Autumn chills

Unexpected chrysanthemum bloom like a firework


Achillea, flowering late after a move in Spring.


Aster 'Tonga' unperturbed by foul weather.


The weather has been so bad I've not even planted my Spring bulbs. The few still dry days we've had have been dedicated to getting the house watertight before winter. We started early so it would be finished by October but after discovering part of the house was about to collapse - the 3 day joinery job has now been 3 weeks so far, and there hasn't been time to even think about getting the heating fixed. I'm getting a bit anxious since they are predicting another hard winter. Last year the big snow blast that halted the country arrived in late November. Hopefully this year everyone is prepared and if it happens we'll deal with it in a less embarrassingly pathetic manner. Snowy countries must have thought we were complete wimps since all our news reports made it sound like the most extreme natural disaster had hit us.

Yesterday the rain stopped for a bit and I really wanted to get out planting, but instead I had to rehang a door (no fun having front door and inner door unattached in go around filling all the gaps I found in the walls and windows as the rain or wind came through them the day before. I hate missing the last bits of colour outside, and have hardly managed to get any photo's with the wind so constant, but here are a few of the Autumn flowers in the garden.


Pyracantha berries at their Autumnal best.


Cherry 'Spire' still good on a grey day despite 1/3 of it's leaves being whipped away in September gales.

Other things doing well just now are the flowers of the large Sedums (the 'ice plant' kind), amazing red leaves on most of the Blueberries, gold and orange leaves on the Enkianthus & Amelanchier. The Rowans lost their leaves a few weeks ago (gales again) so there is more light around for the several other annuals and perrenials still in flower like Dianthus, Verbena, Heather, Primrose (they think it's Spring), Rudbeckia, Lamium, Sweet Peas, Scabious, Lychnis and even some Foxgloves.