You can tell our work season hit full force because I never found time to blog. [However, I am filling in with flashbacks written in 2012 and early 2013.] I added a couple of wonderful new clients, had a house guest for a month, was much too busy, and other excuses.
There is a tradition among garden bloggers to do something called (I think) Bloom Tuesday, where they post what is in bloom on a certain Tuesday of the month. I’ll cheat a bit (because today is massively stormy) and post what we saw when we went out to work this past Sunday and Monday.
November 20, rose
roses at Klipsan Beach Cottages…
hardy fuschia and hydrangea
A hardy Fuchsia…aurea I suppose…at Klipsan Beach Cottages with quite the amazing hydrangea that originally came from the old Heronswood Nursery.
Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’
Also at KBC, Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ which can almost always be counted on to bloom through the winter here.
In Long Beach, the big planters held up even through the first frost with continued bloom from Agyranthemum, Osteospermum (African daisies), and lavender. The more tender fernleaf lavender, the nasturtiums, and the cosmos had their last gasp last week though.
Long Beach planter in bloom, 20 November
I think the most spectular show was put on by this Penstemon, also in one of the Long Beach planters, putting on every bit as much of an effort as it did in midsummer.
21 Nov, penstemon
You can see in the background that the Hungry Harbor’s own containers of Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ are still blooming, too….as are the ones at Andersen’s RV Park and the Ilwaco library, making it very hard to squeeze the bulbs in around the Annuals That Will Not Die.
I remember a mild winter in the mid nineties here where the African Daisies still bloomed in January. Charming though that is, a killing frost would add a satisfying finale to the end of the work year, because otherwise we’re left just waiting, perhaps endlessly, for the final clean up time.
[January 2013: Had the same experience in late autumn 2012, but even MORE so, of the annuals that did not die. Finally had to call staycation begun even though there were still annuals that looked too good to pull from the LB planters.]
Tangly Cottage Gardening 