So annoying or not!!

I've just been out in the garden for the usual tidying and clearing up that we all do in the Autumn and have noticed that my dahlias are only just beginning to put on a good show. They are full of new buds waiting to open and I am now hoping that they will not be killed off by an early frost.  Does it mean if we don't get a frost will I have dahlias in flower during Christmas. Our seasons are certainly changing, I've even got roses with new buds forming. I remember putting the garden to bed by September, but that was years ago!!

You'll probably find that the dahlias will deteriorate as the days get shorter, but you might still have a few left at Xmas.

Roses - I've had one in flower close to Xmas for a few years now - it really depends on how mild adry it is.

Put fleece on them at night Gracie5, and with luck you might be able to save them for X'mas as lowering night temperatures also affect plants.

Its a beautiful sunny day today here in London and the garden is full of flowers, it will be such a shame if we get a frost soon, even my buddleia buzz is sprouting more buds.  I will probably let nature takes it's course and not go to the trouble of putting fleece on the dahlias, Jatnikapyar, even though it may delay the inevitable!!

Here in what has been a very gloomy Devon, not one of my dahlias has flowered this year! They are just starting to show buds now...

I think Alina is right as well as the temperatures, there is falling light levels to take into account. 

I don't grow dalihas, but I'm having the same thing  happening with annuals Cosmos and Scabious- they are only just coming into the own but as soon as the frost appears, they are done.

Gracie5 this used to really annoy me when I started gardening, my plants would be 3 months behind the plants that I saw in Garden Centres. I have been really happy with my dahlias this year but I did start them off indoors and I think for any  of the mexican plants that are a focal part of your summer border you need to supply heat at some stage. If only the sun would do it for us.

I still have a cosmos that has just produced buds and I am wondering if I will see the flowers.

Being so cold and wet in Tiverton, our plants are always struggling to flower before the winter frosts, and only now any annual geraniums I bought for the pots are showing buds. So I stick to hardies and perenials that come back every year. This has been through trial and error, and too many favourite plants being eaten by the ever present slugs  in our draughty garden !

My pots are swimming in water and the lawn deep in surface water.I live on a hill and the bottom of my garden which once was a duck pond is reverting back to just that.My begonia of which for 10p in  a sale was looking so pretty and thriving was cut off by my dog .The pond is over flowing (good bye duck weed) and I guess its time to put sensitive plants to safety if only I could get out in before the next deluge!!!.

A neighbour started a huge herbaceous border (4m x 19m) at Easter and we went to plant auctions and planted it up. It has absolutely flourished (her husband put masses of well rotted manure down first.) This bed still looks like high summer when my little flower beds have that early autumn tired and colourless feel about them. I think it's time to get some horse manure rotting for mulching in the spring.

I had 2 compost bins then a work colleague gave me another bigger one. Oh how I save every veg and fruit scrap, used tissues and a bit of cardboard to make sure I keep these bins well supplied.The weed we clear from the pond is also put in them as well. I have even started buying a box of veg from my local farm store to eat healthily, but also to put any left overs on the heap .I cannot get enough compost and still have to buy bags of it, as well as the horse manure from another work colleague. Yes it has made a big difference. Also I have started planting higher plants, and not just the low, ground cover ones as when I first started. Be bold and go for it!

I am so pleased that you are a compost fanatic; next April I am going on a 2 day course to become a 'Compost Master'. Norfolk Council pay for this and then, as far as I understand, we go and give talks to: schools, W.I. etc.For my own compost, it helps that I do a lot of juicing of fruit and veg, the pulp is great for the compost. BUT I have heard that homemade compost does 1. Not kill perennial weed seeds as a small bin does not generate enough heat  2. Not have a great deal of nutrients. Hopefully after next April I will have the answer to all these questions.

 Ah! I cheat then. The perennial weeds go in the council compost wheelie bin. Heat...sun  No we don't get them here, unless it is when I am at work in the middle of a warehouse taking calls all day long. I don't see the outside world then. Bang on retirement, only another 5 years!

Janet4, Am I wrong, or is Tiverton in Devon? I have always associated that area with hot summers. Where I am in the Fens, is supposed to be (according to map at Cambridge Botanic Gardens) the driest area in the UK, so have 4 water butts. But the wind can come howling across the flat fens so am always thrilled when anything does well. I think this year is the strangest weather-wise that I have had whilst gardening.