Angel, some of my plants have been doing the same thing! I planted Forget-Me-Nots last Spring, and NOW they decide to bloom! Also, a variety of lilac, with tiny blooms, has busted out (a bit). Does the plant world know something we don't know? I'm hoping you'll get lots of replies that tell us this is nothing unusual.

Before this recent dry spell began in late August I planted spinach, arugula, lettuce (for heading), mache, cilantro, parsley, and just to experiment, since I had left-over seed, some carrots (Mokum - a relatively early variety). Also transplanted some scallions I'd seeded a month earlier and seeded some more for overwintering (another experiment). Everything looks pretty good so far. This planting is intended to supply my Nov/Dec table, but as always at this time of year, everything is growing excruciatingly slowly so who knows if it will work. Now that we're finally getting some rain this week, I'm going to plant more of the same for wintering-over for Feb/March/April harvests. For overwintering, I broadcast the lettuce seed for cutting, rather than for individual heads, and will plant some other stuff like mizuna and Toscano kale that I didn't get around to planting in Aug. This year I'm planning to plant some garlic in the hoop house in the portion of the winter garden where our two ducks spend the winter. I'm hoping this garlic will get a good start in the hoop house for early harvest, and since the garlic action in winter is all underground, the presence of the ducks and their bedding straw over it shouldn't be a problem. This way the portion of the garden occupied by the ducks won't be wasted. I've also planted asparagus in the hoop house beds under the same theory that I'll get earlier harvests while the ducks can use those beds during the winter when the asparagus is dormant. Flexible fencing allows the ducks to move around to different portions of the winter garden as conditions change. The hoop house provides a nice "barn" for the ducks in winter (they don't like snow) and they do a nice job of improving the soil while they live in there. In my hoop house I also have a few perennial plantings of chives, garlic chives, thyme and sorrel which do well in the fall and spring but die down in deep winter. I also recommend devoting a small portion of your hoop house beds to some bulbs. I interplanted crocus and tulips in the asparagus beds and can't tell you how nice it was to have all that lovely color in the hoop house a good month before anything was happening outside.

Madeyna, I think whether the buds will bloom fully depends on what zone you are in. I am in zone 5b and though I have lots of buds on my ES, I doubt that they will grow big enough to fully open before it gets too cold. In fact, the growth has slowed right down since the average temperature keeps on dropping day by day. Isn't that depressing? posieh, where in zone 3 are you? trustmissy, I have eastern exposure for the ES, so it gets plenty of morning sun, a bit of noon sun and then it is sheltered from the strong afternoon sun. I think that the main thing was that I amended the soil quite a bit and religiously watered the plants deeply during the first couple of years, so it developed a strong root system for it to flourish. That's my theory anyway!

Well I can't find my zinnia seeds. : ( I found some from a couple of years ago and if those germinate, I'll have plenty. I should have some volunteers too, but it would be nice if I could find the seeds I bought earlier this year. grrr When you mentioned perennial salvia, you reminded me that I have May Night blooming or seedlings from it at least. I don't think I still have the original plant. I need to watch and see if any hummingbirds/butterflies visit that. I don't think so though. I've seen a couple Monarchs fluttering by but they didn't stop and have seen a few Black Swallowtails. I have never seen a Zebra Swallowtail in my yard. Those are the ones that use Pawpaw as a host plant. I have a five inch tall Pawpaw planted by my fence row now and two more, just as small, in pots that I will plant this fall. I planted two last fall but only one made it through the winter.