of buildings. Depending upon which variety you purchase, you could have blooms from Summer to Autumn.

If you’d like to have a garden that almost always has something in bloom, plant hydrangea near rhododendrons, azaleas and or forsythia and you’ll have blooms and color from spring through to fall. I also have my hydrangea growing near a lovely clump of peonies.

Some species of Hydrangea, the Macrophylia in particular, will bloom either pink or blue depending upon the PH of your soil. Acidic soil will produce blue or violet flowers, while a slightly alkaline to neutral soil will give you pink or white blossoms. Hydrangea blooms can range from 5 to 10 inches in diameter depending upon the species.

How to grow Hydrangeas:

• Hydrangeas prefer light to medium shade, although large leafed hydrangeas seem to be able to handle full sun if they are given enough water.
• Hydrangea’s need moist well draining soil.
• Hydrangeas don’t require a lot of fertilizer. A good feeding in the spring is often sufficient. Compost or manure mixed into the soil near the plant will often be sufficient. You might also want to try Liquid Seaweed extract. It’s an organic fertilizer.

Pruning:

Big leaved Hydrangeas flower on old wood (previous seasons growth) so if you must prune only prune about a third of the weakest growth in early spring. Otherwise, prune immediately after your hydrangea has flowered.

You can visit this site to learn more about the proper care of your species of hydrangea. You might also want to visit the Hydrangea Forum at GardenWeb and talk with other hydrangea owners and gardeners.

Birds can be pests at times, but as you can see from the above photo they can also be quite helpful.

I know that when I’m outdoors at dusk or walking in a forest during the summer I tend to get swarmed with bugs (usually mosquitoes). It might actually be nice to have a few birds around to pick them off me like they are doing to the gazelle? in the picture.

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Do you remember the GTS post that I made in early October of a pretty blue wild flower with a snail on it? Well the flower was likely wild Chicory. I took that photo while my husband and I were on a nature hike with our dog in Taylor Creek park here in Toronto.

Well, in early November Chris and I went back to the park with the dog, probably for one of our last walks there this year as the weather is starting to get bad (it’s currently snowing outside as I write this post!).

I took some pictures of the lovely scenery - leaves changing color, and I also took some pictures of flower seed heads as well as action shots of my dog running around like a wild creature!

I believe the seed heads below are from the Wild Chicory. Aren’t they lovely?

I also took a picture of this flower seed head.

I’d first taken a picture of this flower seed head when it started turning in early October. You can see a picture of it on my photo blog. It was quite spectacular in October. Now it’s just a shell of it’s former self. I’m not sure what kind of flower it was though. Any ideas?

IMPORTANT: The company that I use to maintain our GTS blogroll (Blogrolling.com) has been having some problems over the last month or so and they are currently rewriting the code they use to run their site. As a result of this problem I haven’t been able to add or edit any sites on the blogroll.  So if you need a change to your site name or url, or if you’ve added the blogroll to your site (and remembered to let me know) and you’re waiting to be added to the list it will have to wait a while longer.

Please do continue to let me know of any changes you need or if you are a new member feel free to join … we’ll just have to wait for blogrolling to get their site fixed before I can properly maintain the list and add new sites, but I’ll keep your messages and take care of requests whenever I’m able to do so again.

Note- this message goes for anyone who’s on any of the other lists i run such as the dofollow blogroll, Toronto bloggers, Canadian bloggers and the Fabulous Photoblogs blogroll.

If two is company and three’s a crowd, what is it when you haveat least a dozen birds sitting at the table with you?  Not a Hen party! LOL

It looks like she’s given up and she’s just pushing her meal towards the birds, doesn’t it?

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My Monkshood, well the Azure Monkshood I mean, was a little late in blooming this year. It usually blooms in early September and finishes up by early to mid-October. However, this year it didn’t seem to bloom until late September and the blooms, though slightly wilted lasted until sometime last week. Maybe that happened because we had a drier and cooler September than we normally do and I wasn’t out watering.

Here’s a photo of Azure Monkshood:

The next photo is also Azure Monkshood, but for some reason it’s lighter in color than it’s ever been. It’s coloration is more like my Bi-color Monkshood that blooms in June.

I planted a rose in front of the last one so it competes all summer with the rose for water and sunlight. Perhaps that’s another reason why it’s lighter this year. Perhaps I should look up Monkshood and see how easy or hard it is to transplant and then if possible move it next spring to a more open area of the garden.

Sorry this post is late - again. I usually make my GTS posts at around Midnight, but I’ve been feeling quite ill the last two weeks. My Crohn’s is acting up quite badly and sometimes I just don’t feel up to sitting in front of the computer trying to come up with a post.

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It’s getting colder here in Toronto. Last night it went down to -2 Celsius. That’s below freezing folks … but my roses, some of them anyway, are still trying to bloom!

This is a picture that I took of my Parade Roses last weekend. As you can see they had beautiful rose buds.

Climbing Parade Rose buds

Parade is a climbing rose and it’s flowers are usually a lovely pink, but I think because of the cold weather we’ve been experiencing the buds turned red. I think they look beautiful.

Several of my roses are still trying to bloom, although last nights cold weather might finally put a stop to that. Moulinex, Sharifa Asma, Graham Thomas, Baronne Prevost, Jacques Cartier, Yves Pigiet, iceberg and even the Compte de Chambord have a few blooms or buds.

Here’s a fading Compte de Chambord flower … even though it’s obviously dying it was still putting out it’s lovely rose perfume scent:

Fading Compte de Chambord Rose

Several of my other flowers are still blooming as well. I even have some Petunias that are still alive! Oh and my Lavender has started blooming again too. Very strange!

If you live in an area that gets cool for winter are your flowers and plants dormant now or are some still struggling to bloom?

BTW Sorry this GTS post is late. It’s been a busy and sickly weekend. Speaking of Green Thumb Sunday - how many of you are really participating? I thought that members agreed to check in here on Sundays to let others know they have a new post up … but that hasn’t been happening much over the last week. I’m starting to wonder if we should keep this going?

Here’s some pumpkins that you do not want to mess with:

LOL isn’t that interesting?

If you have several pumpkins or if by chance you’ve grown your own you could make your own pumpkin man too … maybe not one as violent as this one though …