Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - November 2016

How fair is a garden amid the trials and passions of existence.  

- Benjamin Disraeli

Gardens are comforting places, places that can remind us that Nature goes on amidst all the "trials and passions" that human society can visit upon us. My garden has especially been a place of comfort to me in recent days, a place that I have turned to often for solace in troubled times. 

The garden is well into autumn now. Leaves are falling and mornings are brisk and cool. Daytime temperatures have been in the 70s F. But still the last blooms of autumn hang on. Let me share some of them with you. 

The bronze chrysanthemums that lived in a pot by my front entry last autumn were planted in the ground when they stopped blooming and now they are blooming once again.

The bronze Esperanza, too, is still putting forth blooms.

As is the yellow variety of Esperanza, called "yellow bells."

White mistflower is very attractive to all kinds of pollinators.

And so is the coral vine. Its blooms are always covered in bees. You may be able to see some of them here.

The purple trailing lantana is at its best in the fall.

The Cape honeysuckle rested for a while but now it is in full bloom once again.

This ornamental pepper sports fruits in many different colors, a veritable bouquet.

And here is 'Cashmere Bouquet,' also called Mexican hydrangea, a member of the Clerodenrum genus. It can be highly invasive.

Firespike is just now beginning to get going with its blooms.

Crossvine is a profuse bloomer in the spring but it also puts out a few blooms in the fall.

And Turk's cap is an almost year-round bloomer in my zone 9a garden.

I never, ever have any luck with lavender, but I never learn my lesson and I keep trying. This one at least is blooming for me and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I may have finally found a winner.

Speaking of winners, blue plumbago never quits unless we have a killing frost. In that case, it rests for a while and comes back strong in the spring.

'Old Blush,' an antique rose variety.

Pink Knockout rose. Many of my Knockout roses have succumbed to rose rosette disease over the past 12 to 18 months, but this one so far seems to be immune.

The ground cover, wedelia, sports a profusion of these little yellow daisy-like flowers.

Firecracker fern is covered in its firework-like blossoms these days.

The lemons are ready for harvest. There's a bumper crop of them this year.

Mandarin oranges are ready, too. We have plenty of them, also.

Several of the weird little blooms of the shrimp plant are hanging on. These blooms can last for weeks.

Pink oleander is getting in one last flush of blooms.

An over-zealous garden helper pruned off all the blooms on my hamelias several weeks ago. What was he thinking? But the undaunted plants are now putting out more blooms and they'll probably be covered in them again by the time we get our first frost.

The tropical plant, jatropha, will bloom until first frost and then go to sleep to awaken again in the spring.

What would autumn and winter be without pansies to brighten our gray days?

And, of course, I must have some of my favorite winter flowers, the sweet little violas.

And so the garden winds down its year but continues to bloom. One can only hope that the gardener will be able to do the same.

Thank you, Carol of May Dreams Gardens, for hosting this monthly meme, and thanks to each of you, dear readers, for visiting my garden this month.

Happy Bloom Day!