We had a pretty warm autumn here along Colorado’s Front Range, which meant that many late blooming plants and shrubs were in flower for an unusually long time. It was quite nice actually.
That all ended in the last week in October, when temperatures plunged down the low teens. Bitter cold, combined with over six inches of snow, led to most plants checking out for the year. However, as the calendar rolled over into November, we had a period of above average temps. They used to call the warm spell that followed the first hard frost of the season “Indian summer”.
Do they still call it that, or is that problematic now? Screw it, I’m sticking with Indian summer. Indian summer. Indian Summer. We had a very nice Indian summer during the first couple of weeks in November.
And there were a surprising number of plants that were still in flower even up to November 20th. Not a lot, but still a surprising number.
The show has since come to an end, but the late season display certainly cheered me up. After all, I’ve got to slog through the long, cold, dreary months of winter before life returns to the garden. The longer the display, the shorter the misery!
