Cori Ann... and thank you, especially for thinking of us all in an international sense. Sometimes I think I take a bit of a liberty posting on what is an American site..

Your garden still has a sunny summery feel to me, with your Lemon tree and other delights. Mine is more or less finished for the year but I might see if there's something left tomorrow, it's dark here now...

Australian members and others I'm sure will have plenty for us to indulge in..

Happy Thanksgiving !...

Malorena, I think the international input is what really makes this forum, so I'm glad you post! Cori Ann I have a few things I'm thankful for as the season winds down, besides the windfall of tomatoes.

1. Leaves in my yard that will make beautiful compost in my newly constructed bin.

Yes, thank you all, worldwide, for sharing your advice, your rose photos and your humor! I love to travel to your gardens with a cup of tea and an iPhone as I take breaks during the day. One of the magical aspects of technology is that it connects people across the miles who would otherwise have no opportunity to discover each other and share experiences. Bless you all! Carol

Marlorena I agree with Vaporvac! Being able to talk roses with people in Italy, the UK, Australia and all across the globe is pretty amazing. I'm very thankful for that! And for our summery weather continuing here in CA.

Vaporvac I love your balustrade with roses weaving around it. Really classic, beautiful look. Your garden is always lovely. :)

I'm glad for the international input, too, of all nationalities. What I'm otherwise thankful for are my hardy cyclamen, now finally fading, but which gave me two months of solid pleasure when there wasn't much else happening in the garden. This fall has been dry and so unusually poor in roses: no fall bloom to speak of. Like vaporvac I love my fallen leaves, and the annual grasses that in our Mediterranean climate grow through the winter--organic matter!! I'm also very glad that we have a helper coming to dig holes for the eighty-odd bare root roses we have arriving next week. We dug and amended the holes two years ago so the soil is pretty good, but now the holes have to be dug out once more. My usual helper is at home recovering from carpal tunnel surgery, so we hired her husband, who had been sick and is now looking for a job in a bad employment market. We're happy to have another strong back; my friend is happy to have a bit of extra income; her husband is happy to have work. Thankfulness all round. Likewise praise for a nursery I'm looking at that offers liner plants of native species, including shrubs adapted to garrigue conditions, that aren't easily found in the local nurseries. I'm seriously considering an order after we get the roses in the ground.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Portland I couldn't agree more! It is so awesome to be part of a community of gardeners around the world and to visually see each other's experiences in addition to reading about them.

Melissa I'm thankful you have a helper coming too! Digging 80 holes would be hard enough... but even harder in extremely dry ground! I can't wait to read about all the wonderful goodies you are planting and to see photos.

The international input is precious and essential! You are an extremely important forum member, Marolena!!!

There's so much to be grateful for in life,but this thread is about our gardens, so I'll stick to that. I'm grateful for the fact that we are getting good rain here in Tuscany. I haven't had any autumn blooms really, except for one or two stragglers on Setina and Darcy Bussell; I think that this summer was just too harsh and the rains came too late for that,but so what. I've seen beauty so incredible at my land this autumn two times; I doubt I can describe it but will try. It had begun to rain, and at first I thought I'd have to pack up and go, but then the clouds thinned out at the horizon. The rain was very light, sort of like a veil of slow and steady droplets coming down. Then, the sun, low and yellow-orange on the horizon, broke through the clouds, and the world was transformed into Heaven : an indescribable landscape made up of sparkling luminosity, of green and intense gold,and all the while the rain coming gently down,like music or something...The second time was on another variable autumn day, again late in the afternoon,again the sun breaking through the clouds ,saying a loving good-night to my land before retiring: (how different from his cruelty during the summer!) Looking down into the valley, the tops of the trees were illuminated by the most intense gold you can imagine,contrasting with the dark tones of the trees. The sky was a rainbow of all the colours! Purple and dark blue clouds, rosy pinks,pastel shades...the works. Low clouds on a neighbouring hillside blotted out the distant mountains, highlighting the presence of a small isolated group of trees in a surrealistic way. They seemed so close...

What a lovely, poetic description, Bart! I can almost see it myself. Thank you. Lisa

That's absolutely beautiful Bart! Today I'm thankful for the slow steady veil of rain that just arrived here as well!

