October Garden Tour 2026 | Dahlias, Mums, Fall Magic, And Beautiful Color 🍁🍃🍂

Hi everyone. I wanted to show you my garden. I'm going to start on my deck. I have been cleaning and getting ready for fall. It's about the middle of October on Saturday. My son has a mum farm so I get to go and get as many mums as he says I want which I don't like to take a bunch because I know he sells them and I don't want to take money away from him. This is a naster. It bloomed earlier, and now I'm hoping for its second flush coming soon. Again, another mum from my son. I take the ones that are damaged that he probably will never sell, and I turn it to where, you know, you can't see it from the public side. I had my geraniums and my euphorbia in it with a mum. I think that's really pretty. This is a view from my deck, looking over my... My upper garden here, my Eden Rose here, my Eden Rose. There's two roses on each side of it. It is October, middle of October, 2026. I planted that in July of 25, so 15 months old. And she's put on a lot of cane growth and leaves. I mean, it was just probably 12 inches tall when I planted it all last year. Planted it in July, I think. I see my tag here, yep, July. July of 25, it has to be October 26, and this is how much she has grown in that length of time, in that many months, which I'm thrilled. No flowers, I think she flowered in April, and that was about it, a couple of flowers, but I'm not sure if this is normal or not. I hope it is, and I'm hoping that next summer, which is summer of 27, that i'll get loads of flowers because the canes are just really really strong. okay well this right here is my limelight hydrangeas. i have two small bushes here and then um some brunnera and some banana cream daisies here. banana cream daisies yes here. i think that they got too much shade because they did not bloom very well. the shade from these hydrangeas so i'm So I'm gonna probably have to move those. But I am wanting to get this lantana cut back and this gomphrena, pull it. It's an annual, so it won't make it. And then cut back my white salvia here. That's a perennial. This is a dahlia that I got at a garden center. Oh, touch that and it's got bees on them. Anyway, I don't know what kind of dahlia this is, but I liked it because it was bright pink with a dark foliage. I'll probably dig that up and try to see if I can save it for next year. My fountain there, it's still not going. Still not got water in it. Maybe next year. I started cutting my hydrangea tree blooms off of my limelight hydrangea trees. And I've gotten so far up where I can't reach them. So I've had to get a ladder and start that. My husband's helping me today. And he brought this big red, Ladder out and equipment before I could get this videoed, but that's okay. I just appreciate the help. This is that rockin' playin' the blue salvia here. Oh my goodness, I'm going to definitely plant that again and more group it together because I've kind of spread it out through my garden. I think it'll look prettier if it's all grouped together. These are... Lilac bushes, bloomerang, I think that's what they are, and these are my hollyhocks that I planted. Of course, they did not bloom this year. Hopefully, next year, I will get some real pretty pink blooms on that white fence, hopefully. So, let's back up and go to the front of my garden. This is where I didn't have hardly anything last year. If you look back at my last videos Of November, December, of course, I didn't have anything. My heucheras, I had two heucheras here. That's what's left of one of them. The other one is the black pearl. It died. This is the other black pearl. It's made it, and I've had this clematis here for, I don't know, 10, 15 years. We've lived here 30 years, so that's been here for a long time. I put a butterfly bush here. It did have asters, and I moved them this summer. So I put a butterfly bush there and I think it's going to do well. I planted that a couple months ago and it's really came into it. This is a mum that I gave a dollar for at Walmart. I planted it last year and it's doing really well. This is my osteospermum. I should have cut that back but I did not and look what happened. It got really leggy and then it started being healthy and bloomed out again. So next year, Note to self, I need to cut that back. That in there is a salvia, a May night salvia. I'm going to have to move that because it's absolutely too crowded, crowding my rows. But this is my Eden rose. Look at it. Look at those canes. They're so big. So nice. I was hoping it would touch by year two or three, but look, it's touching. It's actually touching. And it's really, really healthy looking. I mean, look how thick it is. I just hope it blooms next year. Please tell me if this is normal. This is my one solid year of gardening. This is May night again here. These are some dahlias. I kind of sprinkled dahlias through here. I planted these in the ground to see, just to learn how to do dahlias. So I planted this one in the ground. It's, gosh, it's blooming crazy. Let's see what it is. I forget what it is. Oh, it's a, it's Great Silence, and it has done very, very well, and then I have a few more that I planted in the ground over here. It looks like a weedy mess. I just don't like, I like structure, so I'm not sure I'm going to put dahlias here next year, but there's all kinds of different, there's, let's see, one, two, three, four, four different Plus this one. And then