The garden season is officially over in my neck of the woods with a killing frost ending all but the hardiest of plants, and even those are signaling their own ends are nigh. Any possible future posts most likely will be less floriferous, alas.
So to end the season with a bang I offer two vases: the first, in a sweet little green-print creamer, features golden gloriosa daisies (Rudbeckia hirta), quilled daisies (R. subtomentosa ‘Little Henry’), Calendula officinalis, feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium), sedum (Hylotelephium spectabile), Verbena bonariensis and anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum).
Containing much the same flowers as the previous arrangement, this cranberry glass vase above also features parsley (Petroselinum crispum), two varieties of flowering tobacco (Nicotiana alata), two small Dahlia ‘Voodoo’ buds, daisy fleabane (Erigeron annuus), Arctic daisy (Arctanthemum arcticum ‘Roseum’) and a rosy branch of seed capsules from butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosum).
As always, thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts the weekly garden meme In A Vase On Monday, featuring flowers from our gardens. Click the link to join the fun or see what others are sharing this week.
Thank you!!! I always look forward to your arrangements! ♥️♥️
Hey Deb, so glad you can enjoy them vicariously. 🙂 💜
Goodness, a killing frost! We are still waiting for our first rain. It was in the mid 70s today. Anyway, your vases are splendid. The parsley is creative. The butterfly weed seed capsules are interesting.
Thank you, Tony. Hope you see some rain soon.
We are expecting a 50% chance of light rain on Wednesday!
Oh my, these are so lovely. You made my day, Eliza.
Thank you kindly, Rupali!
So beautiful! I’m going to miss these lovely posts for the winter. Sure felt like winter Saturday night. I tried covering my hydrangea so that I could enjoy it a bit longer but it seems the 27 degrees was too much for it even with the frost protection. The Montauk daisies are still good though!
Thanks, K. You and me both! It is hard letting go, knowing it’ll be six months before the garden wakes up again. Back to grocery store bouquets, sigh, not quite the same experience. 😉
You are right that the season must end eventually and these vases are a nice finale. Now waiting for next season! (Suzanne)
Merci, Suzanne!
Those are two bountiful vases…now it’s time for most plants to rest and gather energy. Being sheltered by all the surrounding trees, it didn’t get too cold in my yard. Thank you for all your beautiful bouquets this year!
Thank you, Alice. Dormancy and hibernation awaits!
Hi Eliza. And so another summer comes to a close. I shall miss your lovely vases. Thank you so much for sharing them. Looking forward to next spring already!! Well, for once I am not actually wishing my life away. After such a horrible hot summer I am loving the cooler weather and the beauty of autumn. The spring can wait….MJ
Thank you, MJ. It is hard to let go of my garden, but time flies and soon spring will arrive before we know it. Carpe diem!
What a cheerful vaseful of flowers! Talk about envy – my garden (in a rather soggy north uk) is exactly that – both soggy and in the north of the uk and has the added ‘delight’ of being heavily treed by our neighbours – so flowers are but brief and fleeting 🙁 So I live vicariously through the other gardens I work in which are definitely far more sunny than mine x thank you for popping over and leaving a lovely comment on my blog x
Thank you!
Both vases are beautiful, although it was a little shocking to read about your frost, since our overnight lows still are in the 60s. The seed pods from the Asclepias are gorgeous. That’s not a species I see unless I go farther north or east. Is the color of the pods usual, or is it a result of the cooler temperatures?
Thank you, Linda. Our first frosts have been running two to three weeks later (and the last one equally earlier in spring), so a longer growing season seems like a gift. This has an effect on wildlife and plants so it may not be as good as one thinks, however. The milkweed pods turn rosy with the cooler weather, a build up of anthocyanins, just like leaves do.
A celebration of October!
Thanks, yes, good to the last petal!
Cheery — love it! 😍💛🌼
Thank you, Susan!
Two dazzling arrangements, Eliza 😊. There’s not much hanging on here either.
Thank you, Belinda. Over the waterfall we go! 😉
Two heavenly arrangements to celebrate the end of the season. I didn’t know the arctic daisy, looks intriguing! Well, the next season holds its own magic, I’m so much looking forward to it.
Thank you, Annette. A friend gave me a division of arctic daisy, but it was Cathy at Words and Herbs that ID’d it for me. So nurseries in Germany must be offering it.
Ah, good to know. Does it cope with drought?
Very tough plant!
You managed two very nice mixes despite the frost, Eliza! I wish my Rudbeckia handled our (hopefully last) severe heatwave and our Santa Ana winds as well as yours handled their first frost. Your Calendula reminded me that it’s time to get some of those started here, where they’re mainly cool season plants.
