Frost? What Frost?

Day 234

The Daily DuBrule

Friday night was seriously cold all over the state. When I live on the shoreline I always had impatiens blooming on Halloween. This year there is not a tender plant left unscathed in the warmest parts of Connecticut after the bone chilling cold of October 19th. I just spent a few hours in a thankless chore- cutting down soggy, frozen, mushy plants and hauling them to the compost pile. The only satisfaction one can get from these labors is to look out and see a neat and tidy garden once again.

I noticed a few plants that laughed at the hard frost and are still going strong. I would love to know your survivors as well. It will help all of us develop late October and November gardens with color as this crazy, extreme weather continues to keep us on our toes. Some plants still flowering and happy are:

• Platycodon-dwarf balloon flower, in bloom today
• Sanguisorba tenuifolia 'Atropurpurea'-the best cut flower in the garden right now
• Sedum 'Autumn Joy' seed heads- a pretty burgundy color. Surprisingly, the foliage seems green too.
• Aster laevis 'Bluebird'- happy as a clam
• Aster 'Purple Dome'- still flowering strong



Allium thunbergii 'Ozowa', a diminutive beauty for fall.

• Allium thunbergii 'Ozowa' and 'Alba' are blooming happily with lots of buds to come.



A pretty golden orange daisy mum given to me by my friend Elizabeth last year. I had forgotten about it and was thrilled when in opened!

• 'Lucie's Pink' mums- the leaves look a little nipped but the buds are fine. All my other mums are fine too.
• Chelone and Aconitum are flowering today 
• In the vegetable garden the mustards, mizuna, and arugula are green and fresh and totally fine. So is the parsley and the sage.

The surprise of the day is a bulb I planted late last year, Sternbergia lutea. It was in bud Thursday afternoon and in bloom today. I was worried that it wasn't hardy to zone 6 but I guess I was wrong for this year at least. The disappointment of the day was that my Rabdosia leaves froze. The flowers, I am happy to report, are fine. I think I will plant my next one under the wisteria arbor. This gave wonderful protection to a bunch of plants gathered below it on Friday night.