this one is a dinner plate breakout. I had one nice flower on it, which I've got in my past posts, and it's not, it's bloomed, I'm sorry, it has bloomed three or four times. I was on vacation, but not as colorful as that first one. Hopefully this will bloom before it gets really cold here. We have about 70, 80 degree days, and the nights are about 50 and 45 degrees so far. And I'm in Indiana zone 6B. These are Let's Dance hot steppers, and we had a really hot summer with a lot of humidity, 108 degree days. I can't believe it. Well, it felt like 108. It was about 99 to 100. But anyway, I had a lot of leaf spot, which made me nervous. I tried to fix it with that copper fungi or something, fungicide. So I did battle it. And I got these in March. I ordered them online through the winter. I received them when it was time for my growing zone to happen to be planted. And I received them, and they were a quart size. I ordered a quart, so they were really small. So I put them in a pot, and I put them on my deck, and I babied them for several, several months. And I decided to go ahead and plant them this year. I finally found a spot I liked to plant them. It's my main walkway here so I could enjoy them. So I put them here, and I think they like it. They've done very, very well. The sun comes up over here, and so it does get morning sun until about 1, 2 o'clock, and then it gets shaded. So I think it's going to be enough sun for them. Gosh, it blooms crazy. I love it. I love this one. It's a Hot Stepper by Proven Winners. Stan's hot stepper. It gets three to four feet tall and wide and it's pink and lavender. They're very very pretty. Here's my aster from last year. I put those in last year. I think I only had three little flowers through here and my rose so it was very empty last year. Anyway that aster bloomed from spring to now. I should have cut it back but and it wouldn't be so leggy but I just can't cut flowers when they're blooming. It just bugs me. That's probably why all that mess is over there. It's still blooming. That's that Rock and Play in the Blue Salvia again, which I said I would love. And that up there is Verbena. Ordered that online too. Summer long. Middle of October right now. Still blooming. And this is another mum. I have it in the container. I'm not sure if I told you or not, but my son and daughter-in-law has a mum farm. They raise mums and they sell them. So they tell me I can come and get as many mums as I want at no charge. And I hate to take their mum profit. So I got this one. It's kind of looks like Mickey Mouse. It's got two big ears here. So it's going to be tucked in my garden. So it doesn't really, it's still pretty to me and I can still see some color. And if they can sell the pretty round structured ones, I don't want to take those from them. But speaking of that, I did take that one. Got one. So I do have a few good ones. Oh, look at this. Look at this dahlia. I also have to get better at staking my dahlias. My goodness. They are, they're beautiful. This one I did plant in the ground. This one is a Edinburgh. It's an Edinburgh dahlia. This Oh, let me show you. This is a hydrangea. Look how pretty. And this is, these are spent, of course. I'm a real estate agent, so I sold a house and the lady that sold, that was the seller, told me, I bragged on how pretty this was. She didn't know the name of it and she said that I could take it. So when I sold the house, the new buyer said I could take it as well. So I went and I dug it up and brought it home, and I need to find a place for it. So, I'm going to call this one Lauren, because that was her name. She let me graciously have that, and I'm thrilled, thrilled to have it. Another little aster. I got my little alliums here. These are serendipity alliums. I need to make me a tag. And, of course, that's a lily. This is that Verbena veneraris. Yeah. And, believe it or not, it was so tall. It was so tall, it was wild, so I cut it back. And now it came back again, even a little bit. It's still tall, but it's a lot nicer size for me. And then I have another mom. And then, of course, I have this here. Let me show you my entrance. And I don't know if you recall my past ones, but I had this Salvia here. And then I had Let's Dance Skyview hydrangeas through here. So if you look at my past videos, oh it was beautiful. And then I had Blue Floss Ageratum right through here and it was beautiful all summer long. But in July or August, this This, um, this book, bush, it looks like a tree but it's a bush, I limbed it up. It got infested with beetles for about three weeks and it ate it up. It ate every leaf on it and the leaves all fell on this. And it was a disaster, so I think it killed my Ageratum and I went ahead and, I'm sorry, yes, my Ageratum, and then I moved my Hydrangeas before it could hurt those. But I just think that is so pretty. Again, thank you to my son and daughter-in-law. Now this is Lantana. This is one plant, one, and it's so pretty. It's so easy to grow, so you need to do this. You need to grow this one. Very, very pretty. This is my ostemaria. I should have cut it back as well. As you'll see, it's leggy. With that hot summer, July and August, I should have cut it. Look at this view. Is it not beautiful? It's a little messy, but I do love it. This is Rosalita, Senorita Rosalita Cleome. This is a beautiful, beautiful plant. It grows. It's so easy. You don't have to do anything. There's no trimming. Nothing. It's