Is It Autumn Yet?

Thats lovely Andrew, a big difference to up here in Manchester, so dull and wet here at the moment.

lovely pics andrew ,There's still plenty of colour there.

Lovely, lovely, colour.
It's good to have colour for as long as you can at this time of year, spring colour seems so far off :-/

Lovely photos of your garden Andrew.

Bobg - it's grey and wet here today, that's why I'm on GOY instead of in the garden :-)

I like your garden Andrew.

it's pretty miserable here too but we need rain as not had any for a while! Love your garden.

Surely you didn't take those pics today Andrew? Your garden is looking lovely and just as colourful as it was on Open Day, if not more so.

Andrew your garden looks smashing,the longer we manage to keep some colour in our gardens the better we all feel.lol.

Beautiful gardens.. :o)

lovely colourful show

Your garden still looks great Andrew...I love it :)

Wow Andrew - it looks great. Could have mistaken it for June! I see you can grow perennial asters...something I have to live without :-(

Lovely pictures, as you say plenty of colour.

Sorry Andrew, I missed the bit about them being taken on the 1st Oct.

Long may it last Andrew....lovely colour, lovely garden.

Lovely garden Andrew...still plenty of colour.;))

looks great andrew so summery :o)

Im green with envy - your garden is gorgeous - sigh - thanks for sharing.

Great range of colours Andrew. Very nice.

Its been lovely to see your garden. Thank you so much for your pictures.

Your garden is looking terrific - so much colour. Fabulous planting. Enjoyed your photos a lot.

Your garden looks beautiful!

what a lovely garden you have Andrew :)

Very nice - still summer there!

Lovely photos - lovely garden! :-))

You certainly have applied good design from your travels and packed a lot in with good "bones" & textures. What is that grey leaved shrub behind the ceanothus in #4 as well across from it in #5? Espy the Melianthus holding court! Wonderful rhythms. Thanks so much!

Orgratis - the 'grey' shrub is pittosporum 'Garnettii'. The leaves are actually grey-green with a slight white margin.
It is evergreen, conical in shape and gets up to fifteen feet tall and six across. A good tree surgeon reduced it for me a few years ago; it looked tatty for a month or so after his work in early spring and then put on a new flush of leaves

Oh. Pittosporum are such ubiquitous hacked hedges in FL that I ignored them, & forgot how lovely they can be, especially as small subtrees. Does yours have choc purple spring blooms? (Fragrant but you said your sense of smell is marginal). Also, as long as I'm asking and you are so graciously responding, what's the yellow flushed shrub to the right in #2?

I have to say I've never noticed the flowers on my pittosporums but then I only grwo them for the foliage effect.
The shrub with yellow flowers is cestrum parqui. I am told this has a strange smell during the day and a sweet one in the evening

Is your sense of smell that bad then, Andrew? Not just the normal male not too good?

No, it really is bad. When I was young, I was very prone to nosebleeds and since then, I have had veins in the nose cauterised from time to time to prevent the problem recurring. I don't know whether this has had an effect but I can never remember being able to smell much

I'd imagine that treatment did make it worse - one of my sisters has had nasal sprays for years because of severe allergic rhinitis and now has absolutely no sense of smell at all, can't even tell if the milk's gone off. I can't imagine what that must be like - my sense of smell is, if anything, too strong.