Maybe just a little sad about the Glads

If winter is slumber and spring is birth, and summer is life, then autumn rounds out to be reflection. It's a time of year when the leaves are down and the harvest is in and the perennials are gone. Mother Earth just closed up the drapes on another year and it's time to reflect on what's come before. - Mitchell Burgess - From TV series Northern Exposure, Thanksgiving, 1992

Late yesterday afternoon, I walked around the yard and looked at the flower beds Copper and I enjoyed visiting throughout the summer.  Now they are all dried up and ready for their winter's nap.  While I'm looking forward to getting to see what the "snow setting" on my camera does, I'm not quite ready for winter.

The flowers that I can reclaim the seeds from like the Morning Glories and Marigolds are the annuals that I understand and know what to do with.  I think I like the perennials I planted that can just stay right where they were and go dormant.  That's what I'm assuming anyhow, as no one has given me any reason to believe otherwise.  That includes the write up on the little cards that come with them explaining where to plant them.

In our flower bed by the flag pole I had planted 3 different kinds of perennials.  I really enjoyed watching them actually sprout and blossom over the summer.  The last ones to grow came up too late to even bloom, so I don't even know what they look like.  I think they are now finally ready for winter storage.  I've had iris and tiger lilly plants for years, I've never had to dig them up or do anything with them. They are hardy and they come up every year.  When I found out that all the gladiolus bulbs had to be dug up and stored, I started to second guess my decision to plant them in the first place.  They are a lot of work.  I just watched a couple of YouTube videos, read a few links, and it appears there are lots of different thoughts on how to store, what to do with them and when to do it.  For an "amateur gardener", I'm feeling a bit confused.  So, I'm going to just wing it, store them in a paper bag, and if they grow next year, great, if not, there are always the marigolds.  Saving their seeds year to year is VERY easy and VERY fool proof.

If you have any storage suggestions, please let me know.  Otherwise, stop back in the spring when I'm planting the stored plants.  Bye the bye, at least I'll have something to blog about in the spring.  I'm sure Copper will enjoy the adventure too!

Since these came up so late, I moved
them from the Flagpole garden to the
front door step to let them grow
just a bit longer after the frosty mornings
started.

Never got to bloom, but now they are dried up and ready
to go into storage.

My father in law tells me that when the
bud faces downward, they are ready
to pick and store for next year.  

After watching videos and reading more, I think
I've got some more work to do...I can't store them
like this, gotta remove some stuff...oh dear, more
work.

Here's the last plant to bloom and now
it is all dried up from the frost.  We'll
see if the bunnies eat it during the
winter.

This little tree, was a strange sprout that
I just stuck in the ground.  It grew tall
and strong, so hopefully it will survive
the winter too.

The rest of the perennial flowers.  I even moved
some of the tiger lillies to this bed.  I have
no idea if they'll grow next year.  It was an
experiment to move them to a new location.

Copper is always ready for an adventure!

A beautiful fall sunset...a great way to reflect
on the past summer, and get ready for the winter.