Rain??!!! I almost forgot what that is!!!! It's just a light misting, and nowhere near as beautiful as you describe, but I'll take it!

I live in a woodland where roses won't grow..BUT I have beautiful fall color..

What a great thread!!! Those photos are beautiful, nicholsworth,and I thank Cori Ann and Lisa for their compliments. But in my enthusiasm I forgot a practical question I wanted to ask Melissa. That is, " a nursery I'm looking at that offers liner plants of native
species, including shrubs adapted to garrigue conditions, that aren't
easily found in the local nurseries." May I ask the name of this nursery? I'm shopping for trees, etc this year and came across this nursery www.donnedipiante.com They are in Pistoia and DO have Magnolia Leonard Messel and you CAN order on-line...

thanks bart..

Lovely photos everyone, and thanks for your supportive comments earlier, I do appreciate that..

..nicholsworth55, can I know the name of your shrub in the bottom photo please? I know I've seen it before somewhere but I can't place it - thanks..

Very autumnal here, and I've cut back most of my garden, leaving some rounded shrubs for the winter. Here are a few I took today...

Fuchsia 'Genii'...

Ceanothus 'Gloire de Versailles'...

..a young Austin that won't give up..

'Bengal Crimson'/'Miss Lowe's'... after a recent move..

Pennisetum 'Fairy Tails', just love this wispy plant..

Eugenia foliage..

Camellia season around the corner, dark foliage is a red one..

all cut back and awaiting the worst..

see you next Spring I hope...

Marlorena..pretty garden!!..wish I had a milder climate like yours..the shrub is a macrophylla hydrangea..Twist N Shout from the Endless Summer collection..I have 2..here's a pic of the other one a few weeks ago..the one in front has more color and blooms..they are marginal in our climate..

nicholsworth,..thanks.... aah I should have known.... I like the fall foliage colour very much...

When I saw Alba semi-plena blooming this morning, I thought I should post it to this thread. Although it doesn't really thrive here, it does usually give me a few second blooms around Thanksgiving or Christmas:

Also, thankful for Mahonia lomariifolia in bloom right now:

Always thankful for Buff Beauty:

And Hydrangea Ayesha, which really shouldn't be blooming right now:

And finally I am thankful for my misidentified tea, which I think is MFK, and looking good this morning. I also thank all on this forum for your help in identifying it earlier this year:

Cori Ann, thank you for your lovely idea, a balm in these contentious times to look at all the beautiful photographs and to be grateful for the wonderful people here. Marlorena, don't you or anyone else from foreign parts think that you're not welcome here, far from it. We would be much the poorer if we hadn't come to know you all here and seen your beautiful gardens. bart, your words were pure poetry, and Melissa often makes us "see" her garden with her wonderful descriptions.

Despite a complete absence of rain the garden is trying to carry on because thankfully we have few water restrictions so far.

day lilies and a bud of La France

Souvenir de la Malmaison - two color variations on the same bush

Gruss an Aachen is still putting out buds and blooms

Potter and More is blooming away lustily even though an Austin "has been".

A blue iris finishing up and a yellow one getting ready to take over

The "Rock Garden"

Rosette Delizy

It needs more filling in - maybe by next spring (I always seem to say that)

We love it Ingrid! I think that is such a blessing you don't jam things in. This looks so much more naturalistic and serene and suits your western landscape so well. I love the rock garden and also have a daylily blooming here! Your garden is a real treasure.

Bart, the nursery's website is www.vivaiovitaverde.it, and they have some interesting plants. Also very good for liner plants is Dendroflor, though they have a minimum order of 85 euros, I think it is. I have always found them reliable and good to deal with. Thanks for the headsup on the nursery. I now have 'Leonard Messel' (all six inches of it) growing in the woods, but will take a look to see what other good things they offer.

I'm enjoying this thread; thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Melissa. Do you know if they ship, or do you have to go in person?

I am grateful this little guy made it though his mother wasn't feeding him for awhile. His name is Tchoupitoulas after a street in New Orleans. Tchoup for short ( pronounced chop).

He was six weeks old yesterday. He doesn't go outside much right now except for me to take a picture of him. But he goes together well with the leaves and grass.

