October 2009 Bloom Day

The greenhouse had a few nondescript blooms this month, but the most impressive is this ice plant that I put in a container at my in-laws' house. I am not sure what variety of ice plant it is, but it is hardy here in Zone 8.  (I've seen several that are only hardy in Zone 10!)

In the greenhouse, these are the plants that bloomed this month:

• Basil, the varieties Lime, Dark Opal and Cinnamon.
  The basil has not done very well in the greenhouse this year, the growth is a bit stunted and the leaves are very small.  I plan to pot them up this weekend to see if that helps.  I had Sweet Basil that did very well, but lost it in the last insect attack from a few months ago.
• Tomatoes, the varieties Big Boy, Yellow Pear, Jelly Bean and Golden Rave.
  With greenhouse temperatures in the 80's during the day, the tomatoes have been flowering like crazy!  I'm perfectly okay with that because that means vine ripe tomatoes in a few weeks.  The yellow varieties have performed in the greenhouse extremely well this year, I assume that since they do not take as long to ripen that they are not overly affected by the heat.
• Scarlet Sage. 
  Again.  These plants are still too small to be blooming yet, but they sure want to flower!  I keep trimming the bloom shoots so I will have really sturdy healthy plants to go in the ground in the spring.

Overall, I am impressed with the growth of the greenhouse plants.  Autumn is always an interesting time in the greenhouse because with the reprieve of summer's heat, the plants grow like crazy and it begins to look like a jungle in there -- which is perfectly fine with me!