This week’s flower colors reflect the yellow and red-orange autumn foliage in the background. I’m using another of my hand-painted, pocket vases made in Ecuador by Artesia. Each side offers a different color, either cobalt or turquoise. I think the cobalt looks better with these flowers, but there is enough gold flowers to carry either side. Do you have a preference?
With the weather staying above freezing (hurrah), I continue to enjoy my tender annuals.
Gold and burnt orange zinnias (Z. elegans ‘County Fair Mix’ and Z. ‘Apricot Profusion,’ which are no longer apricot-colored due to cooler temperatures), along with yellow nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus), contrast with rich, cobalt salvia (S. guarantica) and lavender heart-leaved aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium).
I’ve used pointy-leaved blue star (Amsonia tabernaemontana) foliage, which is turning to gold and common spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis), a fresh shade of green that matches the leaves on the vase. Vertical accents are fountain grass seed heads (Pennisetum alopecuroides).
Thanks to Cathy at Rambling In the Garden, who hosts a weekly meme to showcase what is blooming in our gardens. Wander over to see what gardeners all over the world are arranging this week.
To my Canadian followers, I wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving!
I need to start chopping things back, but the weather has not been conducive to garden work.
The coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) seed heads are being visited by birds, mostly finches and sparrows. In front of them, the blood grass (Imperata cylindrica ‘Red Baron’), which was not noticeable all summer, now is blazing. Directly behind it, in the far back almost into the woods, a purple New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) can be seen (best in the third photo). It was too tall for the border, so I banished it to the wood edge where it seems quite happy.
I’m linking with Cathy at 
I usually like to take my time creating my arrangements, as I derive great pleasure from it, but this week I didn’t have the time, so here is my first ‘plonk’ for IAVOM.
Of course, I had to use the heart-leaved aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium) I’ve been raving about, to which I added dark and light pink cosmos (C. bipinnatus ‘Sensation Mix’).
The grape motif on the pitcher (another great thrift store find) is a nod to autumn and the harvest.
Once a week, as members of 
Since a frost was predicted for Sunday night, we covered a few things, my spouse made a support to hold a tarp to cover the largest zinnia and dahlia patch (see D. ‘Voodoo’ below), and I picked nearly every tender flower in the garden to put in 
It turned out to be a light frost, so we might have a few more weeks of purple, pink and white cleome (C. hassleriana), white, dark and light pink cosmos (C. bipinnatus ‘Sensation Mix’), zebra mallow (Malva sylvestris ‘Zebrina’) and a few zinnias (Z. elegans ‘County Fair Mix’), as I picked nearly every bud that held promise. 