^dear little doggie, he is so sweet... those eyes !...

Ingrid,

These are some of the best photos I've seen from your garden this year, where have you been hiding them?... although they are always good to see, they look fresher right now... and I'm always amazed at how green the background vegetation remains with so little rain, I almost find it perplexing...

This time of year, I'm thankful for hips/heps! (Sunny Knockout)

For colourful berries! (Dwarf Burning Bush (Euonymus))

Colourful autumn foliage! (Lady Emma Hamilton)

And, I suppose, any foliage at all! (Mutabilis)

Tough, blue pansies!

Sage and catnip.

Pardon the black spot on the remaining rose foliage.

Steven

I enjoy everyone's pictures, and have been very slack this year in taking them. My computer is so slow now, mostly because my daughter generally has it now, and puts these games on it, that it's really not able to run. So it's takes forever to upload and then post from my computer. If I can get a nice phone that I can just take pictures with and use for Here and FB, which is all I really do, It would be awesome! Ya'll would have so many pictures, you would probably tire of seeing them. Keep up the beautiful pictures :)

Thank you so much, Marlorena. The roses seem to be enjoying this time of the year and there has also been more growth since so many of the roses are young. Almost everything you see is green because it's being watered except for the cypresses and eucalyptus. I'm glad you like the more spare look, Sheila. Some people can make the crowded cottage look appear really dreamy, but I'm afraid I'm not one of them.

MiGreenThumb, it's always enjoyable to see what a genuine autumn looks like. I do hope your Mutabilis survives your winter. It's one of my favorite roses. I can't believe you have pansies at this time of the year.

a pic I took yesterday..the weather turned from a warm sunny fall to an overcast cold winter..but my burning bushes almost glow in the dark!..

I still have blooms. So heartening. Hips are Mary Queen of Scots.

Thank you, Ingrid. I hope Mutabilis survives. If it can, we usually get "hot" in summer- 80-90 for us is roasty, especially since we are usually quite humid. It seems to push growth in heat. I love your garden photos. It's so beautiful, and far better than I imagine when you describe your hot, dry conditions.

Wow. Such great autumn photographs! These reach to the heart. I find a certain romance in the garden and wood scapes and could wax poetically. Keep them coming!

Steven

This year, I am thankful to see Felicite Parmentier blooming perfectly. In the past, the blooms were quickly destroyed by thrips so this year was a big surprise. In fact, I have fallen in love with this rose. I also have fallen in love with red roses like Red Intuition, Fire fighter and Munstead Wood. In the past I was never fond of red roses,but now I love them because they look great in float bowl that i placed on my bedside table and the scent fills the room. Thinking of adding more red roses in my garden soon.

This is a really good thread, and I'm enjoying all the pictures, Californian-Mediterranean and temperate-autumnal. Bart, Dendroflor ships; they're set up for business that way. They charge 10% IVA and the shipping costs (figure about a third more than the plant base price), and have plants of different sizes available, including bare-root forestry plants in bundles of fifty, as well as the liner plants in pots which are what we mostly buy. You have to check with them on availability. We make an order with them most years, though this year I'm thinking of ordering from VVV because I'm particularly interested in garrigue plants which they have and which Dendroflor is not too strong on at the moment.

I've never had an order shipped by VVV and just took it for granted that they did so, but I don't see anything about it on their website. I've always called in my order by phone, since they know me, and picked it up at our local plant show, Paderna, in October, though the last time I was there and talked with them they said they might cut down on their presence at the shows, which are both tiring and expensive. They have to get their plants to the customers somehow. Send them an e-mail and find out, is my advice.

Beautiful and lush, hoovb!

Sheila, I'm enthralled by your many beautiful roses. The pictures are exquisite. With your many tea roses I can't wait to see your spring flush.

hoovb, that is a vision of beauty. Magnifying the picture really enhances the beauty. I just wish there had been more pictures to savor.

Tangles, your roses are no doubt beautiful but I have an unfortunate aversion to red roses that I've never been able to overcome. Your Felicite Parmentier I can unreservedly admire, though, and how nice that you finally got to enjoy it in its full glory.

