Garden Bloggers Bloom Day October 2024

October in my zone 6a Southern Tier of New York garden has arrived, and it's time for the 15th of each month Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Where did summer and early fall go?

Another growing season is getting ready to conclude, as winter closes in.  We will most probably have our first frost Thursday morning.  Outlying areas have already had theirs.

This week so far has been rainy and cold, and for that reason, I cheated a little and took some of these pictures Saturday.

First, the outdoor flowers.  For the last time this year I have so many that I won't show all of them to you.

Japanese anemones are in full bloom.

Nothing says fall like mums.  I got this inexpensive plant at our area Aldi a few weeks back with buds just starting to open and it is now blooming its little mum heart out.

My dahlia is finally blooming.  It gave a disappointing performance this year.

Not so the lantana, which had a great year, perhaps the best ever in all the years I've grown them.

The last three years I've grown cuphea, a flower that hummingbirds love.  The flowers (at least, what is sold here) are normally red and yellow, but last year I found a cultivar with white flowers.  The hummingbirds didn't like it but, about three or four weeks ago, I found some growing in a crack between two pavers in my yard.  These volunteers were a pleasant surprise. 

My impatiens are not looking good.  I took five cuttings after I took this picture to (hopefully) root in water.  I keep them alive all winter and they will bloom later in the winter.

Sedum.

My fall blooming heuchera.  The leaves you see are not heuchera leaves.  The flowers were all leaning at angles and I got neighboring plants.

Variegated geraniums, before I took some cuttings.  These I will root in soil with rootone, a power rooting hormone.  Mine dates from the pandemic (my local nursery didn't have it in stock) so I hope it still works.   

This is the hard part of outdoor gardening, when it is time to say goodbye.

Before I go, some indoor flower pictures.  Here are two African violets.   I got these at my local nursery on a special sale.   This one is loaded with blooms.  I hope it doesn't meet the fate of my previous African violets, all of which died this summer.  I suspect overwatering was the cause.  

This African violet had sunburn on the leaves but I decided to buy it anyway. Its chances of seeing the sun this winter aren't that great. 

Last but not least, Plectranthus.  I've had this plant for years now - actually, three small plants. All are blooming. They bloom in October and November, on a northern window, too.

And that's my October collection of outdoor and indoor flowers.  Why not visit the link at the beginning of my post and find out what is blooming in other gardens from all over the world?