Looks very pretty! Hate to see the last of the flowers go-guess I'll start to get my wintersowing jugs ready. When do you start putting your jugs or whatever out for wintersowing. I am fairly new at it, put some out last year for the first time and only about one forth of them came up but I think it was due to my putting some of them in strawberry containers. None of those worked but most of my gallon jugs did.

I've only used the gallon jugs and only did it two winters ago, wasn't in the mood to mess with it last winter.

I plan to put mine out in early February at the north side of the house and out a bit. I had some that didn't germinate, some where I would have expected more, and some that did very well. Some of my seeds were old.

You on a cusp compared to me but February or even January might work ok for you. Maybe someone with more experience will know.

I'll try to do early February again with lots of jugs and try a couple different containers. I'm getting ready to test sow some lupine under lights just to see if they will germinate, don't know what I'll do if they do.

They're talking here to get them up off the ground so they can drain better and, of course, leave the caps off. I can't do that w/o a huge hassle so will just take my chances, plan to spring sow, too, as it works well for me, just that it usually delays perennials by a year.

Aliska, when I first read your post, I thought you must be in a zone 7 or something. Then, I realized you are in zone 5 like me, and still have stuff blooming ?!? WoW! We had our first hard freeze around the third week of September. Last night, it got down to 2, and the high never got above freezing today. Not a lot of snow yet, but it won't be long now. Usually by the time the kids get out for the Christmas holiday, we have snow on the ground, and it pretty much stays there until February.

Yes, the Echinacea should come back from the roots in your zone. I've got Harvest Moon, Summer Sky, and Sunrise, and they are on their third year now.

Beautiful blooms! Thanks for sharing.

Bonnie

"Im a grandmother living in the midwest and trying to rekindle my interest in gardening." I do believe it's been rekindled!!!

Great colours for this time of year!

Aliska, your roses are gorgeous! Especially that Charlotte. Wow. I have a few roses left but they don't look that good - they're a bit faded and ratty and not so ....robust.

Thanks for sharing that lovely little bouquet!
:)
Dee

Yep, Bionnie, your zone 5 is a little different from our zone 5. Im always amazed that you get started so much earlier than we do, as we always ended up lasting a little longer at the end

We had a dusting of snow last night, so Im sure that even my last die hard coral nymphy salvia have had it. I was at the city hall yesterday, and they still had geraniums blooming, what is up with THAT? rofl! I brought mine in weeks ago!

Thanks for the nice comments, everyone, lots of my friends and friends-to-be (I hope) showed up here.

It made me sad to pick those last flowers. I named my photo Late Fall Flowers from a Chekhov short story that had a very sad ending, but the title grabbed me.

Thanks for the reassurance that that echinacea will come back. There are several more volunteers out there. The yellow bloomed well enough but bugs chewed the petals this year so they were a wash this summer. For yellow, Bluestone has a prettier version with what looks like wider petals. Harvest Moon is skinny, and I didn't like it, but it makes for some variation and looks well with C. Rooguchi nearby.

A few words about Charlotte. It's an Austin rose, it's one of a pair I have way in front with lots of sun, grafted if you know how it works with roses, got it from Pickering in Canada. I've had very poor luck with most of the others. Charlotte blooms nearly nonstop from as soon as they start in early June until past the first frost, beautiful cup shaped blooms, first flush loaded with clusters is the best. Roses just take more fussing than I have patience for so I'm getting rid of them except for Char and a couple others. The Jap beetles ruin it all for me, had to keep Char disbudded during that whole time, a darn shame, and they stayed late this year, and I still had to pick them off the leaves. But when they swarm in those blooms, it makes me sick to my stomach to see it so cut all the buds off to spare myself any more of that. Some they don't bother much at all.

The only downside of Char is the blooms fade in a couple days then shatter quickly. This year with all the rain, it got some kind of blight on the leaves, otherwise has been clean with no spraying.

One more word about roses, I prefer own root from now on, but the grafting gives them a kick start, and it takes the own root a couple more years to catch up if they're going to. The ones that are hardy here die back to the ground, but Char makes a fast comeback in the spring once pruned, tidied up and fed.

Perennials (and some scattered annuals) require far less fussing and are more satisfying overall, maybe a little Bloom Booster now and then and water when too dry. Nasturtiums are the only ones I won't grow because of aphids.

We had a late September frost but most roses can tolerate the mild ones and just the most tender plants were taken by that. The ones that hug the ground are still warmed from that, and some are a little tougher. It's very weird for here to have anything blooming by yesterday, Dec 3, and I did nothing special except cover all my new delph plants with soda bottles, caps off.

The other perennials some just seem to settle in and die back for winter without a frost.

And the alyssum are prettier as ever this am, was supposed to get down to 27 last nite. It's kind of cheery as I need to go get some oil for the gas mix for the snowblower and be ready. Ugh. Not looking forward to it.

Sorry I rambled. Again.