October ’25 Fall Garden Tour! Front, Backyard & Container Garden Tour! #northtexasgarden

Join me as I walk through ALL of my garden spaces PLUS my container gardens in mid October! This year has been a unique Fall for North Texas, it has been staying VERY warm, temps in the 90s, during the day. It is cooling down at night and days are getting shorter, so in many ways, Fall has still set in. Join me through my backyard gardens, see how my NEW backyard garden space is doing, and walk through my front garden and container gardens as well! I have MANY containers, as many as 45, throughout my garden spaces. I have full sun garden areas, part shade garden areas, and full shade garden areas! You will see annual, perennials, and shrubs that do well in our North Texas climate.

[Music] Hi everyone, welcome to Grow Roots. This is Shannon and welcome to my October 2025 fall garden tour. By the way, just a little shout out to YouTube. What do y’all think of this clapper board that YouTube sent me? Isn’t it so cute? Welcome everybody. Thanks for joining Grow Roots. If you haven’t watched my channel before, hit that subscribe button. I would love for you to join us. But today, I am taking you on a fall garden tour of my backyard garden and my front yard garden. Hopefully I won’t get too chatty and I can keep this video in a decent length. But I want to start out updating you on this brand new garden that I installed probably I don’t know 6 to 8 weeks ago. I think that’s about how long it’s been here. But it’s been doing so so so well. Not everything I think is going to survive, but most things are surviving and thriving. So I really wanted to show that to you first. So, this is an area of my backyard that used to be covered in a trampoline and my kids have outgrown it. It’s also pretty run down. It needed a lot of replacement parts. And so, we just decided to take it down and put our shed there, which is there uh holding all of my garden supplies. It’s so nice, y’all. Going back to the garden, we installed a new garden area. And so coming up over here, um I have a border of lemon balsetum going all around and it is just a beautiful pop of color. Lemon balsetum is an excellent border plant and it’s here in North Texas it can do sun or shade and it’s also evergreen. So it’s like the perfect the perfect border plant really. Now I have a couple spots. It’s also salt tolerant, but uh which means usually dog urine intolerant. However, like uh these two I think got trampled on or peed on. And so I think throughout the the you know growing season I may have to replace a lemon balsum here and there, but I love it so much that and all of the rest of them they’re doing amazing. So it’s just an awesome plant. And then coming behind that is Stella deoro dilly. Um, they are just a rockstar yellow dilly. I think they’re going to look beautiful coming up behind that lemon balsetum. And pretty soon here, I’m going to plant some spring bulbs. I have a spring bulb uh detailed um video. I’ll pop the link up on that the right corner of your screen. Uh if you want to check that out to see what spring bulbs I purchased, uh go for it. But I’m going to be doing some daffodils and muscari in between these dlies, which I think will look amazing in the spring. And then coming up in this third layer over here, I have sweet William grown from seed this year, and it’s going to give me some fall blooms, which is unbelievable. I’ve done this two other times. It’s never given me fall blooms before. Um, it’s usually blooms in the spring, but I’m super excited for that. Uh they’re just super healthy and doing really really well there. Back there, it’s doing okay. But that is an oakleaf hydrangeanger. Gatsby pink oakleaf hydrangeanger. Just going to be a gorgeous hydrangeanger, but I recognize it’s dealing with some fungal leaf issues from overhead watering. It’s no longer getting overhead water, but you know, it’s and with the transplant, it’s like this is new growth. The new growth is doing well. Um, so I think it’s gonna do fine. And that will get uh what did it say? Is it six to eight feet tall and wide? Yeah. So that’s the color of those panacles. I really hope I achieve that color because here in North Texas, we don’t always, but I’m super excited. It has lots of room to grow back there and it’s going to look amazing just filling out that space. One plant that is shocking me is this blanket flower. This is Galardia grown from seed. And I just love this perennial, y’all. This is a perennial flower. It was one of my first to bloom in the spring and it’s just still going strong. And I feel like this plant has doubled since I planted it. I’m going to see if I can pop a picture of it on the screen when I first planted it. But I definitely feel that it didn’t even like feel the transplant. Do you know what I mean? Like it’s just still going. I am noticing with our cooler nights, these petals sometimes are getting a little bit short on them, but still new blooms. See? Oh my goodness. This is an excellent plant and an excellent perennial. Um really really I’m so loving how it looks there. And then it’s right next to some little spire Russian sage. There are two of them there. And I love that look of the Russian sage with the blanket flower. That color palette is beautiful. These leaves are super interesting, too. They’re kind of a lighter green, almost bluish color. And then, of course, these flowers are unbelievable. They’re so beautiful. Pollinator magnet for sure. I’ve got lots of new growth on those. So, they’re doing quite well with that transplant as well. And then coming over here, we’ve got Texas rocks. There’s two of those as well. And it’s just it’s just amazing. I I am so so happy with this side. This is my full sun side of the garden bed and it’s just just looking amazing. Honestly, right in front of that Texas rock rose, I’ve got Veronica and I don’t know what variety it is. It wasn’t labeled, but it’s just absolutely stunning. I love this color so so much. And it’s continuing to give me new blooms. Look, there we go. Just amazing. Here’s a shot of that whole garden bed. The full sun area is doing amazing. I’ve got a Shasta daisy right here. And this is doing quite well. Not blooming. Not a lot of blooms. I’m hoping next year once it gets established, we’ll it’ll do really well. And then coming over here, I have more sweet William grown from seed. This one not putting on any blooms, but still looking beautiful. Okay, so this part shade/shade garden. Here we go. Shasta daisy we talked about. Uh I have another sweet William and the same one. These usually get really tall but because our nights are getting cooler again. Never had a fall bloom from Sweet William before. Um naturally, do you know what I mean? Um but this one is setting up a beautiful panacle. Not quite as full as we would see in the spring. I think that’s because, you know, this isn’t the typical time really. But that’s gorgeous. It will be evergreen also this sweet william. So dotted throughout this garden I love that I have this and I think it’s so