I just picked the last of my beautiful blue mophead hydrangeas (if you don’t have any of the Forever and Ever hydrangeas, you neeeeeeed some!)  If you keep them deadheaded, they will rebloom all summer and up through the fall.  I picked the last of the sweet smelling ginger and some white mums, added them to the hydrangeas and had a lovely arrangement for church yesterday.

Which got me to thinking.  I have two Sundays in November to do flowers and nothing blooming until the hellebores put out blooms in Jan. and Feb.  Guess I’ll be shopping at the florist for a couple of weeks.

While thinking about the fall care of my hellebores, my friend Mary Wenger from Hall County sent me her regular quarterly email about caring for the hellebores.  Thought I’d share her comments for those of you who already have hellebores.  If you don’t have any, you are missing a winter treat.  Beautiful blooms in Jan. through March and early April when almost nothing else if blooming.  And even better they are evergreen so they fill in the space until your spring/summer plants start popping up.   And I just happen to have several thousand small plants that will either be composted, get crowded out and die, or be dug up by someone who will give them a new home.  Let me know if you want some.  I might even dig them up for you!

And while we’re on the subject of fall care for flowers, now would be a good time to give your hostas a little love with a small amount of lime.  Just before a shower is a good time for this too.

Now is also a great time to notice the beautiful fall foliage on the trees around town.  If you want to add color to your yard, find out what kinds of trees are providing the color palette for fall and add some of them to your yard.  Good ones are dogwoods (red to purplish foliage), sugar maples (yellow to pinkish leaves) hickory (golden yellow), sourwood (bright red), Witch Hazel (which is actually in full bloom in my yard right now with lovely frilly little yellow flowers), Red Maple, Oakleaf hydrangea (pinkish to reddish leaves), and Bottlebrush buckeye (yellow).

Even a first year tree will give some color, although it may take a few years for your trees to put on a real show.  But, if not now, then when?  Next fall when you’re driving around town, noticing all the beautiful fall colors, you’ll be kicking yourself for not getting any of these great trees in your own landscape

And, as always, I push these because  many of these are native trees.  The native plant society often has some of these trees for sale, with proceeds financing our trail restoration at the ag center.