Freeze Warning Tonight

Right now it is after midnight here in NW Ohio. We are suppose to get freezing temperatures so I went out last evening drained my water hose and put it away. I gathered in all my pots of flowers I wanted to save. My geraniums were my main concern, I have managed to keep these now for a couple of years.  

I never knew about these flowers till my electric co-op published an article about some people saving them for years, some even 20 years. The article said you can remove the plant from the soil before the first frost, then you cut it back to where there is just some green above the soil line. Then store the plants in a paper bag in a cool dry place, like your basement. Well last fall I set all those plants in my garage and never bothered to remove them from the soil. Even though I was in and out of the garage with my car all that winter the plants remained green and when spring came I trimmed them back and they were just as pretty and healthy looking as the year before.

Here are the plants before I got to dead heading the spent blooms. I love geraniums because they can tolerate a bit of dry soil and like sun and shade.

Cannes are a perfect patio plant and they do well in big pots. When my mother passed she had a flower pot on either side of the overhead garage door. She always had smaller flowering plants in the them but I thought they were the perfect place for the Cannes a friend gave me. They were pretty red when they did bloom and the hummingbirds loved them. I love the large green leaves.

If there is a weed I love it is this one. I think it is called a corn flower. It grows wild along the road. I love the blue color and I just had to include it in this post.

 

Then of course there is Queen Anne's Lace. I always marveled at the very center where that tiny little bit of color is always located. If you ever picked a bouquet of wildflowers you have to include some of this in the bunch. They are such a delicate flower.

My trumpet vine. It has become a monster and got a good trimming back this summer. The hummingbirds, bees and unfortunately hornets love this vine.

It is an evasive plant. See all the little new ones sprouting in the yard surrounding it. I keep them mowed down. Over by gate post you can see the long seed pod. The vine will be loaded and I usually pull them off to try and keep the seeds from scattering once the pods dry and crack open.

A pretty volunteer petunia.

The farm field across the road from my front yard. See my pretty weedy bank. Well if I were to stand out there the bank would come up to my chest. My husband always kept it trimmed down with the weed eater. The state came along with their mowing equipment and made a pure mess of it, so from then on I hired my neighbor to keep it trimmed down with his weed eater. It looked wonderful all this summer.Nice and clean.

I feed the birds all year long. I usually have 3 feeders going and a couple of suet blocks. Then of course the raccoons become pesky and so I had to use shepherd's poles. I would come out in the morning and the sunflower feeder would be on the ground and those critters were smart, they could get the bottom off the feeder. In May when the hummingbirds come back the raccoons would go after the nectar in those hummer feeders. 

Love my hens and chicks.These came from my mom's house.

More hens and chicks only these were given to me from my mother-in-law years ago. They are a different variety than the ones from mom. This summer I had to tear the little wooden barrel apart and replant them in other containers. I hated losing the barrel but it was falling apart and squirrels had planted corn from the bird feeders in it. 

My cone flowers come up every year. They look a little worse for wear. The bees and butterflies love these.

Love them. They are such a low maintenance plant.

I forget what the name of this one is, but t also comes back every year and requires very little care. It has such a delicate little yellow flower with a bit of orange red around the center.

And, last but least one of my day lilies. They also come back every year.

Well, there you have it, Just a bit of the flowers in my yard. I had some impatiens too, but no pic to share. I put some of those pots in garage. I know you can root their cutting in water. 

The cold weather has set in and so that will mean growing season is ending. 

I have leaves to look forward to raking soon as they all turn and fall.

Take care 

Susanne :)