Thank you Ingrid. I am so looking forward to the tea rose spring flush too. They all seem healthy so far including Shorty Delizy that had to be trimmed down last Spring. It will be great to see them fill out more and see the bushes mature. I just hope we see more rain down there for you.

Lovely roses Sheila, and I also like the blue conifers you have in the background, in the 'Heritage' photos... I like conifers very much especially blue-ish ones...

This has become such a wonderful thread. I am enjoying being welcomed into everyone's garden through your photos! There is something truly relaxing about an autumn garden isn't there? It doesn't have the excitement of spring... but more of a tranquil and quiet beauty. I'm thankful for all these amazing photos! Let's keep em coming!

Marlorena, Those lovely conifers were volunteers from the mulch the home builder used. I love that color too. I think they are Arizona Cypress. They really improve the barren "penitentiary" look the grounds had when we arrived.

Hmm. I guess I am thankful for the snow-when the temps start plumeting, that will give my zone 5 roses the extra insulation that *might* get them through the winter. So nice to se everyone's photos. It's always this time of year when I start questioning why I am still in MN...

I keep coming back to this thread. So many beautiful photos. I can't single anybody's out, but Ingrid, I agree with Marlorena and Sheila about your garden. Serene.

I always drool over Hoovb's and Marlorena's gardens, but Nicholsworth55, your photo of your burning bushes, made me say "WOW" out loud. Most unlike this reserved Englishwoman. Are they Euononymus alatus?

It has been a difficult 2 years here. First the broken leg with complications, which kept me from tending the garden all summer and autumn last year. This year, no rainfall to speak of meant that lots of plants simply didn't flower, or simply faded away. I am hopeful that next year will be good.

Still. There are some things I am thankful for....

The new little mandarin tree, which has replaced an ancient orange tree, that died of old age.

Fuchsia triphylla, which flowers year round.

Lady Emma Hamilton and Sombreuil in the background.

Always blooming Pelargoniums.

Dead and non performing plants removed, ready for replanting.

Always cheerful Bougainvillea in one of the apricot trees.

Self seeded lavender. In the way, but I don't have the heart to remove it.

Pretty Jessica.

TBC

Continuation.

Any plant that is happy in the deepest shade under two adjoining trees.

Teasing Georgia and an ivy leafed pelargonium.

New cutting of Argyranthemum Jamaica Primrose, already settled in and flowering.

My outdoor table decoration.

Pretty Aeoniums.

Perovskia atriplicifolia turning skeletal for the winter.

My commandeered village bank.

Another long flowering little shrub. I will remember it's name eventually.

I took all of these photos this morning, before it was fully light. Sorry if they are a bit dark.

Internationally, they are all growing on the big island in the Mediterranean Sea.

Daisy

Daisy..my burning bushes are exactly what you said..wish the fall color would last longer..you have gorgeous plants..so much COLOR..I would enjoy your climate..that olive jar(?) looks great..

Gorgeous gardens everyone! So much to be thankful for! A few years ago my family and I started volunteering at a community kitchen on Thanksgiving day, then having our own family Thanksgiving on Friday (today). This year when I volunteered I also brought a few bouquets from the garden to liven up the community hall. It is so rewarding... if you ever get a chance to serve food on Thanksgiving to those in need I highly recommend it!

So, today I am hosting. I'm thankful for fresh grown herbs to add to the dishes and home grown salad.

I'm thankful there is still enough blooming here to make a few kitchen and bathroom bouquets. Only a few austins or old garden roses, mostly iceberg and flower carpet, but my family honestly won't notice a difference and they brighten the room!

I wish I had some limoncello or rose liquor ready for today... but next year I will be prepared. This year we will settle for store bought social lubrication.

Not garden related, but I'm also thankful for spanx and elastic pants. ;)

In the U.S. and elsewhere, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

So many wonder pictures. I'm really enjoying this thread. Lisa

Cori Ann, I love how you've decorated your home with roses and other flowers. Hard to believe your family won't notice - people often don't comment even when they like something. Besides, at least we get to enjoy the pictures!

Your herb and salad beds are awesome!

I too love roses blooming at Thanksgiving!

Daisy, your garden pictures are an instant vacation. Thanks all for sharing such lovely glimpses of your lives with us.