October Blooms both Ethereal and Lusty

| October 4, 2014 | 2 Replies

October blooms both ethereal and lusty grace my garden this first week of October, and feed Monarchs, other butterflies, hummingbirds and bees.

October Blooms both Ethereal and Lusty

Monkey Flower, California native

I thought I’d take a close look around, now that the summer garden is mostly finished, and see what’s blooming and providing pollen for the pollinators. After the huge squash blooms of summer have vanished, what’s left is quite an array of mostly small, but vivid blossoms.

October Blooms both Ethereal and Lusty - borage

Borage, second seeding

I seeded borage into a few spots of the garden in the spring. I had enormous plants which have all been exhausted and pulled, but not before borage has reseeded in several spots! These are the most favored of flowers in the Late Bloomer garden.

Several summer veggies are still producing blooms and fruit, such as peppers, okra, beans, and baby watermelon.

October blooms both ethereal and lusty - watermelon

Baby watermelon bloom

October blooms both ethereal and lusty - okra

Okra blossom

October Blooms both Ethereal and Lusty - beans

Cremes heirloom bean blossoms from Local Harvest

October blooms both Ethereal and Lusty - pepper

King of the North pepper blossom, seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Marigolds and petunias have been delivering color all summer. I planted lots of nursery seedlings of basil and petunias and self-seeded marigolds. All are supposed to offer some protection against pests.

October Blooms both Ethereal and Lusty - petunia

Petunias were planted all around the squash plants

~ If your weather is cold and grey, I hope my photos brighten your day ~

October Blooms both ethereal and lusty - marigold

Sparky Marigold bloom

October Blooms both ethereal and lusty - basil

Purple leaf basil blooming

New additions are begonia, volunteer geranium and stevia.

October blooms both Ethereal and lusty - begonia

Scarlet Begonia blooms, nursery plant

October blooms both ethereal and lusty - geranium

Geranium, volunteer

October blooms both ethereal and lusty - stevia

Stevia’s tiny blooms

And there were more flowers that I did not photograph, on perennials that are mainstays in the garden. The most stunning display has been from my Mexican sunflower, beloved by Monarchs, hummingbirds and bees, which grew to 8′ tall and 8′ wide and delivered thousands of blooms like this.

October Blooms both ethereal and lusty

Mexican sunflower

October blooms both ethereal and lusty - bush

Mexican sunflower bush from a single seed I planted in April

See how my two Mexican Sunflowers looked in June at 2:28 in Late Bloomer “Summer Garden Update.” They were planted from seeds from Seeds of Change.

Of course, milkweed is the top hit for Monarchs, which have been seen daily in the Late Bloomer garden since spring.

October blooms both ethereal and lusty - Monarch on milkweed

Monarch on Tropical milkweed, volunteer

What’s blooming in your garden? Happy gardening, and please share “Late Bloomer” with friends. Thanks! – Kaye

PS: All photos were taken today.

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Category: Flowers

Comments (2)

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  1. sherman says:

    Those are some real nice pics.

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