beautiful. Dianthis is amazing and sweet William the variety of dianths is amazing as well. Over here I have two summer pastels. Yarao this one struggled all season long. It also struggled a little bit in that transplant but now that it’s going I think it’s going to be fine. It’s going to get established and it’s looking great. That one was planted in a pot with some variegated vinka and also some creeping jenny. Creeping jenny kind of died in the transplant, but I see it’s coming back. And then this variegated vinka will probably start spreading and becoming a ground cover in here. Um, and this yarao is doing fantastic. These were grown from seed, winter sewn this year. And then coming over here, how sweet is this? This is Cheyenne Spirit Echanatia. I have three of them. One, two, three. And this one, again, you’re going to see shorter blooms on a lot of these perennials because when they’re blooming in the fall, they the nights are cooler and it’s just making those uh those buds shorter. But look how beautiful that color is. I love Cheyenne Spirit. I’ve wanted it for a long time. So, I’m glad I have three planted here. This one, I don’t know if it’s going to make it. Um, there’s also, let me take this out. This little clover weed is trying to grow in there. Huh. That’s not helping. But anyway, my dog likes to chew echanatia. I do see feel like that’s new growth. Yeah, that’s new growth in there. So, it’s doing okay. It just again some plants survive the transplants better than others. We also are still getting very hot during the day. Even though it is fall, we are still in the ‘9s. the upper 80s and early 90s in like midocctober. It’s crazy. And then um here’s the other one that is also giving me some new blooms. You can see where my dog has chewed the leaves. It’s actually good for her. It’s for her immune system, but man, not good for the plant. Um and then that’s a different color. Cheyenne Spirit can get anywhere from this pink color to um this orangey color to a yellow color and a red color. So really really cool um type of echgonia. I love it. Coming over here is more of my shade/part shade. This one may not make it. This is Invincel mini mauvet. I’ll pop a picture of it on the screen for you. So, I’m so excited if it does survive. It is not looking great. Um, not really sure why. Some plants just do not survive that transplant. And I feel like this new growth, this is new, so it’s promising, but coming back in the spring from this, I just really don’t know. My experience with these small hydrangeanger shrubs um is if they don’t take the transplant well then they don’t in the fall because I do it in the fall then they don’t come back in the spring. So we’ll we’ll keep an eye on that one. And then this one I think it’s okay. This is firelight tidbit. So panacle hydrangeanger. Uh this is a smooth hydrangeanger which I’ve never grown before. This is a panacle hydr hydrangeanger. Node gummy get out. See here’s my problem. You are. How’d you get back out? Go, go. Sneak peek of my house, y’all. I just brought the dogs in and the rainbows are on the walls. I just wanted to show you really quick. I have a chandelier right there that the morning sun comes through and at the right times of the year, it broadcasts rainbows all over my walls. So, there’s a sneak peek of my house. Yay. Okay, we’re going to go back to the garden. But I love this one because it is only going to get two to three feet tall and wide. That’s going to be lovely. And then I have Perfecto Mundo Fuchsia Carpet Aelia here. It’s doing again. It’s not doing amazing. I was hoping for some buds because it it normally would bloom about this time, but I transplanted it right before bloom time, so that’s not great. Um got some new growth down there. We’ll see how it goes. Uh over here, this is just a pot. I actually think I’m going to take this away, but it had a um limelight hydrangeanger that I trained into a standard, it died in the summertime. Oh no, there is no like I scratched the trunk of it. Um initially when I placed it back here and it was green and now I I tried scratching the trunk just yesterday and it’s dead. It’s fully dead. So I’m going to take that out. This pot I’m going to replace it with a different pot because I picked one up on clearance uh and I picked two of them up so I have one on each side. This I will place a pot here and it will eventually have a Japanese maple in it. This will be a perfect perfect spot for a Japanese maple. I think it will look lovely. This is an understory an understory tree. Yeah, an understory area underneath a tree. So it’s going to do amazing there. But these were my annuals in this pot. They’re still going strong. That dicondra and white v cascading vinka still doing really, really well. And coming over here, two more plants. This one is so awesome, y’all. It’s struggling just a little bit because I’m seeing brown tips and I’m not loving that. And I’m not seeing any new growth. So, I’m not loving that either. Um, but anyway, this is Paisley Pup Dog Hobble. It is a part shade to full shade plant, shrub, evergreen. And look at that variegated foliage. It also blooms really tiny white blooms in the spring, which I haven’t seen yet. I hope that this um will make it and that it’ll uh bloom for me next spring cuz that will just be awesome. They get two feet three and two to three feet uh tall and wide as well. And then that is a a macrofila hydrangeanger, big leaf hydrangeanger that I popped there. It was propagated again. Did not take the transplant. Well, uh, but these I have found these to be pretty hardy. So, I think it it will be okay. I think it needs a little bit of iron, but this late in the season, I’m worried about giving that to it. So, I may just let it go dormant and then really fertilize it well and add some iron to that soil to help it next year. So, that is the new garden bed. honestly doing amazing. Let’s move on to my full shade garden bed. Here I have some pots, which I love. And each one has a different hosta in it. These hostas are going dormant. It’s just that’s what they do this time of year. They’re they don’t look the best, but they really performed this this year. And I’m in North Texas, which a lot of people say you can’t grow hostas here, but as long as they’re in full shade, I really do think they they do well. And especially I in pots um in the ground I have lost a couple hostas in pots they I haven’t lost them. So anyway this one is a elegance blue hosta and the leaves just get ginormous. Absolutely beautiful. I just love the look of these leaves. This one is called elaboroic hosta. Again smaller leaf shape but much fuller. It’s so gorgeous. This one is the one I am a little worried about. It started going dormant a little too soon. Something was wrong. I don’t I hope it’ll come back. They’re pretty tough. They’ve been in here a couple years, so it should be pretty well established, but it’s looking rough. But this is Proven Winners Shadowland Wool La. And then this one is Proven Winners Shadowland Diamond Lake. Very similar to the blue eleg. And