Thanks, Kris. What are thought of as ‘half-hardy’, calendula, rudbeckia, salvia, etc. can take a light frost and generally carries me a few extra weeks. Once 20s nightly becomes a thing, the show is over. I look forward to seeing your winter fare, it gets me through the winter doldrums. 🙂
A lovely pair for your 2026 summer’s last hurrah. I couldn’t recognize the seed pods and was surprised to know they are butterfly weed. Nice addition to the autumnal collection.
Thank you, Susie! I delayed cutting the milkweed until the end, they are so beautiful just by themselves.
I don’t know which one of these is my favorite. They work beautifully together. So much bounty. I miss so many of these flowers in my garden.
Thank you, Donna. I can’t imagine not having a garden to tend, but as I get older, the time might come when all I’ll have is a few containers and window boxes. I need the nurturing as much as the bounty!
I love all those yellow daisies Eliza, but it was the pink seed capsules that caught my eye in your second vase. I have never seen these in real life, and certainly haven’t seen them used in a vase before and they really grabbed my attention! Gorgeous arrangements. So sad they have all gone for another year now. 🍁
Thank you, Cathy. I’ve been watching the few plants I have, grow rosier by the day. I knew I just had to use one in my last arrangement! I’m curious to see if the seed on this cut one will be still good to harvest. I’m flush with seeds this year, regardless. The dried pods are quite beautiful as well.
You had a bountiful end of the season. I am trying to adapt, and I know my flowers will be gone soon.
Thanks much. This year I had ample time to ramp down the gardening. Some years it’s a mad rush that leaves me exhausted, like spring but harder because the enthusiasm is gone!
Sorry your blooming season is over. We’re still warm enough to keep flowers blooming here. I still have several tomato plants happily trying to ripen! Thanks for a beautiful season of flower bouquets.
Thank you very much, Monika. I will miss the free range bouquet making. 🙂
What a beautiful post and arrangements to mark ending the season. The frost ended my season this weekend. I went to cut zinnia, tithonia, and snapdragon on Saturday and made a nice (somewhat small) bouquet. On Sunday, my community garden plot was withered with frost. At least I have my bouquet!
Thanks, Tom. Saved at the 11th hour, good for you, enjoy the ephemeral beauty!
Beautiful! Two questions. Where do you get all those great vases, and do you dry flowers from your yard?
Thanks, Julie. I’ve collected vases since high school, so have dozens I keep in a glass-fronted cabinet. I’m set for any bouquet, miniature to grand! I tend to dry mostly seed heads, poppies, love-in-a-mist, lunaria, etc. I collect a bit of hydrangea from the church yard every fall to make a bouquet before the frost ruins them. I don’t think they’re missed! 😉
I dry hydrangea from my yard every year, and sometimes manage to dry a blue one or two, but most of those I dry are rosy colored. I just leave them in a vase without water, upright. Do you hang yours upside down?
I just arrange hydrangea fresh, no water, and leave to dry in place. They are too brittle and hard to arrange once dry. My next IAVOM will be an example. 🙂
Oh, good, I’ll be watching for it!
Thank you for sharing so many floriferous offerings from your gardens, Eliza. I always feel ambivalent about the first frost. But winter can be beautiful also, so we have something to look forward to.
Thank you, Tanja. “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” 😀
Well said!
Beautiful flowers. We’ve had a couple of nights down in the 20’s so everything is toast here as well. Time to plan for next year. 🙂
Thanks, Judy. So hard to let go!
Sad to see the garden season end, but it’s nice to know you can scroll back through your posts and see some flowers again in the coming months. When do you start making plans (if any) for next year’s garden? I love all the daisies in these vases. 🌼
Thanks, Barbara. It is a bit of an adjustment to no longer have the garden to tend daily, it requires a new routine which this year seems a bit dogged. As most of what I grow is self-sown, I wait to see what pops up then thin or transplant. Veggies can’t be sown ’til the end of May, so there is very little planning. I do a bit of crop rotation, but being a small space, I wonder if it makes a difference. We’re spreading compost this fall, and lime, raking another batch of leaves to shred for mulch, so there is still a bit more left to do before hibernation. 😉
Well, your floral season ended on a stunning note and I’m sure that you’ll continue to wow your readers with gorgeous photos in the coming colder months!
Thank you very much, Tina. And likewise, I will enjoy seeing your ‘second spring!’
So pretty.
Thank you, Eunice!
Buenos días. Qué bonito. Felicidades.
Gracias, Ernesto.
So delightful, Eliza. 🌸
Thank you, Flavia!
Bunches of lovely flowers. Ending of summer is always the hardest one. This year is a bit easier as it was so hot. I welcome cooler weather.
Thank you, change is the only constant!
Thank you for reminding me of the fact!