🌱🎄'TIS THE SEASON - for butchering holiday fruits!🎅 Just happened to have Abutilon 'Voodoo' (Malvaceae) handy to conceal where I twisted the calyx from the Persimmon. Yes, these are sugar bombs too - but hopefully healthier than all the candy, cookies, and pastries!😋

🌱❤️ Feeling a bit QUADRAMEROUS? Yup, so does this double flowered Hippeastrum (Amaryllis) NOID. May even be sneaking transposon (jumping pigment gene) action on that lower central tepal, AND was purchased as 'Red Peacock'. And you thought YOU were having a day!😅 Normally trimerous - multiples of 3.

🌱🔥❤️ New favorite Tagetes patula (Spreading Marigold, Cempaxúchitl) 'Fireball' (PanAmerican Seed, 2017; 🏅RHS AGM, 2017) still bringing joy despite ☃️ snow & cold outside. Saturated with color, now revealing underlying yellow pigments on mature flowerheads. 3 Season Room ~ 50°F/10°C by day. Asteraceae

I know I said that the Echinops were getting a little out of hand through seeding. However, this is Echinops ritro ssp ruthenicus. I only have the one and the leaves are so spiny. 🌱

I take the opportunity over the festive period to have a couple of weeks off #GardensHour while it’s quiet. Our last #GardensHour of 2025 will be on Monday 15th December and then return on Monday 5th January. Next week, we’ll do your TOP HITS of 2025 and celebrate the year.

Hello and welcome to #GardensHour as we welcome DECEMBER into our gardens. What’s happening for you this month? What are you looking forward to? Is this a month you enjoy, or one you can’t wait to see the back of?

The tea plant is blooming! Many more flowers, now this plant's getting more sun (neighbor cut back a tree). Camellia sinensis. 🌱 So far, harvesting about two cups of tea a year. I minimally process (wilt in sun) some new leaves each Spring and drink it as white tea. Delicious! 🤍🍵🫖 #tea #inthegarden

🌱This was very nice.😎

🌱🍅 AFTER THE FREEZE. Rescue Tomatoes picked green continue to ripen. True, flavor won't be the same as when ripened on the plants during warm sunny days, but can keep me away from store-bought past Christmas, occasionally into the New Year. Solanum lycopersicum - Solanaceae.

🌱💜🐝 Even after last week's snow & 24°F/-4.4°C, found some late native Symphyotrichum (Aster) - from the highly variable cordifolium group - on the Illinois Prairie Path, a short walk from my home. Here with non-native & invasive Apis mellifera (European Honeybee). Asteraceae & Apidae

🌱❤️💛 Abutilon 'Voodoo' revealing #SundayYellow from within. Malvaceae And not for lack of trying as it's now Monday in much of the world - finally got tired of BlueSky crashing when uploading pix so this evening uninstalled & reinstalled.

🌱🎶🎙"Despite all my rage I am still just a..." OK OK I know, used that one already!😅 BUT... 🎶🥬 "...Kale in a cage!"🙊 Brassica oleracea v. acephala 'Redbor' & 'Blue Curled Scotch'. Brassicaceae

🌱Decided to give the 📷 Canon EOS a short workout after PAINFULLY re-linking to their updated Camera Connect App. Encryption Key ✔️ IP Address ✔️ MAC Address ✔️ WiFi Network & PW ✔️ - and FINALLY 🌺 Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Glamour Gal™'. Malvaceae

🌱🍁🍂 So about all those Autumn leaves still on the trees...seems like they got a little help with the "Fall" part of the equation.😅 Plastered everywhere! Good news is we may tickle 70°F/21°C by Saturday, if not windy enough to blow them off the roof, you may catch me up on a ladder with the blower.😎

🌱🌶🥕🍅🥒 Did I just do this???😅 Apparently! With end of season crop rescues comes the "What Now?" part. A modest total of pickled pints compared to what some may do over a season. Use a mandolin to assembly-line the slicing, but pace yourself as Heroes get their fingers cut off.😱😄

🌱☃️Thus effectively ending the growing season for all but the toughest plants, a #SevenOnSunday curtain drop! Fall cleanups will continue for weeks.🍁🍂 WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY, locally 2"-6" and a WINTER STORM WARNING for 1-4 FEET 😱 🌨 along the near Chicagoland Lakeshore! Be safe wherever you are!

