Late blooms

I made a quick stop at the Master Gardeners Demonstration Garden the other day. Some blooms caught my eye as I drove by.

The dahlias have held up pretty well despite rain and a couple of freezing nights lately.

There were even a few roses holding court. But, like most of our flowers these days, their days are numbered. Catch ’em while you can.

Predation

I’d had high hopes for my flower bed this year. I ditched my usual dahlias and remembered I’d wanted sunflowers. And wouldn’t they go nicely with a bed of nasturtiums? This was all outside our fenced garden enclosure which protects the veggies from the voracious local deer. The deer have never touched the dahlias or nasturtiums so I figured I was safe. I thought I’d planned a very pretty little flower garden.

Wrong! It could have been worse. My friend Marie has emailed me pictures of her nasturtiums that are nothing but stems. But still. A gardener needs to whine sometimes.

By the way, the grey skies you see in the top shot are from wildfire smoke. It’s back.