After the freeze

The mercury dropped to 21 degrees Thursday morning
 breaking the previous record of 25 degrees set on Nov. 14, 1968.

Frost bloom on the salvia

Remenants of the summer garden.

Colour on the oak leaf hydrangea

Brugs laid to waste...

Well... I can still use the pepperz...

There's still seeds to collect...
(chenopodium giganteum, crotalaria spectabilis, and sesbania herbacea)

The sassafras have great colouration... Should probably collect some leaves (for recipe seasoning) before they all drop...

Goodbye Summer

A final visit from the Florida state butterfly (zebra longwing) to the tithonia rotundifolia.

A last flush of bloom from the Brugmansias

And tibouchina urvilleana

Time to collect seeds, like these few collected from the Vernonia angustifolia.

The weatherman is predicting low 20's for tonight...

Brrrr!

Indian Summer

Don't usually see butterflies paying attention to the brugmansias...

It's some dry... but these things keep blooming.

The diclipta suberecta seems late in blooming this year.

I have a terrific june picture here (from 2012)

Solanum pseudocapsicum

This plant (jerusalem cherry) looks like a pepper plant, and this guy even tasted the fruit 

Supposed to be poisonous... Not a good idea to go around sampling stuff that hasn't been positively identified... but I'm just as guilty...

For instance... this licorice goldenrod, I was chewing up the leaves, and making tea... for years before I thought of searching edibility... It's safe... But... I just got lucky... 

The Florida anise bush  commonly used in landscaping smells like anise... tastes like anise,  isn't supposed to be safe to even taste!

This is a  pepper... I pot up one or two of these plants for my kitchen once the weather turns "cold"... Cold is a relative term... A Yankee might scoff at what I consider cold... but the pepper plant dies... 

Or dies back at least... and that is plenty cold for me... Back in February, I posted a pic of one of these plants that had survived our winter... and was coming back from last year's roots!

Cooking sage and daisy mums

Camellia sasanqua from seed planted last winter.

If it ever starts raining I'm going to move these mulberry seedlings into my yard.

Still have lots of butterflies... I still have zebra longwings too, but I can't seem to catch them with the camera.

A fellow blogger sent some everglades tomato seed at the end of August... I potted these up when the weather report called for a freeze... Luckily... I didn't lose anything but my late-planted watermelons... But it got within 1 degree of the record cold for our area... I kept a fire going in the fireplace that day (Oct 26).

Hyacinth beans

Winter interest... (Pycnanthemum sp.)

Little blue stem

Hardy orange (Poncirus trifoliata)

Kicking myself... Cooked up some stewed pears, and wanted citrus to add to the mix... totally forgot about these...

some additional middle October pictures

I kinda got in a bit of a hurry... on GBBD. Posted before I had all the pictures I wanted...
I took a few more October pictures...

This bush morning glory (Ipomoea fistulosa) is finally starting to make a show... after growing 8 feet tall!

canada goldenrod (solidago canadensis) I don't get many blooms from this beauty... I pull most out for the compost pile... With those stolons, I'm afraid to let them take over!

This is what my bean patch looks like... The voles ate the seeds, and then the roots... and then the rabbits found the bushes after they started producing... Can't seem to trap either problem... all hope is not lost, though...

Good riddance to that vole!

That is one fine kitty!

The sunflowers remain spectacular...

Not sure why the highway department was in such a hurry to convert all the beautiful wildflowers to brown stubble.... These are in my garden, but the highway was lined with these beauties for miles... and they were mowed in the height of our wildflower season... like the butterflies don't have enough difficulties...

ruellia brittoniana are blooming but complaining about the weather turning dry.

The corn succession is absolutely sorry... I planted 5 rows, and the voles ate every grain from 3 of the rows... and what's left probably isn't going to produce much...

salvia coccinea

Malvaviscus arboreus

Unseasonal rudbeckia hirta.... su'possed to bloom in June...

Looks like a woolly bear... saw some solid black ones too...

Finally... Howza 'bout some echinacea with ageratina backdrop?

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – October 2013

I don't often post at the right time to participate in the GBBD, and even less often do I remember to mention the list...

Plenty of pretties in the garden, even with a return to the dry stuff. Pictures need to be taken in the am, as afternoon pics show wilted plants... Mid-day photos have that washed-out look that we get from that harsh sub-tropical sun.

Ageratina altissima

Be sure to click the pic to enlarge...

This plant is said to be poisonous, that if the milk goats/cows are permitted to graze this pretty, we could get very sick or die from the milk! I don't have dairy animals... 

conoclinium coelestinum

I always like to post these lookalikes together, they bloom at the same time, and are often found in proximity of each other... but they don't seem to be related...

cyclamen hederifolium

I forgot to post this giant swallowtail in last week's post...

Cloudless Sulphurs

Plenty of sulfurs at this time of the year... My reds tend to be ablaze of yellows... every time I walk past.

 gulf fritillaries

still plenty of these guys as well....

 This beauty seems to be a dwarf version of switch grass, but it doesn't increase like switch grass... I'm going to try dividing...

helianthus angustifolius

These sunflowers continue to be show-stoppers... The photo fails to do them justice...

I feel like they're breath-taking on the side of the road when I drive into town... and the mowers are busily churning out brown stubble for our viewing pleasure... just as fast as they can.... 

Why hasn't the government shut-down put a stop to that??? 

Why doesn't the furloughs affect this bad stuff?

 boltonia asteroides

Not a flower...