bev - email - url
The Lobelia on the left does look like the Great Blue Lobelia (L. syphilitica) that grows in my herb garden. I’ve bought a couple of these plants over the years and they’ve settled into the garden along with Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis).
The Goldenrod is pretty much finished here – all that remains are the fluffy seedheads that get all over Sabrina’s coat and our clothes when we go out walking through the fields. There have been a couple of heavy frosts just this week and there are very few leaves remaining on the trees. I’ve seen a few groggy bumblebees clinging to flowers in the sheltered areas of our gardens, but it seems as though autumn is looking rather long in the tooth. I hope we don’t have an early winter, although some brief snow flurries on Friday and some sleet yesterday suggest that we may see snow on the ground before long (argh!).
Monday: 23 October 2006 @ 09:25:45
robin andrea - email - url
It’s 32 degrees here this morning. We still don’t have enough light yet for me to go out and take a look to see if we have a little ground frost. If so, it will be our first of the season.
I love lobelia. You are so lucky they are natural to your neck of the woods. I buy them and tuck them in here and there for their especially colorful beauty.
Monday: 23 October 2006 @ 10:25:42
Laura - email - url
We are still getting above freezing temperatures in the daytime here, although most small water bodies are frozen over. But it’s only maybe ten days since we had our first spell of hard frosts so that the ground started to freeze.
Monday: 23 October 2006 @ 10:53:08
FloridaCracker - email - url
I was photographing lobelia in the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge just yesterday afternoon. It was thick in the ditches with blazing star, swamp sunflowers, and goldenrod.
Funny, I noticed all the blossoms were facing one way, because it was the wrong way for my photo and I spent some time trying to twist the stem a bit and still get a shake-free sharp photo.
Our low is supposed to reach 37 F tonight!
Monday: 23 October 2006 @ 11:29:44
pablo - email - url
We woke to frozen birthbaths on Sunday, but the impatiens under the cypress tree survived. I expected them to be green, gooey lumps on the ground. Slight warming trend.
As always, when I see pix of your place, I wish I were there.
Monday: 23 October 2006 @ 20:02:07
Mark Paris - email
We are reaping the benefit of higher altitude on the mountain. So far our lows have been 5 to 7 degrees higher than the predicted and reported lows for town (actually, the airport north of town). So no frost so far, although some of the more tender potted plants have shown some signs of cold damage. Even this morning (Tuesday) it was about 39, while one lower spot down off the mountain was at 32. Of course, we could have had some frost even with those higher temps, given the nice, black, cold sky of the last couple of days.
Tuesday: 24 October 2006 @ 13:03:15
Wayne - email - url
Good grief, I can’t believe I let these comments get away from me. Apologies, everyone, I have all kinds of effluvia to bring here.
Wednesday: 25 October 2006 @ 16:48:05
Wayne - email - url
Bev - our walnuts are denuded but most of the other trees are just turning and in the process of dropping leaves. Quite a number of species are still greenly, stubbornly hanging on.
Glenn has declared three blue Lobelia species in the immediate area, including our own property. I’m going to have to await his pronouncement.
Sabrina is a good girl, I’m sure she’ll be as happy as you to tolerate the coat of goldenrod seed in the spirit of proper dispersal!
As I’ve said before, I know that I have a romantic view of the cold and of snow, but I can’t thinking of *flurries* and having coniptions. There’s something perversely attractive about endless gray cold days that appeals to me. We’re always interrupted by the occasional bright sunny warmish day or spread of days that completely nullifies the gray day vibes that have accumulated.
Wednesday: 25 October 2006 @ 17:01:47
Wayne - email - url
Robin - they’ve become my fall signature plant, at least for the month of October, which I shall rename Lobelia. So today is Lobelia 25, 2006, which means I’m way behind.
Wednesday: 25 October 2006 @ 17:20:25
Wayne - email - url
Laura - I’ll just echo my remarks to Bev. The very notion of frozen water bodies and frozen ground just captivates me (not for the first time).
Wednesday: 25 October 2006 @ 17:22:16
Wayne - email - url
FC - you have blazing star! That’s great. I’ve been trying to figure out why the lobelia flowers orient along the stem. I’ve failed. In part, because it became a thought too late to check to see what they were all looking at.
Wednesday: 25 October 2006 @ 17:24:00
Wayne - email - url
Pablo - today was the day I noticed for the first time a few graying oozing lumps. Most things still seem intact. I haven’t noticed any frozen water though the temps have been down to 30 last night. I do see that as confirming my impression that your winters are significantly colder than ours.
Wednesday: 25 October 2006 @ 17:27:17
Wayne - email - url
Mark - the skies have been very dark and full of stars, haven’t they? That nightly warm updraft you get out of warmed lower elevations is interesting. Is there a time when you finally notice it stops? Can you peg that to southerly elevations finally achieving the ability to block descending mid-day sunlight into the lower elevations?
Wednesday: 25 October 2006 @ 17:29:43
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