Sliding into Autumn

Outside the first gray skies of October are dumping, at last, significant rain onto the garden after a very dry September.  This morning my radiators even came on, reminding me that we really are heading deeper into autumn.  The dahlias are starting to look like girls returning home from a heavy night out - a bit bedraggled with deceased hairdos  and looking generally the worse for wear.  Foliage is coming into its own and the ivies are flowering like mad things, which is always great for the bees.
And, I'll let you into a secret.  I've got chrysanths in my greenhouse.  Oh yes I have.  Never thought I'd see the day when the scourge of the garage forecourt became part of my growing plans. They have resulted from a combination of several things - a desire for some late autumn flowers, a big buzz about them on the Britishflowers twitter hour last autumn, but mainly the fact that they were selling these particular plants off cheap at the garden center earlier in the year.

And you know what…. I actually quite like them. Not that I'll be able to find them again, as they were surely mislabelled.  I bought them thinking I was buying a tray of reflexed globular Japanese style 'mums in a deep shade of russet orange, but instead, I have a combination of flatter, slightly spiky burnt orange blooms and some off pink lovelies which are just starting to open.  I adore the color tints on these pink ones and can't wait to get some stems snipped for some arrangements just for me…

At least now I know what to put on my list when my plans for floral world domination extend to incorporate a polytunnel….