I’m glad I put them both on the ends cuz they’re almost exactly the same, to be honest. but little more roughly edge to the leaf and looking amazing for this time of year for sure. And then I have some plants planted all throughout as well. Shade plants that do well in North Texas. They’re all perennial. And so this one is the star of the show for me. This is an autumn fern. And this has been in the ground one year. One year, you guys. I’m just now realizing that. I think it’s only been in here one year. It’s doing so, so well. Autumn fern. This one was evergreen for me last winter. I hear they’re semi evergreen here in North Texas. Um, and it’s just it loves this spot for sure. I have some laap. This one bloomed for me. The bloom is spent, but yeah, it’s starting to take over that laap as well. More la. And then I have a hydrangeanger, a big leaf hydrangeanger here. Again, this is one I propagated. It started out looking like the one I just showed you. And in I planted it here in spring and or did I plant it last fall? It could have been last fall, but it has tripled in size this year. This is a an experiment for me. This is absolute full shade. It does not get sun in this location back here. And I wanted to see if it would bloom. Um it’s definitely growing and I still love the look of them even if they don’t bloom. So, it’s going to be a fabulous plant no matter what. But in full shade, I want to see if it blooms. So, there it is. There’s another autumn fern. This one literally was put here in July in the hot hot heat of the summer. It took the transplant like a champ. And uh here is new growth color. Like just so beautiful. Um spectacular plant. More the riop. That one died, so I may replace that with another. Uh here’s giant leopard plant. getting eaten a little bit by snails for sure, but doing really well. This time of year they do get yellow blooms, but this one h it just isn’t a great bloomer for me. I don’t know why. It looks like it’s doing fine, but I’m not getting those yellow blooms. So, hm. And then coming over here, more Laia. And this is Sea of Hearts, Forget Me Not Brunner. So, it had this old growth had been eaten, eaten, eaten by the snails and slugs even though I put down snail bait or uh I use um not Sluggo Cory’s I’m pretty sure. Anyway, all that new growth, it’s a rock star. I love Brunner. I don’t know why I don’t see it more in North Texas, but it’s a really great plant. It’s been very tough, honestly. Hi, Chloe. Hi, sweetie. All right. Here’s my backyard gardens that are somewhat well established. I’m going to go through these a little bit quicker because I want to get through this video with all of my gardens. But I have a spyhea there that is called a double play big bang. It has a weird arching habit. Not the same growth habit as the other spyhea that I have on this side, which is double play candy corn spyhea. It’s doing excellent this year. This is the biggest I’ve seen it. It’s supposed to get 2 to 3 feet tall and wide. I’d say it’s it’s a it’s right at its maximum right now. Oh, Chloe just she’s so sweet. Look at that. Hi, baby. Okay, so what she is sniffing in and getting into, which she she loves this plant. This is um dwarf Mexican patunia. Oh, she’s so cute, y’all. I just get so distracted. Anyway, this is a pink variety. Um these blooms haven’t quite opened up for the day yet. They get new blooms every day. and then they shed their blooms. And so it’s just an awesome awesome plant. Um really another great border plant honestly. Um does great in full sun to part shade. Summer pastels yarao planted from seeds this year. Doing fabulous. We’ve got an echgonia perparia. I’m letting some of those seed heads stay on the plant for the winter and the birds. I have a holly hawk over here y’all. Uh this was planted winter stone planted you know from seed this year and it’s taken a beating. It’s been eaten by snails, covered up by the spyhea, covered up by the vines. It looks like it had um what are those called? Do you see the pattern in the leaves? Uh I’ll put the name of that pest on the screen. I can’t remember. It’s like a borer. I forget. But anyway, going strong and I hope to see some holly hawk blooms um in the spring. So that’ll be so so fun. I have a ground cover all throughout this garden bed that started out as three plants. It is plumbago serata stigma. Let me see if I find any that are still blooming. It’s got a bright blue bloom. And that one you can’t really There we go. You see that blue color? It has a new bloom coming. Um, and then this time of year, it’s bloomed from spring, late spring all the way until now. Now is when it just petered out. But the old blooms look that color, but the leaf foliage supposedly turned a bright red color. Now, this is the first year I’ve had it fully established in my garden, so I’m excited. Last year, they didn’t really turn that red color. They just turned brown and fell off. It’s a deciduous ground cover. does fantastic in the heat. It shows no signs of of heat stress. Um pests don’t like it. Like it’s not touched by any pest. It’s an amazing ground cover, y’all. But it will it will fill in. So just know that. Like if you want a ground cover that does what it says and covers all the ground, then that’s it’s a great one for Texas. And it’s blue blooms is just spectacular all through the year. I have a sweet William plant there. This is a white swan echanatia. I have echgonatia dotted all throughout this. I have a um this one’s my favorite and it’s starting to put on a bloom. Um this one is I think something orange but it’s my favorite color of my echgonatia so far. Coming back around. Let’s see. Oh, here’s a plumbago that’s that’s flowering. Okay, that’s what that plumbago serata stigma bloom looks like. And it’s all over the place in the summer. Like this whole the bottom of this looks completely blue. It’s so beautiful. I have a denthis here that’s starting to bloom. I have another echgonatia right here that’s definitely seen better days. But this is a pow-wow echanatia. I have another pow-ow echgonatia there. And you can see what those blooms look like. They’re beautiful. I have a sweet William back there that is like 3 years old. Also, say hi to our friendly garden spider. Chloe’s like messing with the web right now. I can’t even get into this garden bed to show you because she has her web uh completely spread across this garden bed. So, yeah. I’m not getting in there, y’all. Uh but over there, can you see that? That’s it’s going away, but it’s a peie. the brown right there. It’s just going dormant and I know it’s just done. So, there is a peie. It has never bloomed for me. This is its third year and did not bloom this year. It better bloom next year, y’all. Um I do have like a blank spot there and I don’t I was trying to think like what died. I didn’t have a blank spot there earlier. Um, I know I had lark spur, which is a spring blooming plant, but anyway, I’m gonna put a um I’ll show you my purple verbina. Um, verbina banariansis. I’m going to put a ban verbina banariansis there uh to kind of