Raspberries in November!

Every time OH brings raspberries back from the allotment I expect them to be the last of the year, but we're halfway through November and they still keep cropping!

Playing "guess what month it is"

You and I know that it's November, there's been frost overnight and the garden should look like this - covered in fallen leaves, berries bright on the mountain ash and pyracantha - but the garden doesn't. In fact it seems to have no idea what time of year it is at all.


















Bright sunny days seem to be keeping the summer flowers going. Antirrhimuns and campanulas ...









clematis

love in a mist

nothing can stop the continued spread of these nasturtiums

and even an oriental poppy has suddenly burst back into flower!











On the other hand, winter is definitely here with jasmine flowering round the kitchen window ...

... and a couple of polyanthus seem to think Spring is on the way.

Can it really be November?

 Apart from the odd day here and there, this 'autumn' has been surprisingly mild and dry. Here we are, starting November on a day when it was warm enough to potter round the garden in just short-sleeves!









 Although a windy day this last week brought leaves swirling from the trees, there are still odd summery flowers around ... sweet peas, nasturtiums (small ones in tubs and long spidery ones climbing up the old pea supports), welsh poppies, perennial fuchsias and even a carnation

but then ..... really strangely .... the winter jasmine is in full flower.

November in the garden

This is how half of my November garden  looks - covered in leaves and the main colour coming from berries, maybe with some early spring flowers peeping through - normal for this time of year.

But a lot of the garden doesn't seem to know that summer is over - the recent warm weather has totally confused things.



 Marigolds, sweet peas, rudbeckias, welsh poppies, kaffir lilies, fuchsias, antirrhinums.... these and more still flowering. I even have alpine strawberries ripening and buds on hollyhocks and oriental poppies.

This week the temperature is set to drop.... so it could be the end of summer.

November in the garden - flowers

 It's a bit difficult to realise it's already November' although the garden's looking a bit scruffy and windswept there are still plenty of flowers out there -

Lots of nasturtiums which will keep flowering till the first frost

as will the kaffir lilies

 the fuschia bushes are a little more delicate

the black hollyhock is still climbing up and up - now about at 9 or 10 feet

 some of the sweet williams and welsh poppies have put on a late burst of colour

but winter must be on the way - the jasmine is in flower already

 and the michaelmas daisies and sunflowers are definitely past their best