And so it begins. My little battle with the elements.
Every year around this time, give or take a week or so, the temperatures start to drop. We had a frost warning last night and will have one for the next 3 nights. Am I ready to say goodbye to my flowers?
No.
Late afternoon found me outside with my pruners, cutting some flowers. I knew I couldn’t possibly cover everything and I couldn’t begin to contemplate seeing them brown and wilted.
Zinnias and cosmos.
Limelight hydrangeas. This is what happens if you leave them on the bush until mid-October- you get a gorgeous intensely pink blossom. Oh goodness, I love this color, especially in combination with the McCoy vase.
I’ll leave them in this vase, sans water, to dry. It couldn’t be simpler. I know you’ll see other tips about drying hydrangeas but I simply cut them, stick them in a vase and let the drying happen naturally. This pink will fade a bit, but it will still be lovely.
For contrast, I cut these hydrangeas from the same bush about 10 days ago:
The blossoms were a mix of pale green and a lighter pink. I like to cut them at different stages to get a beautiful mix of colors. Love, love hydrangeas.
Once it started to get dark, I covered the Chicken Wire Fence Garden with three cotton sheets, thanks to the advice of my friends on MHC’s Facebook page. Then I brought in all my potted plants from the porch, as well as my hanging plants. This is what it looks like in our living room:
We don’t have a mud room or a laundry room or an enclosed porch. They spend the night just inside the door and the big, big hanging plant lives on the bench in the kitchen. Crazy, but true.
So far, so good. I don’t think we had real hard freeze as the leaves haven’t suddenly fallen off the catalpa. The Chicken Wire Fence Garden survived for another day. Tonight promises to be a couple of degrees colder. Cross your fingers.
And so it will go until the temperatures lock in to below freezing lows. Then I’ll find myself giving in to the change of seasons.
But not yet!
By the way, despite all the warnings about impatiens and a fungus that could kill them (and did with my barrel impatiens last year) I had no problems at all. They did really well.
(I loved all the library and bookmobile memories you shared yesterday. Thank you so much!)
Happy Wednesday.
Good morning, Claudia. Your living room looks abit like my kitchen, full of summer! I too try to hold fall off another day or so. This was such a great summer for flowers, I hate to let them go. I love the Limelight in the McCoy, oh my, beauty. Thanks for sharing.
I’m doing my best to hold the cold temps off a while longer, Hedy!
Ah, I see we are kindred spirits when it comes to the temps dropping. We had a smattering of snow here in Indy. I posted about my flowers today too! Yes, I got your email. I promise I will answer. My work schedule…well I just can’t keep up! Hang in there and keep enjoying the flowers while you can. I will too.
xo rachel
Oh, you don’t have to answer, Rachel. Just wanted to make sure it reached you.
They made it, good for those poor chilled little ones…
I am dreading the killing frost too…we’ve had some lighter ones, and fog for a week, it’s been creeping up onto the porch and playing with the geraniums.
Jen
Tonight might be the one, Jen, but I’m hoping the sheets do the trick.
Claudia, You couldn’t possibly let those flowers go, without doing everything possible to stop the vicious cycle of “Weather”. (:-)
Gosh darned weather, Judy!
Here on the west coast (of Canada) freezing occurs, but not often. Instead we have unrelenting rain that turns plants and flowers to sodden piles. I actually prefer the colder, freezing days here, because they are brighter than the wet ones.
Love those pale hydrangeas that so complement the McCoy vase. Enjoy the flowers while you can!
I will, Lorrie.
Your vases of flowers look beautiful, Claudia, now you can enjoy them all day long! I did the same as you this morning, our frost never came last night so I decided to cut every bloom and what’s left of the herbs and bring them inside. Your pots may do well in a sunny window for another month or so. Do you belong to Hometalk? I just love it…you can post a question and even upload a picture and you will get tons of advice. I rely on that for gardening. And I’ve been meaning to ask you because I have admired your zinnias all summer long. Did you plant those from seed? They are SO pretty and looked fantastic with your morning glories. Great combo!
XO,
Jane
Yes. I do belong and I have posted questions there – very handy! Yes, the zinnias were grown from seed, Jane.
We are forecast to have our first freeze tonight. I will miss all of the flowers in my neighborhood. :(
It makes me so sad to say goodbye to flowers, Laura.
We are expecting snow today and tomorrow here so I bet it is moving your way. I am in love with the hydrangeas, the shade of pink is beautiful
I love it too, Dawn!
In anticipation of the frost here, last week we brought in 14 pots of various spikes and geraniums to winter over. Some of them are 5 years old. Too sad when it is time to bring them inside. But after cutting the geraniums back quite a bit, usually by mid-January I actually have new growth and some blooms. That makes me happy!!
OK…. the dresser/ buffet in the background of your picture w/ the plants on the floor…. I have that EXACT piece in my dining room. The only difference is mine has curved glass doors on each side w/ the 2 shelves. Exact old oak finish. Mine has an oval mirror that spans the width that sits on the top of the piece. The mirror is about 18 inches high at the widest point of the oval (in the middle). Did that make sense?? My in-laws found it in an old barn with an oak pedestal square table (with 6 leaves) and 8 “cained” chairs in 1971. They refinished it all for us before we were married,,,, 41 years ago. It has been our dining room “set” for all these years. I had never seen one like it before!! Fun!!
How neat, Chris! There are two holes in the back of the top piece and I’ve always known something went there previously. Same thing for in front of the shelves. We bought it that way. Can you send me a photo of it someday? It would be fun to see how it would look with everything intact and I know Don would love to see it!
So glad you cut some of the flowers to bring inside! I love drying Hydrangeas!
Me too, Linda!
We’ve had several nights of frost..but no freeze yet..mid 30’s this AM..Flowers are still hanging in there..My Impatiens did very well too..
I hope the big freeze holds off a bit longer, Missy.
No freezing here yet but definitely cold..time to make some hot soup..lol
And hot chocolate, Nancy!
I brought all my house plants in last night and just in time to miss the killing frost. The herb pots came in, too, and I have pots all over the house. It’s time to get the chickens bedded down for the winter. I like the look of your rescued plants sitting cozily in the house.
I got so busy today that I didn’t take them outside for the day!
I am going to address this same issue today. I hate bringing them indoors, but I have to save them.
I can’t leave them out there to wither and die, Beverly.
I am reminded each year, how cruel that first hard freeze can be. One day you have beautiful plants, and the next they are brown and wilted! Yours are still pretty…did the sheets work? Our leaves are falling so fast…guess I know what the weekend task will be! Good luck to your Sox! ;)
The sheets worked last night. They were stiff and cold when I went to take them off the plants this morning. Here’s hoping they work tonight.
This promises to be a nail-biter of a World Series. The Cardinals are a really good team.
Your flowers are beautiful…oh, how we’ll miss them all the rest of this long fall and winter! *sigh*
I’ll have to content myself with reading my summer blog posts, Melanie.
I did the same thing, Claudia. I went out and brought in all my big geraniums and have them in the kitchen window right now. We went from warm end of summer days to freezing temps! I should have gone out and cut the last few roses today- I suppose I will lose them tonight. Those hydrangeas are gorgeous-especially in that vase. I dry my own the same way- xo Diana
Easy, isn’t it, Diana?
I’m with you .. I love the hydrangeas in the fall … so gorgeous!
Hydrangeas are perfection!
I used to do the same thing…but not anymore. I just bring in a few things to spend the winter inside. I did bring in some roses to make potpouri.
Balisha
Potpourri sounds wonderful, Balisha.