The garden is happy but perhaps confused. I wanted to bring in some flowers the other day and found this charming combination of nasturtiums and winter jasmine. I also found some late blooms on the centaurea and and yet the hydrangeas have their autumn seed heads.
We still have cistus in bloom and below them autumn crocus are merrily flowering.
Then we have the winter iris stylosa – I usually start looking for a few flowers on this in mid-December and sometimes find blooms for the Christmas table and then throughout January and February. They are already blooming in three separate sites in the garden.
And late blooms have appeared on the summer-flowering non-clinging clematis Durandii.
A few feet away a primrose is feeling the air, while between these two Rosa Papa Meilland is throwing up yet another bloom.
Raspberries are still fruiting – they are autumn raspberries, but they are usually long gone before November. 
This is looking like autumn. 
…but what are the runner beans doing flowering at this time of year, and why can I hear the buzz of lawn mowers even as I write? And how come we had lunch in the garden in the UK on November 1st?
At least my general failure in the greenhouse has been redeemed by the late hot spell, and my magnificent sweet pepper is finally turning red. 
Green Writing Room 
CC, Hilary – the answer to all queries re weather. Climate change.
You didn’t mention your cyclamens; but I suppose that’s because you expect them at this time of year ?
Your garden is obviously a source of constant joy; and it’s easy to see why !
Indeed, CC plus whatever random wrinkle is passing across the surface of the earth. I’m lucky, there are cyclamens everywhere. My garden is somewhat neglected, but is getting some hasty tidying because of the people expected next week (for book launch).
It’s going to be wonderful, the launch. I know it !
Climate change! The first of the bushfires have started here but our cyclamens are still flowering. Figure that one out.
I know, I know. So here we are on opposite sides of the globe with the same seasonal flowers out! It’s the combinations that are alarming.
That bell pepper does look good. Peggy was working on growing some green ones but they never wanted to cooperate. I pulled off the one small one we had for a salad the other night, and oh was it bitter. 🙂 We are still harvesting great tomatoes, however. Fall is having a hard time making up its mind here as well, but our mountains are showing their first snow of the year. –Curt
I think it’s your weather we are receiving, we speak to our daughter in Chicago and she tells us what to expect next… and it comes. Envy you tomatoes. We nearly ate this pepper green, but I prefer them red because of the bitterness, though you have to wait weeks.
Ah, maybe I tried the pepper before its time. I think it was supposed to be green, however. And the frost was coming. As for the jet stream, it goes where it will but it has its patterns. 🙂 –Curt
I love Clematis. I grew a fabulous C. alpina at one cottage I owned. They enhance any garden. I must remember C. Durandii. Looks gorgeous.
It’s great, but it will grow across the ground unless you tie it up. I weave it through clematis macropetala Wesselton and they obligingly flower alternately (though disentangling them is sometimes time-consuming).
You are giving me ideas, Hilary. All I need now is a suitable garden.
It’s a glorious autumn here in central Virginia. The odd thing I’ve noticed in my garden, however, is that one half of a forsythia bush is turning red and the other has started blooming the typical bright yellow flower. The poor thing is confused, but what can you do?
Eek, that sounds even stranger than what I’m seeing. I’d better check the forsythia, I have never, ever seen it in flower in the autumn.
Your Autumn looks very generous 🙂 Lovely vibrant colours around you, Hilary!
We’ve been very lucky with exceptionally mild weather, but frosts are on the way in the next day or so.
Hilary, your green thumb and knack for yard design is superific. I find it amazing how everything just seems to GROW in your garden! Your photos are wonderful, too! Very nice balance in the hydrangeas photo!
Thank you. Gardens are very forgiving, when one thing dies, another grows happily in it’s place. We have been here a long time and that helps, you get to know what will put up with your conditions.