Colorful October Vases

I've been on flower duty at church for the past few weeks, and the garden has been good to me. These photos were snapped quickly with my iPhone (I didn't have any set-up time) but I was pleased with the drama of the garden's plenty.





Zinnias, Blue Mistflower, and Cosmos provided the colorful blooms, and various greens and Fountain Grass from the church garden rounded out this display from earlier in the month.



We had light frost this past weekend (still no hard freeze at my house!), so this week I cut all the remaining garden flowers and recombined them with others that were still fresh...added some Hosta leaves, English Ivy, and Northern Sea Oats. The flower committee is lucky to have a refrigerator for storing cuttings and bouquets. It saves us money and a little time for the following week. I may have a few 'Zowie!' Zinnias left for next week. They certainly have been prolific this year--all grown from seed.

I'm linking this post to Cathy's "In a Vase on Monday" meme over at Rambling in the Garden. Cheers!

Wednesday Vignette: Still Bright and Blooming

My vignette for today is a "planned" happy accident. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am new to growing Dahlias (and new to success with Tithonias!). In my continuing quest to make use of tiny spots of sunshine in my "Oak opening/Oak forest" garden, I placed this particular Tithonia (I grew many this year) between two bright, south-facing windows on the back of the house. I planted the 'Explosion' Dahlia tubers in a pot just in front of the Tithonia. I really didn't expect the colors of 'Explosion' to be so bright (it was hard to tell from the package). I'm sure they'll fade, but at this point they're perfect warm companions for the Tithonia.

As always, I'm finding the buds and nearly open blooms as beautiful and interesting (maybe more so) than the fully open flowers; the latter fade so fast. No frost yet, and none in the 10-day forecast. Yay.

Wednesday Vignettes are hosted by Anna at Flutter and Hum.

Remember the Sunflowers

In the middle of winter, I'll come back to this post.

The Sunflowers in my part of the world were so strikingly beautiful and lush this year ... for several weeks in late August through mid-September. I don't remember this being the case in past years, but maybe I just wasn't as observant then.



Most are faded now, but for several weeks the bright yellows of these giants were favored nectaring stops for monarch butterflies and other pollinators. During several hikes in the area, I came across Maximilian or Prairie Sunflowers (Helianthus maximiliani), with prominent bracts behind the flowers and nearly toothless leaves; the very similar Sawtooth Sunflowers (H. grosseserratus), which have slightly more serrated leaves and a hairless stem; Giant Sunflowers (H. giganteus), with dark brown anther appendages on the flowers, and Jerusalem Artichokes (H. tuberosus), with their broader and more textured leaves.

I've included just a few images here. I went a little overboard: If you want to see more, you can click on any image and browse through, or you can visit my Flickr feed.

I'm linking this post to Gail's Wildflower Wednesday meme over at Clay and Limestone. Thanks for hosting, Gail!

I'll Be Missing You