fill in that perennial spot. I do have a container right there in the middle and again some white cascading vinka dicondra and it’s growing a a panacle hydrangeanger a limelight hydrangeanger that I’m tried to train to a standard. I don’t know if I’m going to keep it there. Maybe try it until it dies. But I’ve decided that after three of my limelight hydrangeas dying in full sun, I’ve decided they just can’t take full sun here in North Texas. So, I’m going to give up. When this one dies, it’s it’s going out. But it’s still it survived the season and it even has new growth. I only allowed four branches on it this year. Maybe that’s why because it’s sending all of its energy into just four branches. Once it completely branches out like that, I think it’s gonna die in full sun. So, I’m just prepared for that. But they are gorgeous and I love them. I’ll get to the containers in just a moment. I really do want to cover the containers, y’all, cuz I promised you a container garden tour in September and it just didn’t happen. So, bear with me here. But coming over to this spot in the garden, I had some queen lime zenas that really are taking off. They didn’t do well this summer. It was just kind of covered up by this echgonia perparia. But now they’re looking gorgeous and putting on new blooms. Look at that. Wow. But this echanatia perparia, it’s because it’s kind of, you know, it’s seen better days. I’m leaving the seed heads on them again for winter time for the birds to gather the seeds. You can see they’ve gathered a lot of these seeds. They’re ready to go, but some of them have already been picked. Um, and then let’s not ignore the vines. So, I have two vines growing back here. Confederate star jasmine, which is doing amazing this year because it didn’t the vine didn’t die back this winter. And then this I did not plant this year. It is black eyed susan vine. Wow, what a vigorous vine blackeyed susan vine is. But how gorgeous is that? These beautiful yellow blooms. It does not bloom in the summer. It starts, it blooms a little bit in the spring, but it’s not established enough in the spring and so in the fall it just really gets going. And this is nothing compared to what it will be coming up here. So, it’s a gorgeous vine, but it’s kind of taking over. It’s choking things out. This container, like the jasmine and the black eyed susan were coming right in and choking all of these flowers out. So, uh anyway, it’s interesting, but I I do love it covering this fence over here. I do have clatus. Again, I can’t find any of it right now because it’s all kind of swallowed with the jasmine right now. Uh here, here we go. I do have some clatus back here. And at this point, I can’t tell if it’s the sapphire indigo clatus or the Jackmani clatus because I have both. And the Jackmani took off this year from Bear Root a year ago. So, now it’s like I don’t know what is what, but they are gorgeous. And hopefully they come back. They just did get swallowed. They got eaten by grasshoppers and swallowed alive by jasmine. So, let’s go back over here. Okay, this is Texas H. Lovely Texas tough plant that I have managed to probably kill. Uh, it’s not doing well. It may not survive the winter. Um, that’s okay. It’s 5 years old, but I think they live lot a long long time, so I don’t think that’s it. Uh, it’s probably watering. I do water a lot just because of my other plants. And Texas sage doesn’t like a whole lot of water. It is very drought tolerant. So, if anything’s going to take this plant in my garden, I’m going to say it’s probably too much water. there’s just kind of no way around, you know, not watering with the other plants I have with it. And so, you know, anyway, it likely will die back. It’s given me some beautiful blooms this year. And that’s actually the brown that you see. It bloomed about a month ago and then it said, “Okay, I’m done. It’s supposed to be evergreen. It’s losing its leaves. It’s probably on the way out.” So sad about that. But it’s the way it goes. Like y’all, I’m real life with all of you as gardeners, even the best of gardeners, and I’m not even saying I’m the best of gardeners. I’m not even close, however, but even the best of gardeners lose plants. Sometimes plants just things happen, okay? And sometimes we can’t control it. And that’s one of them. And you just kind of I take it as, well, now I have a chance to put something else in its place. You know, I did enjoy the Texas stage for what it was and for the beauty that it gave me when it was here, but I do think it’s on its way out. I don’t think it’s going to survive. So, let’s go over here. Oh, this plant. Okay, sunshine lagstrum. This guy, I just majorly pruned it. If you see, I’ll pop a picture of what it looked like before the major pruning. It was taking over this entire area. Like where my hands are circling, that’s how large one sunshine lagustrum has gotten in five years. They’re supposed to get 5t tall and wide. Maybe this guy is well over or was well over 8t tall and then you know probably yeah an 8ft circumference. No doubt. So it already was limmed up a little bit to here. I limed it up even more. You can see it’s trying to recover and send out all of these new branches right there, which I will not allow. Plus, in the winter that will likely die anyway. All of this new growth because I pruned it so heavily is likely to get frostbitten when we start to get our frost. Um, it’s not recommended to heavily prune shrubs at this time of year. So, don’t do what I did. Do as I say, not as I do. However, sunshine legushroom is extremely tough. Extremely tough when you have a healthy plant. Um, and it can take things like this and I will get some burn in the winter time. All of this new growth is going to get burned likely, but I needed to get it out. It was choking everything down here and I just couldn’t have that. And so, um, and it was starting to choke all of this. Like, it was coming well into these containers. That’s why you see this bare spot on my container there because the sunshine and the gushroom is there. So, here it is. I heavily pruned it. Last video, last garden tour, I asked you what you thought I should do and I said I wasn’t going to super super heavily prune it, but I did. I just once I got going, I couldn’t stop. But all of this has opened up now and things that weren’t getting sun are now getting sun. colus limelight hydrangeanger echanatia perparia is down there and and a Texas sage which didn’t do well this season because it was completely shaded. So one thing that is suffering as a result though I planted burgundy glow ajuga around here and it’s slowly dying off cuz it’s I think getting too much sun but that’s okay. That’s okay. Um let’s talk about down here. I can actually get down here now which is unbelievable. Let’s see. Echania perparia, like I said, doesn’t like to grow in the shade, but it will. Just so you know. I know that now. I’ve got some Confederate star jasmine. Confederate star jasmine. And then this crazy thing is um coral honeysuckle. And it’s just it’s a very vigorous vine. I’m