After celebrating our success in getting through another gardening year (and what a horrendous year it has been!), it's time to start cleaning up our gardens for winter. In keeping with the goal of a neat and clean winter landscape, this month's thumbnail photo is Pristine, a 1978 Warriner hybrid tea. The blooms start out a pristine white, with a subtle pink edge on some petals, and gradually acquire more pink as they age.

A good monthly kick-off message and photo!

We had our first killing frost two nights ago (it went down to 28) so all my potted annuals need to be removed from their containers now. It will take a couple of more frosts to flatten the hostas, but they, too, are on their way out. The aster blooms are gone and are going to seed, so they'll need cutting back. I'll leave the ornamental grasses up until Thanksgiving, but then they'll need to be given a haircut.

Here's the hoar frost in the garden yesterday morning...

Lovely choice, Zuzu! I had Pristine for years and it was a beautiful bloom.

I love your sugar coated plants, Mike! I know it's a death knell but they are pretty.

Halloween turned out to be a lovely day for the kids. Sunny and dry and in the 40s. We had 228 trick or treaters! About half of last years but still a good turn out. Today is UGH! Gray, drizzle and gale force winds. The trees will be bare by tomorrow. Leaf sucking time now. Later in the week they say back into the 60s!

Those of you in the cold climates are experiencing the die-back that's expected. On this side of the country my garden is FRIED from the heat (and smoke and ash...) which is also "expected" but unfortunate. Now that that "appears" to be over I can do a semi-pruning and get one more flush of blooms but it's usually not all that grand.
Just as you all get sick of snow, frost and cold, we get sick of unrelenting heat and humidity.

Yikes, Seil. We didn't get one, not one, trick or treater. Our building did not allow
kids to go door to door. The mayor and the governor discouraged it too. 228! We've
never gotten that many

Mike, we didn't get socked like you, but none of our plants are looking their best.
We rarely get what you get just 50 miles north.

0 trick-or-treaters here. I usually hardly get any. I think they find my house scary! I'm bringing my cuttings in and out during these very cold nights but they're still growing and sending out roots! I still don't know what I'm going to do once it gets too cold to take them out in the daytime.

228 is about half our normal number and in our subdivision that's a small amount. Many people get 400 to 500 kids. Everyone puts up BIG Halloween displays and we draw people in from all over town to trick or treat here. My cousin on the next block over had close to 500 kids last night.

Vapor, do you have a basement? I have kept cuttings over the winter in my basement under lights. You have to remember to water them though, lol! Forgot once and lost a whole batch!

My wife arranged this display. I think it's very pretty.

I do too; give her our compliments!

Happy November!

Very pretty!

vaporvac said: I'm bringing my cuttings in and out during these very cold nights but they're still growing and sending out roots! I still don't know what I'm going to do once it gets too cold to take them out in the daytime.

If they are truly rooted, you can store them in the lightest and coldest window. In winter, give them a shower out of water, because in March a spider mite or aphid will definitely appear. The ideal temperature for the 6zone is 5/+ 10 ° C.
+10'C is ideal for roots. if it is warmer, shoots will begin to grow. And you need to grow roots. In general, each root always has its own stem-freeloader. I'd rather dug them in the garden and cover them with a cloth on top. Foam white pots cannot be used exterior , the plants under them do not breathe

This Fall is starting off very warm for us. Well, it gets cold at night, but by mid-afternoon it's warm enough to take off the sweatshirt and put on the T-shirt! Crazy! And the blooms are still coming. Buds are still forming, altho they are taking longer to open up. I need to get more pics today when the sun heads down.

I'm in the process of rooting lots of cuttings this Fall/Winter. Already have a bunch of UC Davis cuttings potted up from the end of Sept. Some didn't make it tho. And I'm rooting some of my rarer roses so I don't lose any more! And rooting some for people who've asked. It's fun!! I'm lovin' seeing the results. And the ones Zuzu sent me last Fall are being potted up to bigger pots already!! Thanks so much Zuzu!!

Got my first batch of Dave Bang roses from K&M, and some had buds & blooms. I was going to take pics as the buds opened, but keep forgetting.. now I see one of those bratty ground squirrels must've eaten a couple of them!! Those little boogers are so bold, one of them runs thru the chicken run and goes out and eats some of my rose leaves on the ones along the run right in front of me!! I tried shooing him away and he just looked at me. I ended up hosing him! I had to cover one of the roses that is one of Dave's that he gave me several yrs ago, that died to the soil (it's in a pot) and is coming back beautifully. I was afraid the little brat would eat the new growth and set it back again. Ugh. Gotta find a way to get rid of them. They live under the shed right next to the run.

As for Halloween.... we got ZERO trick or treaters again. Lots of Reese's and KitKats to eat up now! LOL My husband and son are taking care of that for me, thankfully..

Anyway... I haven't gotten on here a whole lot lately, so thought I'd pop in and post some pics...

These are from Oct... since I haven't gotten any pics in Nov yet....

This is Dave's miniflora HI HONEY. Very nice almost large-flower sized with good substance


And this is Dave's mini PERFECT MOMENT


You can get Dave Bang's mini roses from K&M Nursery in Mississippi. Mine were own root, but Jim offers them grafted onto Fortuniana also.

And a couple random roses from last month...

MAMA AFRICA - one of my survivors that I almost killed in the heat this June when it got up to 114º one day... (right after I moved a bunch out of the shady area into the sun!)


And this is one I finally ID'd... MU LAN... It's been an adventure trying to ID a lot of the roses that lost the tags when we moved them to our new location.


I'll try to post some more when I get some new pics...

Beth, it is always so great to hear from you. I think of you, particularly when I think about my ultra-rare roses. Now that I'm retired, my primary goal is to make cuttings of my "no longer in commerce roses". Part of my decision about which ones to propagate involves HMF, and I often see you listed as growing many of them, after I check their commercial availability. Of course I have no idea which ones you lost in the fire, but if you ever want to coordinate on some of those, I'd be game. xo Susan

Just bought 2 miniature rose pots (meaning I actually bought like 10 mini roses haha) this week, one today and the other a few days ago (:

The one I bought earlier this week is doing pretty well in my balcony (:

I need to start watching the weather and make sure they don't get flooded with rain water though :P

Hope you are all doing well!

Hi Beth! I love all of Dave's roses and I'm so glad K&M took them over after FLoR closed. I need to get some more minis!

Just wanted to share a picture of a rose that my Dad sent me earlier today from my home (:



Also, if anyone could help with identification that would be great lol!
I think it's a "Scentimental" but I don't remember it having a distinct smell....


Anyway, hope everyone is having a nice day! (:

Absolutely gorgeous and photographed beautifully!

Thank you Dennis - I enjoy your photos too!