and here they are

 

 Cosmos has been one of my favourite flowers, ever since i discovered a whole field full of them in Japan, not knowing what they were. I have grown these from seeds and they didn't flower at all all summer, just kept getting taller and taller, no buds, nothing - i was so upset i wanted to pull them all out, but as i had nothing to teplace them, i thought green stalks were still better than empty spaces (not a very japanese thought :). In the end they got taller than me, i couldn't believe my eyes...

And then oh mystery, they started forming buds beginning of october!!! (aren't they supposed to be summer flowers?) and bloomed starting late october... well they only stopped yesterday, when the first freezing temperatures killed them over night. They haven't even had time to produce seeds, not a wise move in this darwinian universe... I should also mention that the seeds were supposed to produce striped blossoms, edged with crimson, but no sign of that... Still they were so dazzling i couldn't stop sneaking out to look at them all the time, i will have more cosmos series soon (so i really hope you like cosmos too :). 

And maybe it is better they flowered so late, when almost everything else had started to fade... almost! because there are also other november wonders i will post later.

and then there are surprises

I bought this hydrangea last spring, thinking it would be a white mophead hydrangea (one of my favourite flowers ever). I was very excited to see the first buds this early summer, but to my surprise they didn't resemble the round heads I knew! 

I found out this was another type of hydrangea, called paniculata (panicled) and I was very disappointed at first, but have grown to love it. It is less sensitive than the mophead type, which is harder to grow in our area because of heat and drought, and the blooms last much longer. 

I also waited in vain for all the tiny flowers to open, until I learned each panicle had sterile (big showy flowers) and non-sterile little flowers almost hidden beneath, very interesting... They shine like little white stars in the shade beneath the vine, I can now say I don't regret anymore buying it, on the contrary! 

Come September, the blossoms are slowly turning brown-beige, and the leaves have started to show signs of yellowing, but it is still very lovely, I think... 

improbable things

this is a liatris in all its glory, and something else :-) 

an impressive visitor of the garden, black-bluish, huge and making a motor-like sound like a plane!

uninvited

these petunias have appeared out of the blue - after i had the soil tilted last autumn, i wanted the lilies-of-the-valley removed and had planted some alliums and irises there... the seeds must have waited in the soil for many years! i couldn't bring myself to destroy them, but they are very vigorous and tend to overwhelm everything - though i must admit that they look pretty in the dark, the white is almost glowing...