The weather is still very good for gardening, last Saturday the wind changed direction, the tramontana, or the wind from the north (or literally the wind from the mountains) was blowing; this is what I call a lazy wind, because rather than go around, it goes straight through you! The sun is still shining and so it is still pleasant to be outside if you’re protected from the wind. By Monday it was lovely again, warm, sunny and a real joy to be in the garden
I think there are as many, if not more, flowers blooming as there were in October. Even the Philodelphus has a couple of flowers.
In my last post I asked whether it was spring or autumn; there is still a lot of new growth on many shrubs but all of the trees have either lost their leaves or their leaves have changed colour so the answer to my question is now it is autumn.
Almost every variety of rose I have has blooms; outstanding are the usual suspects of Rosa mutabilis plus R. Molineaux which looks as good as in spring and R. China Rose – this was given to be by a friend as a rooted cutting it is today looking wonderful, I had been thinking of moving it but until I’ve taken some cuttings myself and know that they have taken I don’t think I would want to risk losing it.
R.Molineaux covered in blooms
A perfect bloom, not autumn looking at all
It’s companion planting of Hemerocallis Sol d’oro.
R. China Rose
and in close up
I love the light at this time of year – it is so bright (difficult for photographs) and lower in the sky so it lights up the grasses all day and not just in the evening as in summer.
Back border
Reading about gardens in other parts of the world where there has already been frost or snow makes me realise how lucky I am enjoying this extra-long season of good weather. I’ve only just put the heating on in the last couple of days and then only for a couple of hours in the evening.
I have been changing a small area around the Arbutus. It had a strange mix of oddments that I’d put there when I didn’t know where else to plant them; I wanted to have an area with Asters for autumn interest, I also realised looking at images for recent posts that I have quite nice mix of plants all with crimson blooms, I have decided to put them all here adding to an Oleander and Salvia of that colour. The rose will be to be moved later in winter but I’ve moved a Penstemon (a cutting from Linda’s garden in the West) and divided some claret achillea’s to extend the period of interest, so this area will be crimson all summer hopefully, next autumn I’ll put in some crimson tulips too to stretch the season even more.
Penstemon, just moved and looking a little sad
Salvia, such difficult plants to photograph
R. ? Braithwaite
Achilliea
Click on the image below to see all the blooms in My Hesperides Garden this month.
Thanks to Carol at MayDreams Garden for hosting GBBD, why not visit her and then see what’s blooming in gardens all around the world.
Don’t forget to join in Garden Bloggers Foliage day on the 22nd November, I really look forward to seeing all the lovely autumn colour and the spring foliage from the southern hemisphire
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
Lovely blooms..I haven’t seen a daylily in at least a month…
What an amazing number of flowers you have, your roses are stunning, just like early summer. Enjoy while you can, surely it can’t last much longer.
Very true, I am trying to enjoy each day.
Hello Christina,how lovely to see all these flowers in the sunshine. I am reduced to contemplating bleached grasses and seedheads now!
Goodness Christina, one could almost imagine it was summer in your garden, though the autumnal touches give it away. I am greatly reassured that even you sometimes just bung plants in somewhere and then have to work out where to move them to later! Your garden always looks so amazing, whatever the season, that I had begun to think you immune to that particular vice 😉
Christine, that molineaux is stunning. Is it scented too? I’m not a big fun of Austin but sometimes I have to admit his roses leave me speechless. I’ve ordered a few English roses this year, I have to force myself and try them, ’cause I’m sure I will love them.
It seems we have similar plants in bloom, I have that same penstemon flowered, and a white one (I think it’s WhiteBedder) too.
Love the flowers but what about edibles from your orto ? What do you have now? I only found kiwis and spinach at the market here this morning…
Mary Jane
(I’ll be posting my weekly update of happenings in the area later tonight)
This is my Bloomday post, I’ll update the vegetables on the end of month view, Christina
aloha,
all the colorful flowers look like they are still going strong including your beautiful roses…i love seeing the larger panorama of your graveled garden, i almost want to take a more extensive tour 🙂
Love your tropican garden, warm and wet so different to hot and dry in my garden Christina
Quite lovely, especially the roses, which I really appreciate because I don’t have very many. The link from May Dreams took me to your October post. Happy GBBD.
Hi Carolyn, I’m not sure what happened to the link, I looked and both October and november are there. Sorry for the confusion. Christina
Ah the Salvia that sends the camera screaming away with a migraine – we have that too, to the human eye a flash of lovely colour, and the sunbirds like it. When we have wind from the mountain, berg wind, it is hot and brings rain.
Your garden is still looking wonderful for November, loving all the colour! It is still unseasonably warm in the South East of England: roses are coming into bud again, Delphiniums are starting to shoot and the Salvias are still in flower.
Although I love the colour I would prefer the weather to be doing what I would expect for this time of year rather than mimicking spring as I think that the plants need a rest period, a time to gather their energies ready for next year so that they can put on good growth. Great pics as always. Jason.
Thanks Jason, and we need a rest too! Christina
Great photos, every one, but I especially love your roses!
And that purple Penstemon! Wonderful color!
Wonderful post…just love those backlit grasses…that really is one of the best parts of autumn…that clear, low-angled light 🙂
Your roses are doing better than mine – I think those extra few miles south make a difference – and I don’t have hemerocallis in flower. Lots of autumn colour though which is very welcome. Foggy mornings now here and just touching zero in the early mornings. Only just got our olives picked – more a question of the aspect of our olive grove I think because several people in the neighborhood picked theirs weeks ago.
Y
I love your grasses – so beautifully placed. I can’t wait for mine to mature. It still is a young patch. And your roses – stunning!! Thank you for sharing.
I also love the lighting this time of year! You still have some lovely blooms. My salvia is particularly lovely now, but you are right; salvia is very difficult to photograph! Our weather is still pleasant with cooler temps and days of golden sunshine. Even the rainy days have a comfortable, mellow quality.