Belated Garden Bloggers Bloom day, October

I’ve been struggling to get pics from the new phone (a Google pixel 3) into WordPress. WordPress when used on an iPad seems rigidly loyal to Apple devices, and just won’t let go of its connection with my iPhone/Apple photos stream, no matter how many media resets I do. But, the WordPress app installed on the Pixel takes care of that problem!

Now that its October, my nightly dog walks with Edie are in the dark. That’s introduced me to a whole load of nocturnal neighborhood residents, including a great horned owl that I hear more than see, and web weaving brown garden spiders, both very fitting for Halloween season, right?

But back to the plants. Things are mostly quiet this season, but the California fuchsias are going strong, a staple of the October hummingbird diet.

There’s this one odd California poppy who’s a few months early to the party.

Senecio (fulgens, I think). This is one Senecio I’ll keep. The rest, mostly serpens or mandraliscae, are about to be edited out.

The Bouteloua gracilis is done flowering, but the spent flowers are still lovely.

This little NOID succulent has unexpectly impressive flowers. Btw, I’m pretty enamoured of the portrait mode on this pixel 3 phone camera. You’ve probably noticed.

A gorgeous patty pat squash bloom. The hubster’s been digging in to the seeds from Botanical Interests that came in our swag bag from the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling.

Agave desmatiana. It’s good that its flowering, because we have to replace that fence, and there’s no way I was going to be able to move the agave. I will of course put off replacing the fence until its done flowering. Is that a little weird? Probably, but I’m ok with that.

Like the agave, the tree aloe doesn’t exactly count as flowering yet, but its making impressive progress. Last year it started to show Aloe mites, and I thought it was done for. But I chopped off the affected shoots, treated it with isopropyl alcohol, and hoped for the best. It seems to have worked.

Orchid Encyclia michoacana, from Grigsby Cactus Gardens.

Camissoniopsis (I think), a California native.

Gomphrena, and an unknown Salvia, both highly appreciated.

Rhipsalis getting ready to do something big.

People often say California has no seasons. I think I’ve said this before — I really don’t agree: I think it has more seasons, just very subtle ones. October brings in a particularly distinct mood, with short days, yes, but beautiful mornings and lovely long, cool evenings that I have time to enjoy, before the clocks change in November, and everything will pick up speed heading into the holiday season. For now, I’ll enjoy October.