Red oak & more October flowers

The nights have been colder now, the temperature has been around zero degrees Celsius and below. Right now, in the morning, it’s -4 degrees Celsius. Now it’s the time for our red oak to have autumn colours.

red oak

Quercus rubra or red oak, we planted this tree in the middle of July this year. A very young tree, tall and slender, hopefully it grows a bit stronger. 🙂

red oak

They say (in Finland) that red oaks have the colour red in their leaves in autumn when the trees are young, but when they are older, the autumn colour is not that bright anymore. But… some have seen old and red red oaks in Finland in autumn, and some have seen even green, very green, red oaks in autumn. So, it depends…(?) 🙂 Our red oak stayed green for a long time this autumn, compared with many other trees that have already lost all or almost all of their leaves.

red oak

The apple tree in the picture is the other one that still has a lot of leaves. But the red oak is the only one that still has all of its leaves.

fall phlox

Fall phlox grew a bit further after August. The new parts of the plant are flowering now, the older parts were flowering already in August.

fall phlox

october cornflower

Still some cornflowers… with their faces already down.

clematis, colour october

There’s still one new clematis flower blooming, I was surprised to find it. And I was delighted by its colour… deep thoughts, the colour October…

clematis, colour october

viola

And viola is still there…

viola & knitted owl

-Leena

Summer flowers in August

This year everything is a little late, so also the summer flowers are at their prime only now in August.

peony poppy

Peony poppy. There is no summer without peony poppy flowers…

peony poppy

peony poppy

Dutch iris

Iris hollandica or Dutch iris. Siberian iris and German iris flowers in July… and this year I have also Dutch iris flowers now in August! 🙂 They are grown from bulbs that I planted in spring this year. My first ones ever.

annual mallow

And there is no summer without annual mallow flowers…

viper's bugloss

Viper’s bugloss, a bit wild now – I planted the seeds last summer.

cornflower

More cornflower flowers…

cornflower

cornflower

cornflower

A busy friend.

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

And more schizanthus or butterfly flower or poor man’s orchid flowers…

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

Maltese cross, burning love

Maltese cross or burning love, a perennial, flowering this year as well.

tropaeolum majus, garden nasturtium, Indian cress

Tropaeolum majus or garden nasturtium or Indian cress flowering. The taste is good as well – a bit peppery. 🙂

tropaeolum minus, dwarf nasturtium

And my first ever tropaeolum minus or dwarf nasturtium flowering.

tropaeolum minus, dwarf nasturtium

And the Ibiza lizard lurking… 🙂

common poppy

This summer I have common poppy flowers, too! My first ones ever.

common poppy

common poppy

I love all the colours… Another new favourite…

common poppy

common poppy

You tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine…

common poppy

With the shadow of a peony poppy…

common poppy

A nice skirt…? 🙂

common poppies & peony poppies

-Leena

The last peony flowers, schizanthus & cornflower, bike ride 20 km…

The weather’s been warm lately and it’s been sunny, too, but it’s been really pouring down with rain occasionally, but sometimes the sun’s been trying to shine at the same time as well. Beautiful. 🙂

Now the last peony flowers. This, indeed, has been a bit different summer – we’ve had peony flowers still in August!

peony

peony

I missed some of the flowering of my peonies while I was in Kuusamo, but happily, there’s still been these beauties after my trip, too. 🙂

peony

peony

peony

peony

The very last ones on Thursday.

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

Schizanthus, butterfly flower or poor man’s orchid has been flowering lately in our garden as well. They are grown from seeds. One of my favourite summer flowers.

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid & daisy

Daisies, too.

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid & daisy

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

We have a lot of schizanthus growing this summer, they have been hit by the rain a bit…

lake Pyhäjärvi

On Thursday we took a 20 km bike ride along the lake Pyhäjärvi shoreline. It was nice. I took a picture as I was sitting by the lake for a while. 🙂

cornflower

Cornflower blooming now as well, grown from seeds. Yet another favourite of mine… And hit by the rain a bit…

cornflower

cornflower

-Leena

More October

Just some more October pics, from last weekend and past few days, in our garden…

October

In the backyard again…

strawberry

October strawberry… In a pot. We thought this plant already died in the summer, but it started to grow again… but still ripe strawberries for this year…? – Not gonna happen. 🙂

cornflower

One tough cornflower. I’ve been visiting this flower regularly during this autumn – and it’s just always there! It’s been facing downwards already for a while. But it’s still there. 🙂

October

October

Backyard trees again – more pine trees, two apple trees, a birch tree, a bigger rowan and one other yellow Norway Maple…

annual mallow

And one sturdy annual mallow! This flower hasn’t fully opened up, and it, too, has already been facing downwards, but it’s been there for ages. 😀

October

Some lovely yellow tiny flowers spotted in our carrot field…

October

Under our bigger oak tree

October

October

Our smaller oak tree. 🙂

October

Dill, too, was still growing nicely in the ground, despite the cold at nights. Now I’ve picked most of them, some we ate, the rest are drying.

