Hmmm. My azaleas aren't blooming, but my delphinium are blooming again. Some of my roses (noticed it on a Buck out front) are budded again. Many of my roses have gone haywire. Last night I noticed one of my Austin English Roses (I think it's Guinevere but it might be Glamis Castle) had shot up from its usual 2.5 feet tall to about seven feet tall on one cane. (Yeah, it snuck up on me despite that discrepancy in height.)

Speaking of roses gone crazy, my nice, thornless Zephirine Drouhin roses have me thinking of Jack and the beanstalk. When I bought it, I was led to believe it would get to be 3-6' wide and 4-12' tall, and I know most of my roses are on the shorter side of estimates. The three-year-old in deep shade under the neighbor's willow (rose is in my yard, as is most of the tree's growth overhead) isn't much bigger, going perhaps 7', but the two-year-old pair in the front yard? Aiee. One is over the gutter for the garage, and canes are flying almost halfway across the double plus garage door (17' wide door, don't ask) and need tying, while the other is at least 8' wide and and 12' tall, and growing, taking over the mailbox area as well as the trellis it's on. (They're both trellised, but growth indicates I need to lash more branches on the trellis.) I guess it's good my rhododendron died, it would have been smothered by this monster.

And the hybrid tea next to it? It came with the house, had a J&P tag at the time but which disappeared somewhere in the landscaping over the years, it's about six foot tall and finally bloomed, after three years of stubbornness after the gutter fell victim to an ice dam and guillotined it almost in half, breaking off all canes.

Mind you, all this is going on while the dahlias bloom their heads off (most were from the wny swap, all are dark red), the mum from my wedding is in full bloom (8 years old...) and the new england aster is going to town.

Which doesn't even mention that two geraniums came up from seed in a pot on the patio in August, along with tutti frutti agastache. All were from plants I grew last year and didn't even own this year. They're all blooming and look like it's June.
Maybe I took the hibiscus and gardenia in too soon? :)

My garden actually looks better than it did in June. On Tursday Oct. 18th I discovered that my Louisiana Irises (Iris Fulva) have bloomed again also. Now if the Heleborus blooms now that will be the icing on the cake.

Penny