not going to call it aggressive. I think someone yelled at me for calling it aggressive, but it is it is vigorous. Oh, I’m seeing purple hyasin bean. I don’t know why I’m just now seeing that. That’s interesting. Either that or it’s poison ivy, but I think that’s purple hyasin bean. Um I haven’t been able to get down there just because it’s been so crazy down there. And so uh anyway, that’s a coral honeysuckle, maybe a volunteer purple hyasin bean from last year. And let’s see, I planted some dillies down there and they have made it. But again, like they got a lot less sun than they like as well. And so they have survived. So that’s good. The reason that they didn’t get a whole lot of sun is because of this plant right here. This is Mexican sunflower, also known as tethonia. And I planted one there and one there. Well, actually two, but I only think I one didn’t survive. Uh, and it’s just gotten crazy. You see how tall? Wa. And that’s after being knocked down several times. And then one of the limbs is going that way and then it’s blooming way over there. It’s a lovely plant. Absolutely love these stunning huge flowers. Fluorescent in color. Honestly, they are so vibrant that they are they are like a red orange fluorescent. and they get like that right there is pushing 12 to 13 ft tall. The one drawback that that I have is my garden is small. I do not have the space for what this plant needs. This plant can get I would say if allowed and trellised, it would get 12 feet tall and 6 feet wide. That’s that’s one plant will get that well like we’ll get that um that tall and wide, but my garden can’t really handle that. So you can see it’s just coming out everywhere and anywhere it will grow. And then in heavy rains, which the heavy storms that we’ve had have knocked them over, it bends the stems. So the last storm bent it here and I just like cut that one completely back and that part died off, but it grew again from the bottom just about what 8 weeks ago. And this is already 6 feet tall, this growth. So, you know, same thing with this one. This one, you know, the stems will break in heavy downpours and then like your plant is done for a little while until it regrows. It’s not dead, but it will regrow. And then this one was knocked over at least a couple months ago and then a couple months of growth has brought it to 12 feet tall. So, love this plant. I will say it is the best pollinator magnet plant I’ve ever grown. Ever. And uh everything loves it. I had monarchs on this plant yesterday. I’ll pop a picture on the screen for you. I’ve had hummingbirds. I’ve had golfillery butterflies. That’s the butterfly that I have the most in my garden. They’re just all over this all day long. Bumblebees, honeybees, everything. Loves loves this flower. The most amazing pollinator plant I’ve ever grown, like I said. But it’s just too big. And so I did get some seeds from Park Seed. They’re dwarf uh Mexican sunflower that are only supposed to get like 4 feet tall at most. We’ll see. Oh my goodness. But uh anyway, lovely, lovely plant. And again, I’m going to get to these containers in just a sec. But let me talk about my favorite perennial vine because it’s putting on a little bit of a fall show for us. This is Tangerine Beauty Cross Vine and it’s evergreen. In the winter, it turns a little bit purpley color. It’s actually already getting darker. um getting ready because I think those cooler nights are are helping it to turn colors, but some of the newer growth is bright green like this. So, in the summertime, all this new growth is bright green. It’s just Oh, I just love it. I have four of them here and uh in spring, this is covered in these blooms. You can’t even see the green because of how um how like proliferous these blooms get. But, it’s putting on a little bit of a fall show and I’m loving every moment of it. I love this perennial vine so so much. I’m going to quickly walk through my side garden. These are part shade and shade plants u because we don’t get a whole lot of sun. This is going to change pretty dramatically. I’m going to do I’m I really really want to just take these canalies out cuz they overpower everything. I have amorillis growing in here. I have a fox glove. I have blanket flower which does not do well in part sun because it becomes kind of a ground cover. Same with this Greg’s mist flower. I have Greg’s mist flower but it’s coming it’s not enough sun for it. So it becomes kind of a ground cover over here. I have volunteer zenyas. This is kind of just the wild garden y’all because I can’t get back here too often. I have a boxwood which I’m contemplating taking that out. It just doesn’t fit. I do have a peie, y’all. And it’s, you know, fungal spot. Greg’s misflower’s kind of trying to grow in there. But there’s my peie. I have a basil grown from seed with Greg’s misflower in it. This is crazy. This is so cool. I didn’t even notice this, but this basil just makes it smell so good back there. I have plumbago serata stigma trying to grow in here that I planted from I transplanted from my other garden. this dilly. H my puppy comes down off of our porch right here and so this poor dilly kind of is getting you know smooshed and so are those amorillis. Um but anyway this is a beautiful peach dilly. I have purple winter creeper um coming in there. This plant is getting taken out today. This is rose malo and it just, you know, it’s one of those plants that doesn’t bring me a whole lot of joy and I have a lot of problems with it. Um, grasshoppers, pests, all kinds of things. Um, and so I’m taking it out and I’m going to be putting one of my uh mystic spires blue salvas in its spot. And I might put a m another one right there. This might just all be mistires. I don’t know cuz then they’ll take over that day. So, I’m going to put something else smaller over there in the place of that boxwood. But that’s my plan. And then moving on, I have a row of um hydrangeas, hydrangeanger macrofila. Um some bigger than others. They all started the same size, but I think they get different amounts of sun. And so anyway, that’s what they’re looking like right now. They’re just kind of in survival mode. Um full shade back here. I have a hooker here. That one is the I think caramel is what it’s called. I have another one here that is called Onyx. I need to get I need to get this staked back over here. Hold on. It’s not getting the water that it probably needs. Uh that might be why it’s struggling a little bit. And there’s a fine. Anyway, that’s onyx hooka. And then this one is Georgia peach. And again, the hydrangeanger macrofila. Coming over here, that’s a beonia that’s actually doing really well. But right behind it is a beautiful pink Turks cap. Um, pink Turks cap really comes into season in late summer, fall for me anyway. And the pink one. I haven’t grown the red one, but they are an awesome Texas tough plant, uh, perennial, and it’s kind of trying to take over as well. I have a peach dilly under there, but getting swallowed a little bit. Um, but that pink Turks cap is looking absolutely