🌱For #SixOnSaturday, some of the 18 exhibition Chrysanthemums I did NOT grow to perfection!😅 In this phase of trial, chose earliest blooming from King's Mums - in Chicagoland must be mindful of hard freeze date.🥶 Then grew unpinched w/no disbudding to observe. In 2026 will train & display.😎

🌱🌶 Some end of season garden rescue. After yesterday's light frost had two mild afternoons, but the Autumn days of mercy are coming to a close - snow showers or flurries this weekend. Phaseolus vulgaris (Bean) 'Jade', & Capsicum annuum (Chile Pepper) 'Jalapeño M' & 'Tropic' F1. Fabaceae & Solanaceae

🌱🔥❤️ Has been slow to catch on, but Tagetes patula (Spreading Marigold, Cempaxúchitl) 'Fireball' (PanAmerican Seed, 2017; RHS 🏅AGM, 2017) deserves a wider audience. Opening rich ruby red rather than mahogany, underlying yellow pigments surface as flowers mature. Asteraceae

🌱Mixed sun & clouds may have given these Crocus speciosus (Autumn Crocus) confusing signals - should they stay open? Should they close? But it definitely brought out depth of color - almost a stonewashed look. These bloom late October into November here in Chicagoland. Iridaceae

A few with appropriate names for the day (names are on the photos). Happy Halloween! #iris 🌱

A little Halloween horror for the last day of #Arachtober. This is a male cross orb weaver spider (based on the smaller sized abdomen) and as he's missing three and a half legs I suspect he already survived at least one attempt at mating 🌱🕸 #BugSky #Inverts #nature #UKWildlife

🌱🎃 More Halloween Shenanigans - funnier than me singing "Werewolves of London" is tryin' to get the fake hair outta my mouth - it got into EVERYTHING! 🍕🍺😅

🌱🎃 Not that you were warned ahead LOL!😅 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Fatsia japonica flowers are starting to blossom, providing much needed food for insects right now. #InsectThursday 🌱 #Gardening #UKGardening #FlowerFeed #BloomScrolling

Beautiful decay 🌱🌹 #RoseWednesday #Bloomscrolling #UKGardening

Mellow fruitfulness 🌱 #RedWed #EastCoastKin #Bloomscrolling #UKGardening

Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday 🌱 #RoseWednesday

🌱🧡💜THE FUTURE: Scattering collected seed of beloved Chicagoland natives Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly Mikweed) & Liatris spicata (Spiked Gayfeather) into cleared & roughed up ground. Both will germinate readily in April - Asclepias flower first year, Liatris will the next.😎 Apocynaceae & Asteraceae

#GardensHour I planted my pumpkin seeds way too late so I ending up buying these lovely ones. They’ll be carved up a few days before Halloween 🎃 👻

Strawflower, Xerochrysum bracteatum 🌱 #Bloomscrolling #MacroMonday #PinkMon #EastCoastKin #DailyFlowers #GardensHour

'Nicholas'still going, and looking lovely in golden morning light. Has got some large golden fungi appearing at ground level which I hope isn't on the tubers just something in the compost. #Gardenshour #Gardening #Dahlia

Ghostly pebble for tonight's theme. #Gardenshour

@gardenshour.bsky.social a spooky bulbophyllum for Halloween #GardensHour

@gardenshour.bsky.social my rather modest pumpkin/squash harvest this year and lots of seasonal colour from the chrysanthemum #GardensHour

Halloween theme you say? 🎃🖤 here’s some of my own black plants from over the year and a lovely display I saw this week at a cafe using a gorgeous dahlia! #GardensHour 🌱

Spider lurking in wild carrot. #GardensHour

I grew these! 🎃 #gardenshour @gardenshour.bsky.social

Its taken 4 years to get autumn colours in the garden, feeling happy with how its coming along. #GardensHour

Still some seeds to collect in the gardens. #GardensHour #Bloomscrolling #flowers

@gardenshour.bsky.social #gardenshour I’m a bit rubbish regarding the subject matter, only got my spooky carnivorous plants 🕷️🪰🦟🪲🪳 it’s eaten them all!!

Evening all. No Halloween themed pics, although there still quite a few summer flowers out which is sort of spooky! #GardensHour 🌱

This fellow was quite the artist #Spider #GardensHour 🕸️🕷️

Love the bright orange of this zinnia grown from seed If you look at it long enough, it could turn into a pumpkin 😁 🎃 #GardensHour #Flowers #Blooms 🌱

Salvia 'Nachtvlinder' doing its dark purple petally thing #GardensHour 🌱

One of this year's final blooms on my "Just Joey" rose and pomegranates from a neighbor's tree. 🌱 #GardensHour

Nothing very spooky in my garden but there are some orange pyracantha berries and of course my black cat 🐈‍⬛ #GardensHour

A tiny self-seeded windflower (Japanese anemone) 🩷 #PavementPlantPower #BloomScrolling

Not hugely Halloweeny unless you imagine the acers leaves being coloured with blood... But a beautiful Japanese-inspired rock garden at National Trust Sizergh. #GardensHour #GardensToVisit

Violas always look curious. You can almost hear them talking amongst themselves - "who's that over there with the camera?" #GardensHour 🌱