first frost October 15, 2025

The morning of October 15 the roofs were frosted, the grass crunchy underfoot. First frost.

Near a small park where I take Hannah and Billie for their “running game,” a neighbor grows assorted dahlias and zinnias, and I always check their progress. A few days ago I gasped when I saw what this pumpkin-colored zinnia and Tiger Eye Sumac were cooking up in October and reached for my camera phone, something I rarely think to do. The neighbor and I had talked about the zinnias in early summer. His first batch from seed failed when planted out, and he had to buy some more plants local, so the zinnias were late getting started. We have all internalized a make-or-break schedule for when to get summer annual seeds sown, etc, but there is mercifully some wiggle room, as shown by this splendid display (and a second batch of cosmos in bloom now, which I sowed late July.)

Some final notes before heading south. The dark foliage belongs to Penstemon digitalis ‘Dark. Towers,’ so good throughout the growing seasons, from leaf to seedpod, that I’m trialing another cultivar ‘Blackbeard’ with Schizachyrium ‘Little Red Fox’ (where Stipa gigantea grew before removal and replacement by Stipa gigantea ‘Little Giant.’)

Sweet peas on the Oregon coast are an entirely different growing proposition than I’m used to in zone 10. They are summer-long garden contenders, with leaves that don’t mildew and flowers that don’t stop.

I took a flier on Cosmos atrosanguineus ‘Cherry Chocolate,’ a new variety without the velour petals of the familiar one. I couldn’t detect much cocoa scent either. But the flowers are larger and it did produce more of them, and on upright stems for cut flowers. A novelty I’ll probably not protect for winter.

I’ll be dreaming all winter on what the garden has up its sleeve for next spring.

Take care, AGO