just beautiful all the time. I'm going to get several of these next year. This is the kind that doesn't seed itself. And then, of course, that rock and play in the blues again. Salvia. It's just so pretty. And then, of course, my lantana. Now this is a rose tucked in there. It's a David Austin rose. And once I pull this lantana, I will be able to take care of that rose a little better. I forget the name of that rose, but It's its first year. I just planted it this spring. This is another rose and I've been cleaning around it. I need to get back there and get the weeds out, but this has so many bees and stuff on it. I can't get back there because I'm afraid I'm gonna get a bee on me. This is this Meteor Shower Verbena, I think. Let's see, here's my tag. Yeah, Meteor Shower. I'm gonna get more of that next year too. This doesn't come back for me. It is a... Shorter version of the Verbena cineraria, and it is sterile. It doesn't have seeds or anything, so you have to buy it again. Oh my goodness, look at that dahlia back there. Look how pretty. My dahlia got a little squirrely on me because I did not stake it when I should have. See how crazy it looks? So, another learning experience for me. Let's see the name of it, if I can zoom in on it. Lilac. Lilac time. That's what it is, lilac time. I'm gonna get another one of those. I'm gonna dig up my dahlias soon. We still got about two weeks of nice weather. More salvia. This is a verbena here. It says it's a perennial, which I'm thrilled about, but it was covered up with plants, so that's probably why it looks like this. It didn't get any sun, or it just didn't. It was covered up. This is my speed well here. I needed to cut back here too. I don't know what happened, whether it's died or what's happened, but then, of course, my coneflowers are through here. This is a, oh, Echinacea coneflower. Yes, purple. And then, of course, another one plant of Verbena. No, Lantana, sorry. And then look at this Gaura. Look how pretty that is with it. I love it because it's all wispy and blows in the wind. Look at it. So pretty. That came back for me. That was from last year. So it came back. This is oh my goodness this is a tickseed maybe. Is that what that is? And look at all the little daisies down there. She's had babies. These are my daisies. They came back as well. I planted those last fall and then of course that is my sedum and then I have a few more things I need to put out. I think it's Agastache maybe? Yeah. And then this is some Russian sage. That's what it is. Russian sage. Now this over here is still my garden in progress. My husband has a water line he's working on to water the yard. Again, here's my fountain. I don't have water in it still again this year. Over here I had three knockout roses. And my husband pulled them out for me because they'd been there about four or five years and I wanted hydrangeas. So I got these bloom-struck hydrangeas and I planted them maybe about two weeks ago. They're so pretty. Look at that red stem. These get four and a half, five feet tall and wide. And it looks like it's gonna bloom. I'm so excited. I hope it blooms before it gets cold. So anyway, this place, this over here is a mess. It has a rock and I'm dealing with taking out the rock. But I had to get them planted and I'll probably do this as a summer project. These are my petunias that I had on each side of my garage. Look how pretty they are. I just couldn't pull them. My petunias and my geraniums. They're pretty. I love that Barbie pink. Look at it. All right, let's go over here. All right, this is where all my water hose and things are. And I planted some ferns over here and bleeding heart and some astilbe. Look at that rock and plant the blue salvia. Oh look my mess. I'm cutting hydrangea blooms. And then here's where I brought those hydrangea let's dance series from up front. I told you I dug up because of the bugs. Leaves all fell on them. I think they're doing much better here Under this hydrangea tree where it gets shade. So nice. I have some, I'm trying to do some lavender over here. This is my first year for it. At least I didn't kill it yet. Not all of it. Kind of a little bloom there. We'll see. I'm going to keep buying and planting it until it survives. And here's the other hydrangea, the Let's Dance Skyview. One of the couple limbs fell off of it. This fell off a couple months ago and I went ahead and So I think I'm going to have a new hydrangea there by just, like, propagating it for myself. Same thing with this one. This one fell as well, fell off. So I went ahead and put it and planted it. I only did that just a few days ago. So that's what it looks like a few days in. This is what it looks like a couple months in. Another mum from my son, and that one's probably four or five years old. This is that Senorita Rosalita Cleome again. This thing fell off, a piece fell off of it. I propagated it, put it in the ground, and look at it. It's done so well. The wind's blown it over. Look, look how, look at this stem. Look how big that is, stem. And look, it even split, and it's still alive. It even broke in that windstorm, and it's still beautiful. Okay, here is another dahlia that I did not take good care of. I didn't stake it, but my goodness, look at it. Isn't it gorgeous? I think I like it just coming over the side of my stone wall there. So pretty. This one, I see you. This one is a breakout dahlia, and I planted it on May the 21st, and