Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - October 2018

Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and welcome to my zone 9a garden here in Southeast Texas. Maybe you'll already visited our host blog, May Dreams Gardens, and seen some of the wonderful gardens that are participating this month.

Bloom Day here brought us temperatures in the high 50 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time since spring. Maybe our long, hot summer is truly over. Or perhaps it will return tomorrow for such is our changeable weather.

But what's blooming, you say? Well, here are some of my October flowers. 

 Duranta erecta, aka golden dewdrop.

 October means chrysanthemums, of course.

 And more chrysanthemums.

Hamelia patens, aka Mexican firebush or hummingbird bush, is at its best in October.

 And so is the coral vine.

'Pinball' gomphrena hasn't paused in its blooming since early summer.

Porterweed, the weird little flowers of which are greatly loved by butterflies and bees.

 Yellow cestrum.

Crossvine blooms profusely in the spring but it sends out a few blossoms in fall just to remind us it's there.

 'Julia Child' rose.

Mexican sunflower, Tithonia 'Torch', is at its best at this time of year. This type does not attain the gigantic size of the older varieties.

 The daisy-like blossoms of wedelia.

 Autumn sage living up to its name.

The pentas are almost finished for the year but still send out a few flowers for the butterflies.

 Pink Knockout rose.

The milkweed blooms on but there have been few Monarchs and no Queens that I have seen visiting and none of their caterpillars found.

 Sweet-smelling butterfly ginger.

The blooms of blue plumbago seem to get bluer as the season advances.

Lantana is seldom without its butterfly accompaniment. Here it is a Long-tailed Skipper.

No blooms on the rue but here's a butterfly in the making - a Black Swallowtail caterpillar.

And speaking of metamorphosis, several weeks ago, my goldfish pond was teeming with tadpoles. Now the backyard teems with small frogs and toads. These little frogs have not moved far from their nursery. They sit on lilypads in the pond.

The new salvia 'Wendy's Wish' has been a real winner for me in the garden this year.

 And the old cannas never fail me.

 'Belinda's Dream' rose.

My purple coneflowers have been a major disappointment this year but some of the plants still send out a few flowers.

 Marigold.

 Jatropha - just beginning a new cycle of bloom.

The limbs of my little Satsuma orange tree are dragging the ground in places as the fruits get heavier and heavier. A few of the fruits are just beginning to show the slightest hint of orange. 

 Angelonia.

And last but hardly least, if it is October, it must be Cape honeysuckle bloom time. My plant is just beginning to show these flame-colored flowers. The migrating hummingbirds are very grateful.

Thank you for visiting. I look forward to visiting your garden to see what's in bloom for you this month.