autumn

 It's been a busy time with work and the house deal falling through. I was expecting to be planting the new garden with my favorite plants, but now I get to appreciate the ones in the old garden. Crocus speciosus is always one of my favorite fall flowers, if not my most favorite. Here it is, poking through the new growth of the 'Grosso' lavender, the luminous bowls of bluish lavender catching the sun.

 The Cyclamen hederifolium put on much more of a show than I expected. Perhaps my decision to give it more water through last winter had helped it in the way that I hoped.

 The 'Sweet 100' tomato has produced a number of tomatoes, even if not "100".

 Scutellaria resinosa has continued to bloom with a few flowers through the rainy season until now.

Salvia 'Indigo Spires' is still blooming, and it will continue to bloom until a serious frost. My mother visited last month, and commented on how small my plant is compared to the cutting of it that I gave her last year. Hers has grown huge, to 3 feet tall and 4 feet across. There, on the California coast, it blooms year-round. Mine blooms only after several months of growth from a late spring emergence from the ground, then freezes to the ground in the winter.