gorgeous. Um, really, really beautiful. And then, oh, look at that. That is an oakleaf hydrangeanger. This is supposed to be a dwarf oakleaf hydrangeanger. I think it’s not. It was supposed to be 5t tall and wide. I am 5t tall and it’s a foot and a half at least taller than I am. So, this is a 6 and 1/2t oak leaf. Oo, I need to pull some of the foliage there. But, um, really, really beautiful. This is dwarf Alice and Wonderland oak leaf. And this is only 2 years in the ground uh this October actually. Just absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. And, uh, I love it. I love it so much. And then coming over here, I have a Mexican patunia. Looks like it’s falling actually. It is. It’s reaching. It’s not getting enough sun back here is what it is. I want to transplant this to where my Mexican sunflower is. Um it’s a really great plant. It can take over, but here it is not because it’s not thriving in this shady location. I have an autumn fern down there that I thought died, but didn’t. So, that’s kind of exciting. And that’s my side garden. Okay, let me take you through my containers just really quickly. I’m not going to go into huge depth with these guys, but I’ve got eucalyptus that I was given by my friend Kendall. Gorgeous. This This is my limelight hydrangeanger propagation pot because it just works every single year for me and I’m just going to stick with what works. But I got three to propagate this year. So, if you want some more information on how to propagate these, click on the link in the righthand corner. Um, because I do have a video about how I do that. But I got three of these lime lights to propagate. That’s fun and great because I lost one this year. Um, here is a little lime that was propagated last year. And they just love this location. Believe it or not, this is um morning shade, afternoon sun for the most part. So, go figure. I don’t understand it, but um they’re doing pretty well. And I even have a little bit of pink color on this one. So, and like a new panacle that started there, which is weird. I have some gumrina in that location. Gina goa. This is kind of a new fallish container for me. These seeds uh I started a couple months ago. And these are just pin wheelel zenyas uh double hot cherry uh profusion zenyas and um buddy purple comprina as well as uh amaranthis uh love lies bleeding. So those are popped in there. I think that’s a cute little fall container. This one is Russian sage. I didn’t have enough room for it in my new garden, so I’m growing it in a container. This one was Rud Beckia and Azeratum. Um, Rud Beckia died. All of my Rebecca always dies. I do not know why. Uh, really got some whitefly and powdery mildew. I just Anyway, yeah. Oh, let’s take that out. So, I cut that out. Azuratum is still going, but not thriving. As well as this one. This is about to be taken out. This is Grina Globosa in two different colors, the dark purple and the light pink. Um, and I did not trellis it, which I have learned I’m going to trellis them from now on. But this definitely is is done for the season. I can collect some seeds from some of these flowerheads, which I have done already, and uh call it a season. This is blue days of ovulus. Here is one that I’m going to find someone who wants it. I’m done with this one. Again, if it doesn’t bring me joy, it’s not worth my effort and my time. I’m just going to be honest. But this is what it’s supposed to Well, it’s not even supposed to look like this. This is summer carnival hardy hibiscus. And it’s supposed to have variegated leaves, all the things. It just two or 3 years old. Never has thrived. Never. It doesn’t seem to like the heat of Texas when hardy hibiscus is supposed to. It the I think it was grafted um onto a regular hardy hibiscus. And so the regular graft like the roots have come back and seem to be doing really well right now. However, like the original part of the plant is just done and so and it has p wildling growing. Hi Chloe. Anyway, this is going to be given away uh to somebody who wants it. I have a strawberry container there. They’ve got some fungal things going on, which is typical this time of year. I’ve got a balloon flower plant in here that’s done for the season. This one is my gumrina goa that I trellised. Doing so much better, but now that I’m looking at it, it definitely needed it needs some nutrients. The poor thing. But it’s still flowering. Uh yeah, I stopped fertilizing this a while ago. I’m just thinking about that. Uh so it’s definitely telling me that it it still needs nutrients if it’s going to continue to do well. But look at that color. just gorgeous. I have um verbina bananariansis here which I told you before. I’m going to plant that I think here. Uh I think that will look good. This plant is the rock star right now. This is its time of year. It is Mr. Goodbud sedum and looking really good. This is my desert rose which got heavily heavily pruned two months ago, maybe three months ago. And so um yeah, it’s doing pretty good. Look at that. That codex. It’s beautiful. There is another grumpina container. Again, kind of done. These are my This is my herb container. This is apple mint. I had lemon, thyme, and oregano here as well. And then this one is also doing fabulous. I hope you look at that glow. Wow. Okay, so this is black eyed susan planted in this container and trolled up. I wanted to see how that would look in a container and how it would do. This is from spring to now. And again, just it bloomed a little bit for me in spring, but putting on a really heavy show now that it’s fall. Do you guys see that baby lizard? The baby anol. Hi. Oh, he’s so cute. Anyway, um really great for a container plant, honestly. And then it’s not trying to take over anything, which I like. So, that’s lovely. And then here we go. So, this is my plumeriia. Thank you, Peggy, for gifting me this lovely plumeriia tree. And I have one more right over there with the sun shining through those leaves. I will take them in uh once our temperatures start getting into probably the the early 40s. Really quick, I have some seedlings growing here of my desert rose. This one is 2 years old. It Oh, it’s putting on another show of flowers. Uh the flowers are white on this one. My original desert rose is pink. And then I got a seed pod, grew this starting two years ago, and uh it’s a white flower. And then this seedling is one year old, doing good. And then this is another one-year-old seedling. Kind of a double trunk. It’s really cool, but they’re doing well. Here is another container that I have. Foxtail fern does fabulous here in North Texas. For me, it does not winter over. I’m more on the border of zone 8A. Some of you in zone 8b can get these to overwinter in the ground. So that’s really cool. But it’s mixed in with some tradescantia zabrina and some confederate star jasmine that’s growing up my pole. And then coming over here, I h I still I haven’t planted this, but this is fairy trail uh fresco, a new proven winners plant for 2026. I was able to get this as a quart size, transplant it into a