Energizer flowers. They just keep going & going &....

The garden doesn't know it's mid-November. Apparently, it hasn't realized either that we've had a few light frosts, & one morning below freezing.

Six kinds of mums are still blooming, but this isn't a huge surprise.

Neither is it much of a to-do that the blue woods aster is still blooming. Every spring & summer, when it's doing nothing but growing into a bigger & bigger bundle of not-so-interesting little green leaves, I ask myself why I bother to leave it in that prominent spot in the pot between the two garage doors. Every October when it's one of the last things to burst into full bloom, I remember why. Every November, when the leaves turn anywhere from a warm golden yellow to a creamy soft red, & it's still covered with masses of those tiny blue daisy-like flowers, I'm certain it's in the perfect spot.

Even later to bloom are the grand, towering monkshoods. They are grand because they can stand over 5' tall, & are sturdy enough to not need staked. They are grand because when most everything else is nearly done for the year, they have luscious, full buds. They are grand because they start blooming when many of the perennials at their feet have leaves already crispy & brown. They are grand because once they start blooming, there can be 2 months of flowers from the same plant, starting at the top, then gradually opening up clusters all the way down the stem. They are grand because the deer tend to leave them alone. They are grand because the flowers are somewhat translucent, & the sun shines right through them, showing you the dark veins that run through each one. They are grand because they do all of this in the SHADE under our white pines in the back, & under the huge maple on the side of our house.

No, as amazing as they are, the monkshoods aren't what's unusual right now.

Nobody told the 'White Swan' coneflowers it's mid-November. They're still going. Nobody told the Alyssum, or the 'Blue Hill' Salvia either. The Agastache doesn't seem to realize. The trumpet honeysuckle & the Heuchera are still forming new buds! The toad lily is still blooming. So are the 'Prairie Sun' Rudbeckia, & the catmint.

You don't hear me complaining.