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Pleasant surprises pop up during ‘Indian Summer’

A newly hatched monarch butterfly is an autumn joy.

On Oct. 14 I recorded our first frost; I turned on the heat in the bathroom and got out the big, fluffy comforter for the bed, wore a fleece jacket for the first time this season and took a day-long jaunt to Benezette to hear the elk bugle. No bugling, no elk (well, a lone spike bull) and no need for the fleece jacket the next day. Typical fall weather and just delightful!

The annual flowers have begun to bloom again and the garden is a-flutter with butterflies, mostly cabbage whites and sulphurs, but still some monarchs are voyaging through the area. My own monarch emerged from the pupal case on the morning of Oct. 12. It had been attached to an asparagus sprig not two feet away from my conservatory window — totally unnoticed by me until that morning.

Around the mailbox I have allowed a mixed bunch of wildflowers to grow — chicory, goldenrod and white asters. The chicory is gone, the goldenrods were lovely but the remaining asters are a magnet for butterflies and bees. I think I’ll let them do their thing next year too!

Another surprise today came as I bent down to pull a weed and caught a whiff of a pleasant perfume. After sniffing the assembled varieties I concluded that the older variety of chrysanthemum that I inherited with the house was the culprit. This variety is tall and rangy (not a cushion mum) and requires pinching back over the summer months — except this year when the drought and heat delayed its growth which resumed when the temperatures moderated.

There shall be much propagation next spring!

I don’t know how much time is left in this “Indian Summer,” but there are still some chores to do and some re-blooming flowers to be enjoyed. Spring bulbs have been installed, a couple of new shrubs have found homes, and all the remaining bags of potting/garden soil have been relocated into the garden shed. Having purchased plenty of books and accumulated a surfeit of yarn (can there be such a thing?) that is waiting to be transformed into useful (or not) objects, I’m ready for the next season to arrive when the time is proper.

For winter exercise I have determined the best way to make sure I get some is to drive to the senior center and walk inside their building. If I try to do it here I am too easily distracted and too apt to not bother. We’ll see how this goes… come and join us — we also sit and knit and giggle!

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Tina Clinefelter is a Penn State Master Gardener emerita and has received the President’s Volunteer Service Award from the Points of Light Foundation. She can be reached at tina36@comcast.net.

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