You orchid lovers are all alike, suckers for those GORGEOUS blooms !! Oops, gave myself away, did I ?? :-) ABSOLUTELY STUNNING !! Chryss

Looks like I lost 2 of Mother's old hydrangeas, and a couple odd perinneals from Botany Shop I had never heard of. The phlox I thought I had lost are almost all coming back with small green leaves. The roses in the circle bed don't look great, but I didn't lose any. The creeping phlox that I bought more of this year looked great all summer and has now doubled in size. Lost a few groundcover fancy ajuga and petunias. All the tall Mexican morning glories thrived, so next spring, anything with "Mexican" in the name will get bought and planted. I wished, along about the middle of July that I had a lot more marigolds, gallardia, celosia. Hostas and astilibes just didn't do well. All in all, the heat was really hard on everything, wasn't it? Hope summer of 2013 is better! Sunny

Xeric, where do you live? I dont see any reason at all why you shouldnt plant them now. With most perennials, you can plant them anytimeeven during the winteras long as the ground isnt frozen. The main problem with planting when its really, really cold out is that since they wont start growing, you dont know till spring if theyve actually made it or not. When planting at this time of the year, put them in and then water them really wellSLOWLY and DEEPLYso the soil BELOW the roots is well watered. Then dont water again over winter unless the soil down at the level of the bottom of the roots is drying out. If we get a long, drawn out and dry fall, you may need to water again before winter really sets in. Rather than trying to divide them now, put the 4" plants in as one plant and then wait till they start growing well in spring and then go thru them and dig small rooted "plugs" out of the middle of them to transplant where you want them. Pink Chintz should be pretty easy to successfully plant now. Also, as Bonnie said above, if theyre planted now, the roots will be growing pretty much all winter, anytime the soil isnt frozen, so theyll get a really, really good start when they start to grow next spring. Were glad youre here, and dont be afraid to start your own thread when you have questions. Any fall/winter posts are welcome on this threador any posts at all for that matterbut youll usually get more responses if you start a separate thread and people can see from the title what youre asking about. And if you start a separate thread, you can also have replies sent directly to your mailbox if you choose. I got back from my trip last nite and found that the temp had only gone down to 36 while I was gone! Even last nite, which was a little bit colder, it only went down to 34. Guess I really didnt need to cut my tomatoes down after all, but with as cool as the days are going to be this week, and with as cold as the nites are getting, they wouldnt have developed anymore fruit anyway, and they can ripen slowly in the garage as well as outsidewhere Id need to keep worrying about them freezing. Since cukes dont "keep" if you "hang them in the garage," and since I wasnt quite ready to give up on them yet, I did cover them. Theyre easy to cover because of the "framework" provided by the trellises theyre on. Just uncovered them about an hour ago, and theyre looking the same as when I covered them. I already have a bunch of cukes in the fridge, and there a lots of little ones on the vines, so the longer I can leave them outside, the longer Ill have them to eat! I covered a couple summer squash vines that have small ones on too, in hopes that they may keep developing, but that may or may not work. It sure is nice out here today! Its 60 in the shade on my deck, and Im sure its much warmer in the sun out in the yard (but my thermometer on that side of the yard needs new batteries!) BP and Dafy, its really nice to see the two of you around here! We miss you when youre not posting. My perennials, which were, in large part, ignored this year, are looking typically "fallish!" Buds are just starting to open on the Hillside Pink Sheffields" Dendranthema, and Im not planning to cover it this year, so it probably wont have time to develop its usual fall splendor! If Im around when were gonna get a hard freeze, Ill cut them and bring them in to enjoy indoors! The many dried flower stems on my Acanthus are going to be wonderful winter interest this year. Theyre visible in this pic behind the flopping (not enough sun) Agastache! From Garden - 2009 July to Fall Im hoping for a nice mild winter so I can get the tomato area turned over this year and ready for spring, and maybe even do some perennial "rearranging" over winter. Skybird

Photo, my sister lives just outside of Little Rock, I'll probably be there for Thanksgiving, looking forward to it, I've never been, and I was thinking those pots were rhipsalis, they're quite impressive. Dave, I totally get the feelings of dread about fall in New England, I lived in Maine for 30 years. Autumn is so beautiful but we all know what's just around the corner.... my indoor plants always got me through though. I'd love to show off some of my outdoor plants but my porch is extremely tiny and all the plants are so squished together out there that it just looks like a mass of green, if I feel motivated I might separate out a few and take some pics. Love seeing what everybody else is doing!