gallon. It has already kind of grown into that gallon size, which is amazing. And I can’t decide whether to plant it in this pot, or to try to get some larger hanging baskets, 13 in or greater, and try this as a hanging basket. Um, I don’t know. I haven’t decided. But these guys are cascading trailing hydrangeas. So excited to see this for the fall. This will be e the blooms will be either blue or pink depending on the acidity, but I just haven’t quite decided. I This plant isn’t a proven plant yet, especially as a hanging basket. So, yeah, I think I’m going to plant it in this container this year. I’ve just decided I’m going to plant it in this container this year and then I’m going to try different plants for hanging baskets. But, if this one does really really well, um I may try one as a hanging basket next year and see how that overwters. But that’s what that is. All right. So, here I come onto my front porch. Since I did not get to my container garden tour last year, let’s mainly talk about the containers. So, I have a three tier planter on my front porch and it’s doing fabulous. This is I think it’s called lancleaf fern, lace leaf fern, but it’s doing awesome. It’s getting some morning sun. I have some regular auga. I have some kolas right here. This one is a proven winter. a proven winners um fishnet stockings. And then this is my favorite colas I’ve ever grown. This one is called Kokoa Rose grown from seed from Baker’s Creek um heirloom seeds. I will say it’s very hard to germinate. It’s very slow growing, but once it gets going, it’s the most beautiful kolas ever. Look at those scalloped and ruffled leaves. And then the color is just outstanding. Um, I have a foxtail fern, a hooker, and another a juga. Then I have these are one of these is dragon wing beonia, and one of these is canary wing beonia. I don’t remember which is which. They kind of look the same. So there’s a pink remnant bloom of this one. It’s not really currently blooming, but this one is kind of a red bloom there. Brighter green leaf on that one. Just absolutely gorgeous. another foxtail fern. And then these guys need to get uh transplanted to my new garden. But some Lauria pea and some beautiful little hosta that my friend Stacy gave me and I’ve been keeping them here. Again, you guys don’t be concerned about this. Hosta goes dormant this time of year. It just happens. I’m not concerned about that in any way. But anyway, it looks great there and I’m honestly contemplating keeping it. But oh, let’s not forget about this carex. Again, I had planned on planting this, but I might just put it in a bigger pot and keep it here cuz I love it here. I get to see it like every day as I walk out the door and I just it’s just a great plant. And then I have a bonia there. Coming around here are two of my favorite containers that I have. Please excuse the hose mess. I did not pick like curl that back up. I think you know that’s life. But anyway, um this is a variegated lace cap hydrangeanger. Absolutely gorgeous. Um you know it it bloomed for me for the first time this year. They were gorgeous blooms, but the rest of the year it just still looks unbelievable. It’s an amazing plant. And yes, it is in a container. You just can’t tell anymore. And then coming over here is my oldest hydrangeanger. It is 14 years old. It is a big leaf hydrangeanger, endless summer hydrangeanger. And this is what it looks like if you keep the blooms on. These blooms are from the spring and then as they age, they turn green and then they turn pink and they will turn a darker magenta color as we get into November and December. But look, from here it’s pink. From here it’s green. Isn’t that cool, y’all? I just love it. And then this is a newer bloom. Coming over here. Oh, one gerbora daisy. One. And it’s huge. And it’s only 2 years in this container. Um, it’s just absolutely stunning. Beautiful. Giving me some blooms here in the fall. And, uh, yeah, this definitely could be divided and I have thought about that to put in my new garden bed as well. If that one echgonatia doesn’t make it, then I’ll divide this and I’ll put part of the Gerber daisy there. And then coming over here, this is an encore autumn sunset aelia and it is starting to bloom as it should in the autumn. Um I do have, you know, lots of buds coming up. Not as much as I had hoped, but I think as the fall goes goes on, I’ll get more and more of them, but it’s doing really well. And then I have this Swedish ivy in a topiary. Um and it will be evergreen throughout the winter time. So, it’s just it’s been here for a few years and I love it cuz it gives me winter interests. And then coming over here, oh man, Tradiscantia Zabina. This is in a pot on a flower stand and you can’t really see it on a pot stand. Um, but this is a house plant that I bring out every year and so it just it will not survive the winter. So, I’ll bring it in and overwinter it inside as a house plant and then bring it back out because it just absolutely loves this location. It’s amazing. And then Swedish ivy is planted down below along with a dianthis. So, that’s blooming too. Beautiful. Beautiful. I want to point out, I’m going to show you in just a moment, but I have a blackeyed susan vine on the other side of this pillar and it’s starting to wrap around and it’s blooming. Absolutely gorgeous. I love my porch, y’all. It’s just so peaceful out here. It’s amazing. Coming into my garden. Let’s look at this side first. I have some pots. Um, this is blanket flower, which is struggling right now. And I’m thinking about taking that out and transplanting it into actually it could go where I said I would put the verbina baneris. But, um, you know, still flowering for me even though the foliage doesn’t look great. Probably uh, lacking nutrients is what it is. And then I have potato uh vine there that’s going crazy, which it always does in the fall. I have some mums. Admittedly, I need to dead head them. They were blooming earlier for sure. Some creeping jenny. And then this plant, this planter is four different succulents that are like super super heat tolerant. Never tried growing them before. And I cut two of them back. So, I think this one is the porch locka. No. Okay. I’m glad I looked. Big bloom pelane right here. Had to cut that back cuz it got real stringy. It was beautiful. It took off. And then this one’s the porchaka. Sundial porchaka is over here. So, that’s one of the porchilaka blooms, I think. Yes, porchaka bloom. This one is not really the peline’s not really blooming right now. This plant took a long time to overwinter, but this is dew plant and I love love love the look of this and now that it’s cascading, I love it even more. It’s just not flowering right now. But it took a while and now it’s finally taking off. Um, and then this is ice plant, this back one. And so it’s got a more bluish color and it’s filling in everywhere. As a matter of fact, that is an ice plant bud right there. So, it has those purple buds, but really, really pretty. So, here’s my front garden here in fall 2025. And it looks better