I've had a fabulous turnout of migrating warblers, etc this fall! Or maybe because I'm too pooped to do anything but sit at the window and stare, I'm seeing more this year. I still have hummers, even a few males although it's mostly females and younguns. Around here they say to leave your feeders up until end of November, that it won't keep the ruby-throats from migrating and there are more and more sightings of west coast hummers who end up on the east coast in late fall and early winter. There was an Anna and a rufous hummer in Ohio in the last two years. One showed up in December and stayed until the middle of January. Nobody is quite sure why there is an increase of these hummers but there are more and more reports each year. It would be fun to see a hummer in December but I'm afraid I would worry myself sick! Most of my summer birds are still here. The wood thrush no longer sings (sniff, sniff) but I still hear his little "Pip, pip, pip". I've seen both the summer and scarlet tanagers in the last week - both had molted into their winter colors -why can't they show themselves in their pretty summer attire? I've added two new yard birds this fall - a warbling vireo and a yellow-bellied flycatcher which is one of my rarest yard birds. I've had a nice variety of warblers so far - american redstarts, bay breasted, black-throated green, black-and-white, blackburnian, black poll, blue-winged, canada, cape may, chestnut-sided, magnolia, ovenbird, prairie and tennesee and vireos - red-eyed, warbling, white-eyed, and yellow-throated and a swainsons thrush. I also had a juvenile rose-breasted grosbeak, not sure if it's a migrant or from the pair that I saw this summer. I do love see the fall migrants but I am really going to miss summer ... and the mosquitos and the heat and the drought ....

you could attempt to grow foxglove, as they can overwinter pretty well in many places, and their blooms are a great addition to any garden. Since they're biennuals, they have to be planted this year. Hopefully they'll mature enough to survive winter though!

We're having our second year of confused weather and I don't know what awaits me in the garden. We finally got 8" inches of urgently needed rain in late October, it's warmish and sunny, and the Teas and some DA roses are making new growth. Flowering after nearly four months of heat and extremely sparse rain is only spotty, it hasn't gotten down to freezing yet, and I doubt we'll have much of a flowering so late in the year, but with this weather, who knows. To answer your question, 'Vanity' tends to be in bloom when nothing else is, also a creamy white Hybrid Tea/Tea of great beauty, dignity, and toughness, which I got as a cutting from my neighbor and the name of which I don't know: it sounds similar to 'Puerto Rico' and also resembles the Italian found rose 'Bianca di Corbara' (introduced by Walter Branchi) and may be identical to it. Oh, yes: 'Maréchal Niel', 'Jaune Desprez', 'Mme. Antoine Mari', 'Mrs. B.R. Cant', 'Duchesse d'Auerstaedt' all get a little water and are all in flower. I'm so glad many of us have gotten rain! Melissa

My Professor Von Klippenberg, from a few years ago. This picture was taken in 2010, and that was the last year it looked this good! I don't know why, the plant itself keeps hanging on, but it is actually a bit smaller now then it was then, and while it has lots of buds, its flowers seem to get a little later every year. I had another New York aster that was quite a bright pink, and it bloomed beautifully for a couple of years, but it has had the same fate as the Professor: I still have it, but it keeps getting smaller and the frost gets most of its blooms. I LOVE the way they look, but I probably won't plant anymore since it appears I need to replace them regularly. I guess the same goes for Mum's...mine usually only do well for 2 years or so. As far as fall color goes, I mainly enjoy different colors of foliage in the fall. All of my roses turn wonderful colors; rich yellows, oranges, reds and burgundy. I have grasses, daylilies which turn yellow, the dark greens of dwarf conifers, the light blue of my globe blue spruce, etc. My peonies foliage turns a nice burgundy-ish color, and I have a couple of different spirea and ninebarks which are very pretty this time of year. Almost no flowers, though!