October is a month of radical change in our upstate NY garden. If we've been lucky enough to avoid a killing frost, there's quite a nice variety of plants still blooming during the first half of the month.
Our first damaging frost zapped the Dahlias and several other plants a few days before Bloom Day in the middle of the month, but a few of the hardier plants held on for a while afterward.
Even though I dread seeing the frost come, it can create a magic of its own.
It put a ruffled lacy edge on the blue bells of dwarf Campanula, seen here with white Alyssum,
sugar-coated the snapdragons,
Obedient Plant/False Dragonhead (physostegia Virginiana), which is still blooming,
Lamium (also still blooming), 
.....and Wax Begonias.
A few honeybees have been spotted, still at work on the petunias earlier in the month,
And this little fellow on the Anemone de caen/Dutch Windflowers last Sunday.
Verbena "Homestead Purple" continues to bloom.
This is one plant I never want to be without. I usually find a few self-sown seedlings in the spring, and I also buy new plants in six packs at a local nursery.
I recorded my last sighting of a Juvenile Ruby Throated Hummingbird on September 23rd and couldn't resist putting its picture in this post. I'm completely amazed at their uncanny ability to find their own way on the long journey south, leaving a week or two after their parents. Nature is extraordinary!
Just before that frost we still had beautiful Dahlias blooming. This one is Eveline. And here's Park Princess.
The multiple flowers of Bonny Blue in the New Rock Garden were covered in bees on this sunny day.
And a Monarch enjoyed the flowers of the still blooming Phlox.
The seeds for this Castor Bean plant were given to me by my friend, Marie, who generously passes along so many interesting plants and seeds. If I'd managed to plant it earlier it would've grown much bigger, but it grew quickly once in the ground and I loved those gorgeous big leaves. I hope to do better with it next year. You can see that there were still a few blooms on the Butterfly Bush during the first part of the month too.
Here's that same spot after the hard frost.
And the Clematis in the Lily Garden which blessed us with such late blooms this year.
Hannah explores near the Hydrangea Limelight, its lovely blooms now browned by the frost. And look what she saw outside on the morning of October 16th!
Here's the view out the back door, looking across the snow-topped Cosmos to the Pink Garden.
That Friday actually turned into a beautiful day when the sun came out about mid-morning and melted the snow away very quickly. It was one of the few lovely sunny days we've had this fall. Lately though, we've enjoyed a few more beautiful days, although they've been interspersed with some very wet days. Yesterday we had an inch and three quarters of rain, and an inch and a half last Friday night and Saturday.
In the photo above, taken last Sunday (October 25th), the Spirea glows in its autumn colors, while Lamium and Obedient Plant (on the left) are still blooming bravely, even after being cloaked with snow.
The Obedient Plant is past its glory stage, but still pretty. This is a real bee magnet.
If you click to enlarge this photo you can see it behind Tink and Isabelle, who were keeping me company on that cloudy afternoon. Here's the New Rock Garden, still brimming with color near the beginning of the month. Dahlia Bonny Blue and Zinnias were putting on a wonderful show, amid other pretty annuals.
But that hard frost zapped the Dahlias, Zinnias and Coleus, and damaged most of the other plants. Only the pansies were unphased, and are still blooming today.
The yellow mounds are Lemon Gem Marigold. It hung on for a day or two, but quickly faded. I've saved seeds for next year.
So sad to see the Zinnias go. They made such a bright, cheerful display. Do you see the Sunflowers behind them?
They are self-sown from bird seed. Sprouting later than the earlier "volunteers", they gave us a lovely splash of late color, and now the birds are enjoying their seeds.
Sedum Autumn Joy kept its color well into the month. This photo was taken a week ago, on October 22nd. That Thursday won the prize for the most beautiful October day this year. The temperature reached a sunny 70ºF/21ºC. It was a glorious day to be outside in the garden! Here's what the front yard looks like now.
I missed out on getting photos of the prettiest part of the Autumn because I kept waiting for a sunny day to take the camera out, when I wasn't working or running around doing other things. We've had a very busy month. Our fall foliage was rather disappointing this year, and most of the leaves fell quickly in the windy, rainy weather.
The red spot on the right is the dwarf Burning Bush.
These photos were taken last Sunday in the late afternoon light, hence those long shadows. Green, gold and brown are the predominant colors now.
The large Silver Maple holds on to its leaves much later than the big old Sugar Maple in front of the house.
I think that little tree is a Sugar Maple too, but being much younger and healthier, it holds onto its leaves longer than the old one too.
And so the days dwindle down to a precious few.... and every opportunity is taken to soak up those glorious rays of warm sunshine, between the windy, rainy days, before Old Man Winter comes to stay.
I hope you're all enjoying whatever season you're in at the moment, be it fall or spring.
