I feel like I’m showing yall the same old things over and over again. But looking back through my posts, I have tried to have some variety in the things I share. I guess because I’m taking multiple pictures of the same flowers in my yard, I think I’m being repetitive. I just don’t want to bore you.

November still has some flowers holding on, but our colder temps are coming. If we have several freezing nights, that will change the borders considerably.

However, the camellias will bloom all winter. The top photo is a camellia japonica that I planted at least thirty years ago. It was looking pretty shabby last year, so I pruned it last spring and crossed my fingers. I’m happy to say it has lots of buds now, even though the shrub is about half the size it used to be. What remains looks pretty healthy.

This collage is camellia sasanqua October Magic, Snow. Southern Living Plants offers several types of October Magic sasanquas, and they’re all beautiful. This blossom is frilly white with deep pink on the buds and on the outer edges of the petals. You can catch a glimpse of the red firespikes at the back of the picture in an area next to this sasanqua.

And the firespikes, which started blooming in September, are still looking pretty good. We saw a hummingbird at these flowers this past week, and butterflies still flit around them. I may get another six weeks from these plants, depending on the weather.

I have had inconsistent results from several of my lantanas during the summer and fall growing seasons. I admit they must thrive on neglect in my yard. Although I love the colors, I use them as fillers and take them for granted.

The time for enjoying spring and summer hydrangeas is long past. The blooms on most of these shrubs dry to crispy brown pom poms on the stalks, but I don’t tidy them up until late winter. This plant (above) has proven to be an exception, although the variety is the same as all the other big leaf hydrangeas in my yard. In fact, I propagated six of the shrubs from my two originals. I’m still enjoying the purpleish color of these fading blossoms that were a deep blue all summer.

Don’t plant nandinas unless you want to end up with lots of them. I love them, but I have to keep tabs on where they pop up all around the yard and pull up the excess. I started with four plants from Mama and Daddy’s yard in the late 80s. I haven’t counted how many are tucked into every corner now. The showy berries give good seasonal color, as you see in the final collage. But that’s why I have so many more plants like them, with the birds being responsible for the proliferation of seedlings.

Okay, yall. That’s it for this week. May the Lord bless and keep you.

Shalom, Dottie

Just a reminder, Jim Stephens of Garden Ruminations is hosting Six on Saturday now. You can find him here: https://gardenruminations.co.uk/   He has a good blog too.