Red Butte Garden in Early October

Folks at Red Butte Garden have decided that we will set some kind of record for the number of spring blooming bulbs. To that end we are now planting 100,000 of them. That's about all we are doing, sitting on the ground planting bulbs. Sometimes we do get up and hack things to the ground (aka cutting back perennials for the winter & throwing away spent annuals). These activities do not make for good photos.

Before we started all this, I did take some photos of the lovely things that were happening in early October. We are no longer deadheading roses, but there were plenty that were at their height in early October, especially yellow ones.

Thought that many of the rose blooms were especially large.

We have some special fall flowers like colchicum.

I always love the grasses,

and many have changed color for fall.

The red garden was looking pretty good.

And the four season garden is fine in this season as usual ... notice the beautiful grass.

There were some early signs of autumn color,

although only a few trees had actually turned colors.

Here are some more grasses.

It's hard to resist taking photos of the roses.

There were just so many beautiful plants.

I could go on forever, but I won't.  Well one more....

Welcome to Red Butte Garden. Autumn is a great time to visit.

Red Butte in August

It's time for an update about what's looking good at Red Butte Garden. The short answer is everything. Roses are the big draw right now.

I'm having a lot of trouble , as I was with the daffodils, in selecting my favorites.

Maybe this.

It's hard to resist the yellow ones.

But there are so many sweet pink ones.

Or the multi colored ones. Red and yellow isn't usually a combination that works well, but check these out.

These orange ones are right by the main entrance and my friend Layne takes great care of them.

Here are some orange ones in the new rose garden.

Oh, I just can't decide.

But I have been spending whole days, like today for example, deadheading roses to make them all look the best.
We are mostly doing deadheading, a bit of weeding (in many areas we don't really find that many weeds right now), tidying up, and a bit of cutting back.

We have cut back a lot of lavender because the heads are all dry right now. We probably will get another  round of flowers.

I chopped back the thyme here along the walkway one day.

Here are the day lillies I tidied up one morning.

Speaking of day lillies, we still have a few in bloom.

I filled a big pop-up container with brown leaves from these Beverly Sills irises. It's a good thing the flowers are so gorgeous or else I would have been inclined towards a scorched earth policy here.

But here's why you should come for a visit right now. This view of the four season garden is just the best.

The fragrance garden really does look like a meadow.

We've got flowers everywhere.

I've been told the name of this beaded plant, but I can't seem to remember the name. Maybe you know.

These smoke bushes are so cool looking.

I like these almost black scabiosas.

Speaking of black, these peppers just sparkle in the sun. I'm told they are REALLY REALLY HOT to eat so I probably won't ever try them out.

And I love these bi-colored lemons.
So if you're in town, please come to walk in the garden. There's so much to see.