It sure has been a good year for rhododendrons up here in the north. Every plant is blooming. Have seen many wonderful pictures taken by many of my friends.
My father’s apple of his eye – a violet rhododendron which he cares with devotion is also does its best. Last year went without any blooms but this year is totally different.
It has been the only one he has had but in the spring I bought him a pink one. Now we just wait and see if that one makes it through the winter.
I gapped an amaryllis to go with me while shopping for groceries. When I arrived at home I started to wonder what was the variety of my purchase.
The label just said Merry Christmas. It took me a while and some googling to understand that Merry Christmas was the name of the variety for this one.
Beautiful large and red blooms. A good bargain for the price.
Autumn has been beautiful. Sunny days and only few rainy ones. The nights are already cold but some of the flowers are still standing.
Spent the whole day outside enjoying the colors of October and planting bulbs for the spring. Hope they make it through the winter. Was not that successful last year and have selected hardier varieties this time.
The dwarf sungold sunflowers are blooming. Finally I would say. They made it but only barely.
Usually I have selected the teddy bear as the dwarf variety but could not find the seeds anywhere in the spring. The two varieties are very similar but teddy bear blooms a bit earlier and that makes all the difference up here in the north.
The nights are getting long and dark up here in which means that I have plenty of time to start planning for the next summer.
I was certain that I was going to harvest yellow chilies this year! But was I wrong in my belief.
I bought Hungarian Yellow Wax seeds two years ago. Last year every thing went well. The plants grew nicely and I ended having tasty red chilies in the autumn.
Not exactly what I expected to end up with but just thought that silly me. Must have taken the seeds from a wrong package.
This year everything went well. The chilies grew green and were turning yellow when I left for a vacation.
When returning I had a plant full of red chilies waiting for me at home. This time I was sure that I had taken the correct seeds. I was about to blame the store from which I bought the seeds.
PS. After a short moment with Google I found out that Hungarian Yellow Wax chili peppers turn red when ripe.
Gardening in the North 