than I think my fall garden has ever looked, honestly. Uh, so I have and they’re getting tired. I get that. And they needed to be deadheaded. I get that. But these are all dwarf zenas. It’s a variety of uh pin wheelel zenyas, double hot cherry profusion uh zenyas and zahara zenyas. And it’s just a mixture of all of these that I grew from seed. They’re doing fantastic. There’s girrina back here which is taking over. There’s a little bit of other zenyas back here. Um I have some denths that’s starting to bloom that the girrina is covering. It’s crazy. I do have some echgonatia back there. Um, but yeah, you can’t tell because of the girrina. I did have some lemon balsum around here. I’ve also got blackeyed susan vine coming in. Again, I did not plant this, but I did last year. And so this blackeyed susan vine, I just pulled a bunch of it out, but I missed some of it. Um, but this is more grina. I love that look of the grina back there. You could see more of the black ad susan vine. Um that is a hedge of sunshine the gustrom that again we just pruned that last week somewhat. It’s it wasn’t a heavy heavy prune but it was a decent prune. And again I understand that I probably will get a little bit of winter burn but it needed to be cleaned up before frost hit. So we definitely have some time for that plant to recuperate before we get our first frost. I have some azeratum a little lamb. The ground cover here is variegated vinka. I also have some burgundy glow ajuga which also is dying back. Man, that’s a bummer. I need to go and trim this uh away. But this is a vitex tree which is sending up some shoots cuz it’s a vigorous tree. But there’s the vitex not currently in bloom. It’s starting, you know, it’s done for the season for the most part. And then back there is my another one of my really large big leaf endless summer hydrangeas. This year more than any other year got the blooms got a little bit burned as you can see. Um and I think it’s because I heavily pruned the vitex tree this year and so it wasn’t under as much shade. But it’s still continuing to give me new blooms just like this one and they are pink. They could be blue if the soil was more acidic. Here’s ones that kind of have survived and you can see are taking on that beautiful magenta color. And this one too. There’s that one. They’re just beautiful. This has This one has done so so so well in this location. It does get a little bit of afternoon or evening. I mean, it gets a little bit of evening sun and so that’s why you see this this burn right there. So, it just is what it is. But I think it’s absolutely gorgeous planted under that Vitex tree right there. All right. And then coming over here, I have uh a topiary, a three ball topiary, Carolina sapphire cyprus. It has been in there one year exactly. And I just absolutely love I got it for the color and also for the evergreen interest. We needed something that was going to stay green for us. The sunshine lagustrum stays evergreen and this stays evergreen. Um and it’s just absolutely gorgeous growing behind it. I did not plant this this year. It’s black eyed susan vine and Carolina or um confederate star jasmine, but it’s just going crazy. This part’s not blooming really really well. I’m not exactly sure why, but it will as we get into like more fall temperatures. I know that it will bloom. But it was also taking over this laia pee that’s down here, which is why you see some of this browning. I just pulled it out yesterday. So, it’s just finally able to breathe. I’m sure it’s super happy now cuz it was covered with blackeyed susan vine. And then coming over here, I have a row of um boxwoods. These are baby gem boxwoods. Looking fabulous. And then I had a volunteer vinka as well. Here is our lovely grass. My husband David takes care of our grass. It is Palisades Zoa. David, do you want to be on camera? Not at all. He says no. Sorry, y’all. Anyway, he does a really great job with our lawn. It is absolutely beautiful. It’s starting to slow down this season. Uh doesn’t need to be mowed every weekend anymore. So, that’s really, really great. But it’s just looking awesome. And then lastly, this is Mist Expires Blue Salvia in my curbside containers. And it’s just again probably my second best pollinator plant I’ve ever ever grown. The reason why I say second best, this is more of a bee pollinator plant. And if I’m going to talk about bees specifically, then yes, this is number one, hands down, the best bee pollinator plant ever. And I will argue with anybody on that because there’s just there’s three bees in the picture there. What’s interesting is normally in the summertime, this is covered with bumblebees. Right now, this is covered by honeybees. And I’m not sure exactly why. There’s probably 50 or more honeybees on this plant right now. And uh just absolut head this in mid July. And then it’s these are all of the blooms that came back from mid July. Underneath it is cascading vinka. It’s a great companion plant to mist expires blue salvia. If you have it in a container, by the way, all other plants that I have tried have not been able to compete, but this one has by growing down the side of the pot. It still gets the sun that it needs. But I am not going to keep these in this container this year. These are going to go um probably that one. I’m again, as soon as our temperatures are not 90 degrees in the middle of the day, I’m gonna take this and I’m gonna put it where that rose mow was in my sideyard. It’ll get part sun after that, which I think it will still be able to take. It will be smaller and maybe less blooms, but it’ll still be stunning. And then I’ve got this one, which I’m going to give away, I think. I just don’t have space for it. Um, and my neighbor really really would love that, so I’ve told her that that she can have one. and the Cascading Vinka has done a little bit better because this one hasn’t been as vigorous for whatever reason this year. Um but yeah, it’s just unbelievable. I believe this is an annual lower than zone 8. Um but I was able to get these to overwinter in the container um in zone 8 this winter. So maybe it would work in zone 7. It might come back for you in the ground in zone 7. Otherwise, this is treated like an annual, but it’s just a rock star, and I love the way that it frames my home in these curbside containers. So, last view of my front garden. It is just looking so spectacular here in uh fall, but really kind of late summer because we still have summer temperatures. Um, I’m so so pleased with it. But, thank you for coming along with me in this. I’m sure it’s a really long tour. I just wanted to cover everything this month instead of splitting them up. Um, but thanks for joining me. If you like what you saw, I put on monthly garden tour videos as well as other gardening videos all throughout. And so, please subscribe and I’d love to have you join. Please comment down below. Let me know how your garden is looking and what struggles you are having um this fall. But again, thanks for watching everyone. Have a fabulous day everybody. Bye-bye.