Garden surprises and Red Geranimums

In the fall I love to walk around the yard and find little blooming surprises. I didn't have to go far before noticing this lonely little cosmos growing right in the grass.
Not a blooming plant, but I thought it was odd to see an asparagus fern growing in the bed in front of the tree. Now, where did that come from?
I bought this little plant because I thought it would look good growing around some of the large rocks in my garden. I don't even know what it is..so how surprised I was to find a little yellow bloom on it!
The little star creeper has started to bloom again. Poor little thing has been struggling to survive this summer. I think the ground ivy is taking over.

When I put the new trellis in the wildflower bed, I saw this one BIG bloom on White Swan Coneflower.
And look at the tiny bloom of a rose moss growing in with the hens and chicks. I think this pot at one time was full of rose moss.
Not a surprise though are the red geraniums all around my yard. Now that the temps are lower and we have gotten so much rain, they are lush and blooming up a storm. This is one of two containers that I kept on the front porch. They are just too heavy for me to move around, so hubby did one final move and put them in the back bed. I will try and keep them over the winter, but this may be the year they go.
An old tin picnic basket holds more flowers...

I actually started both of these plants from cuttings from the large pot of geraniums.
Red in a garden is my favorite!
I completely forgot there was a little geranium in the basket of all mixed plants I bought in March. It never really bloomed, but I see now there is one tiny bloom.
I love these late fall surprises..and I especially love seeing all the geraniums blooming for probably the last time this year. I guess I will move all the plants to the corner of the patio and cover them during the really cold days (if we get any of those!). It's quite a treat to have early blooms in spring after looking out on the brown of winter. Flowers never fail to brighten my day.

"Flowers are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul."

Luther Burbank

Saturday things..

Do you see this..it is sun!! Today is the first time I have seen the sun in a month. We are so grateful for all the rain, but cloudy and dreary every day really gets to a gardener. I was ready to get out in the garden today when I saw the bright sun!
This pretty yellow daisy is one of my favorites. I bought it last spring to put in a red ceramic container (you know me with my red and yellow in the garden!) It has bloomed continually all summer. I did have to water it twice a day during the hot summer days, but that was not a problem.
Have you noticed I keep calling this pretty little thing an "it?" Well, it's because I forgot what it was! Is it an Englemann Daisy? I always keep the plant tag that comes with plants when I buy them, but guess I lost this one. Look closely at the petals--does this look like a cutleaf to you?
Remember this? I didn't know exactly what it was-and I still don't know. Some of you thought asparagus, Robin thought it looked like her sea shell cosmos, and Cindy thought it was probably just a weed. Well-I didn't know..and decided I didn't care. This plant was taking up too much room in my wildflower bed. So, today it was cut down. I still needed height in that bed, so--I did what all good gardeners do, I went shopping!
And this is what I found at Lowes. It is just a plain wooden trellis, but I think it was just what I needed. The green looks really good against the fence.

The trellis looks pretty lonely right now, but what you can't see is that this bed is full of little seedings. Bluebonnets Mexican Hat Coreopsis, Coneflower rosettes and who know what else.

Winter may find this bed rather dull, but I am hoping spring will put on a beautiful show of blooms to make this new trellis happy.

What did you do this Saturday? Hope it was a good one for you too!

Fall at the Arboretum

It has been so rainy in the Dallas area, I have had a hard time finding a Saturday to go to the Arboretum. Even though today was cloudy and pretty chilly, it was a great day to tour some of the gardens.

It is fall, and the trial gardens are full of plants showing off their fall colors. It was so wet, I just stayed on the walkway and didn't venture over like I usually do. Looks like most things did really well this past year. They will be planting bulbs and pansies pretty soon I think.
The cute little thatched roof house is still transformed into Hansel and Gretel's house. The plants on either side of the walkway look like they are about ready to stop blooming, but they have been spectacular this past year. I love the cottage look this area has.

This is one of the ponds. I think it looks great! It won't be long before the lilies and poppies will stop blooming. In the winter, the ponds look cold and lonely, but the minute warm weather returns, the pond comes back to life.
This is one of the beds around the grassy meadow. This time of year the Arboretum beds are full of coleus (my favorite!) and ornamental grasses. The colors are normally very striking-this cloudy day does not do justice to their brilliance.
And, Cindee, I took this picture just for you! These hens and chicks were really big!
Can you tell it's getting about time for Halloween? woooooo...

And of course, we saw lots and lots of pumpkins!

They lined the walkways..

There were pumpkins to buy..

There was even a pumpkin house!
But we had the cutest pumpkin there!

No day for gardening!

This was definitely not a day to garden. It started to rain yesterday late afternoon, and rained all night into this morning. I think it stopped around 2 in the afternoon, but the day remained cloudy and cool.
We have such bad drainage in back, even with a french drain. Water will be standing for days-and the weather forecast is for rain all week. It was sure not a day to be outside...but..
..it was the perfect day to bake cinnamon cookies! My best friend gave me this recipe 19 years ago. It is the perfect cookie for a cool fall day. And it is really easy to make!


Carolyn's Cinnamon Cookies

Cream:

1 cup softened margarine

1 1/2 cup sugar

Add:

1 egg

1 T. plus 2 t. molasses

Combine:

2 1/4 cups flour

1 T. plus 2 t. cinnamon

1 1/2 t. baking soda

Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix well. Drop by level tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake about 10-12 minutes (I bake mine 13 minutes). Let rest on cookie sheet about 2 minutes before removing to rack to cool.

Now pour yourself a glass of milk or a cup of coffee and enjoy! YUM!