MILD TEMPERATURES, LONG NIGHTS, MORE RAIN = BEST TIME FOR TRANSPLANTING OR PLANTING NEW ARRIVALS!

With Autumn comes milder temperatures, bright, bug-free, frost-free days, and more rainy weather--and all these factors are most agreeable to gardeners and plants alike!  Fall is the perfect time for transplanting, which allows plants to get established before cold weather arrives.  If you're buying new plants, they will thrive in these conditions.  If plants need to be divided, certain varieties actually do better if done in fall rather than spring.  Additionally, some plants actually require fall planting--peonies, tall bearded iris (which should have already been planted in our area in July or August--but they can still be planted if you do it as soon as possible), oriental poppies, and I always plant my lilies and pansies in the fall, and, of course, all the spring flowering bulbs.  This fall I'll be planting lots of pink daffodils, some tulips, dutch iris, crown imperials, a new peony and oriental poppy, some dutch iris, and several flats of pansies.  I'll be transplanting some of my lupines  and hollyhocks to different places in the yard now that I know what color they are.  (These two biennials aren't always true to seed, and so if the seedlings bloom the first season and I can see the color,  I mark them for transplanting to different areas in the fall so in spring they will be where I need them).  That's a lot of work, but as the temperatures are mild, it's a pleasure to work in the yard, which I hate to say, I've rather neglected this past month because I've been letting several plants go to seed, which I don't do very often.  The bleeding hearts are more-than-ready to be cut down, as well as the Asiatic lilies and the daylilies.  This begins the fall clean up for me, with the rest being done in mid-to-late October through November.  Let me just say that the better the fall clean up, the easier the spring clean up is.  Enjoy the weather--I know I will!  These photos, taken last spring remind me of better days in the beds and makes me excited for fall clean up and why I continue to garden in fall even though things don't look so nice--so spring blooms will be wonderful!