October

Still some tiny single viola flowers in the pots… Two of them in the pics here, symbols of boldness and strength – in the beginning, these plants were here and here. – Oh dear… 🙂

October

October

Some October fern

October

My next blog post will be about growing tomatoes. 🙂

-Leena

On the last day of July and on the first day of August…

More pics from yesterday, and some I took today. 🙂

monkshood

Monkshood, extremely poisonous from roots to the tiny hoods, and we have so much of it in our garden – this is a very traditional plant in the old gardens in Finland. The man who build this house was very much a garden man, we’ve heard, so, no wonder – the fact can be seen in our garden today…

monkshood

marigold

Some sort of marigold, very small marigold.

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We can’t remember what this flower is… I’ve tried to google it, but no luck with that. EDIT: This flower is clarkia or godetia, silkkikukka in Finnish. Thanks for the answer, A! 🙂

cornflower

More pics of my cornflowers. Many charming colours they have…

cornflower

cornflower

cosmos

The first cosmos flower this summer, opened today, missing one petal. I had cosmos flowers last summer, too. These are growing from seeds, of course, and I like them a lot. 🙂

butterfly flower

Butterfly flower, schizanthus, poor man’s orchid again…

strawflower

And strawflowers again. Here it can be seen that our tall strawflowers and the shorter butterfly flowers as well as tiny marigolds are tight neighbours. 😀

strawflower

Pyhäjärvi

Yesterday evening by the lake Pyhäjärvi, after some Nordic walking and eating blueberries again. It was so nice to sit on a bench – the air was perfect, not at all warm, not at all cold. The sun was shining, but wasn’t warming, and the wind was blowing wonderfully. 🙂 And the sound of waves, just lovely…

campfire

A campfire in our garden last night. It can be said that this was my birthday campfire – it was not only the last day of July yesterday, but also my birthday (and by the way, the birthday of Harry Potter —> WTF? -Oh yes, says a Harry Potter fan (that’s me) here, aaand, it was also the birthday of J.K. Rowling herself. 😀 ) And… how old am I…? I’m actually a bit younger than Harry Potter… ;D Just a bit…

-Leena

Flowers in the morning

A nice and sunny morning today was. And so much inspiration while having my morning coffee. I’m not sure if I should warn somebody of… something… but here comes 18 pics of which 17 are flower pics. So, here’s some FLOWER POWER. 🙂

I took today’s pics before and after 9 AM, a few pics are from Friday and Saturday. First peony poppies this morning:

poppy

The first peony poppy grown from the seeds that I planted this summer. Five pics of it here… 🙂

poppy

It has grown tall.

poppy

poppy

Marvelous, colourful peony poppies…

poppy

poppy

And my ‘wild’ poppies, two more of them.

poppy

annual mallow

Annual mallow grown from seed. The first opened mallow flower this summer, I planted them last summer, too. Mallows are lovely. Other names for this annual mallow: rose mallow, royal mallow, regal mallow.

strawflower

A Strawflower bud opening on Friday.

strawflower

More strawflowers on Saturday.

strawflower

Nicely rustling flowers, when you touch them. 🙂

strawflower

Strawflowers this morning:

strawflower

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I took this pic while I was taking a break from taking pics of flowers this morning. 🙂 I was sitting on a bench, eating a banana and redcurrants freshly picked from the bush. Having some more coffee.

And more flowers this morning:

cornflower

And I planted cornflower seeds, too, this summer. The first flowers are emerging from buds.

cornflower

butterfly flower

Butterfly flower, Schizanthus. Or poor man’s orchid. 🙂 Grown from seed. A tiny and an exotic looking flower.

red flax

A choker… And the flower is called red flax. It’s grown from seed in the geometric flower plantation made by a man. 🙂

-Leena

Interesting flowers

Pics I took between Saturday and today, in this blog post today… I have already so many pics that I’ll have to save the last peony pics and some poppies, too, for the next post, for tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, hopefully… 🙂

burning love

Burning love… we have it here and there in our garden. 😉

burning love

Well, this flower has many other names, too: Maltese Cross, dusky salmon, Flower of Bristol, Jerusalem Cross, nonesuch… Whoa! 🙂

burning love

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Getting there! – In style! Don’t rush m… us!

maiden pink

Maiden pink again. This time not pink, but dark red. I call this an endless battle, trying to capture the true colours of maiden pink with camera… And the flowers come in so many shades – the neon pink, deep pink, lighter pink, redder, very red… Just marvelous!

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My maiden pinks got some new friends. And I don’t know who they are. 😀

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This is getting a bit tricky. I planted some summer flower seed mix – I naturally don’t know what will grow, aaand there’s so many flowers of this kind growing there now that I don’t know what to think of this… I googled a bit, and I found viper’s bugloss, neidonkieli in Finnish, which somehow looks like this. I also planted some butterfly flower (perhoskukka in Finnish) seeds somewhere (here?), but this doesn’t actually look like it. Have I forgotten that I planted something like viper’s bugloss, too…? – Completely possible. 😀

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Oh, nice flowers! 🙂

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“Not interested, actually, you know…” :

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“Me neither.” :

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Some bellflowers. Especially violet bellflowers we have here and there in our garden – the previous owners of this house got wild with them, too. 🙂 And I don’t know what bellflowers these actually are, but they are always lovely.

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And the maiden pinks and their friends now have a purple cornflower amongst them since yesterday – this definitely has grown from the seed mix…

-Leena