I should have staked it. This is a strawberry hydrangea here, strawberry vanilla, and this is a, I need to put this in the ground, this is a magnolia, a Jane magnolia. I'll find a place to put her, and I just had some verbena there, and this one had little blue flowers all over it. It's about spent, though. I need to pull it out. These are all strawberry vanilla hydrangeas. Of course, they're old and Kind of there's one with a little bit of color. I've been cutting some as I go so it won't be so much because they're so heavy. When the rain came it would would drag them all down so I started cutting them early. This yellow flower I'm you know I try not to put yellow in my garden but I think the birds planted this. I'm not sure. Is this a sunflower? I don't know. I don't even know what it is but it looked like a flower to me so I left it. Let me know what that is. Hope it's not a weed. If it is, it's pretty. And then over here, we cut a tree down right here. We cut a big old tree down right here, and we're going to put another tree there, but we have not cleaned all that up yet. It's a mess, but look at all that sedum down there. How pretty. Of course, I got a Weigela down there, 50% off that I did not get planted yet. I'm still going to do that Yeah, because fall is a good time to plant. And here is my Invincible rubies. These went in the ground probably June. They're Invincible mini Malvettes. I'm sorry. My rubies are on the other side. Here's my marketplace find. mums in it like I said. There's my spider. It's metal. All right here's this looking back to the upper gardens. This is our pool area. Those mums look so pretty in that. Pretty. So here's my new new bed. I kind of This had nothing but hostas in it, and I took them pretty much all out except one, one or two. And I put these Let's Dance hydrangeas in there. So there is a Let's Dance hydrangea there. And then I have one right here. See, look, I think they like it. And then, of course, this is the last one. And then I have some petunias that were, those bubblegum petunias that were late. I bought those late just to add. And then these are some tiny quickfire hydrangeas I bought probably maybe August and they have never bloomed as well. Not having very good luck with bloomers. This is another quickfire, tiny quickfire. And then this is a, this is a tiny tough stuff, the lace cap. I had that over in the sun and it really, it suffered. It was really, really burnt. The leaves were turning. A really dark color like that, and I thought, oh, it's not going to make it, so I moved it, and look at all the fresh flowers on it, fresh leaves on it. Hopefully, it will bloom next summer for me, and then, of course, I have salvia. I don't know what kind of salvia this is, but it comes back every year for me, and again, I didn't cut it. I'm going to cut it next year. I'm actually getting ready to cut it now and amend my soil. I have tons. Let me show you. Let me zoom in. I need some horse toast. My own. And amend my soil over the winter and just let it sit here. But this is a James Galloway rose and it's gotten really really tall. I'm going to try to prop it up here. Let it climb over over the wall here of the deck. I think that would be really pretty. But this was planted probably in June of this year. This is a, let's see, a hydrangea. Let's Dance Can Do. I don't know where to put it. It has been out in the sun, as you can tell. See that? I don't know. Are the leaves supposed to be this red? Is that like a tan for them, or is it just because it's fall? I'm not sure, but it's really, really pretty. Look at her. First time she's bloomed. Oops. I got her in the March as well and put her in a pot like I did those hot steppers, but I've not been able to Find a spot for her. This was from Let's Dance Can Do Re-Blooming Hydrangea And I got it at Creekside Nursery with Jenny. These two roses here are Earth Angel. This is their second year. I planted those in June of 25. It's October of '26 and they do bloom very well. but I haven't taken really good care of them yet. Haven't had a chance. It's on my list. This is a hydrangea. I think it blooms on old and new wood. My daughter gave it to me for Mother's Day and I don't know what kind it is, but I have to wrap it every year in burlap so that it will bloom. It's not a very good bloomer though. And this is my Princess Anne rose. And boy, she got mean thorns, but Look at her. Isn't she pretty? This is a Princess Anne David Austin rose and she's been a pretty good bloomer. This is her second year. First full year and one winter so far. Just look at her. See she's kind of mean looking but she sure is pretty. These are the very first Let's Dance hydrangeas I had and I'm not taking very good care of them. It's been at a place that's been really dry So, hopefully... Next year they'll look a lot better. I'm gonna plant these two mums that my son gave me in these two containers right here on each side of our pole barn. These are a whopper begonia and they have been huge. They've gotten, I mean they're so big. They've done well this summer. I've not watered them hardly at all, but I'm gonna replace them with these pretty pink mums and get some fall But I just want to say thank you so much. Hanging out with me in my garden today. It's a pretty Saturday. I'm getting ready to go up to my upper garden here that I've got my fall stuff in. And hopefully I'll get to see you again in the next one. Have a good evening.