October flowers

There are still a fair few plants in bloom but most of the colour this month comes from the annuals which are still flowering, which are predominantly yellow and orange and really serve to brighten the place up, now that the weather is rather miserable!

Bidens with a hoverfly (Helophilus trivittatus) enjoying it

Gaillardia - this plant was still flowering in December last year

Yellow Pot Marigold (Calendula) still attracting hoverflies

An orange Calendula with a Marmalade hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) hovering above it.

A few perennials have valiantly tried to make a come back such as this beautiful rose, but with the almost continual rain sadly the flowers didn't last long as roses and rain just don't go together!

Rosa 'Zephirine Drouhin'

Cranesbill Geranium 'Jolly Bee'

A final flower for my Lavatera

Which actually managed to open despite all the rain!

The Dahlias don't look too bad if you just look at the individual blooms and ignore the ones that have become a soggy mess; deadheading becomes a little bit less important at this time of year when you know the frosts can come any day now and the plants will blacken and need lifting.

Marmalade hoverfly again!

I don't know all the names of these Dahlias;
they are my OH's domain and he does have notes as to which
one went where.

With Dahlias, I love the brightest, most garish colours, none of the pastel colours for me!

Around the front of the house this Thunbergia alata
(Black Eyed Susan) self seeded and swamped the Jasmine that
I had planted here. I actually weeded out tons of the seedlings!

But somehow they seem to like it and have twined up and through
both the rose and the Verbena bonariensis here!

In this same bed under where the Black Eyed Susan is,
Borage has also self seeded. It's good for the late bees.

My Rosemary has also just started to flower again!
This normally flowers in profusion in late winter/early spring
so is great for the bees when there are few other flowers around.

And of course my Verbena bonariensis just keeps on flowering and flowering!
Here it is with a Heineken hoverfly (Rhingia campestris) on it.
These hoverflies are all over the place at the moment even on really dull days.

I can't not have a butterfly photo! Even on the most dire cloudy days this month
I've still seen a few butterflies here and there.
Peacocks (Inachis io) absolutely adore the Verbena bonariensis.

Our weather forecasts keep changing all the time; last week they said we'd be having between 0 and -2C this weekend; that's changed to slightly warmer (around 2-3C) but with horrible easterly winds, so I guess the flowers will carry on for a bit longer. If they can just survive through to November then I will have completed my one year challenge with something flowering in my garden every month over the last year!

Now, just to let you know. I'll be doing one final posting this month, a Halloween Special (mwahahahahaha!!!!!) but for those who may not wish to read it - and I will warn you about the content, promise - I have to let you know now that I shall be taking November off from blogging as I am going to England for the latter half of the month to catch up with family, shop till I drop, eat as much deep pan pizza as is humanely possible and get really cross with the horrendous traffic. :-) So will be back again blogging in early December and breathing a sigh of relief to be back to the peace and quiet and empty roads of rural France, as two weeks of enoying the consumerist society in England is enough to last me a good year!