November up here on the ridge in Fairy Holler is reminiscent of another year when I first moved over here to Eastern Tennessee.

In 1992 when we relocated here, the fall was damp and foggy and temperate. My bulbs I'd planted in select spots at the rental farmhouse came up in their entirety by this time.

This year, it's a wet one and milder again than you'd think. The leaves on the trees are still hanging on. Colors have gotten richer and deeper and more intense thru the mild days and cool nights and damp rains. My black cherry tree still has it's leaves and they're a shade of yellow/pink that I don't remember seeing on them before.

Everywhere the perennials are defying the fairies pleas of not wakening or regenerating, and doing all sorts of things.

My oriental poppies have produced those wonderful hairy fern like leaves. The Zebrina children have formed their deep green ruffled spring leaves and are already two and a half foot tall. Kugle Sonne Helianthus has dead tan stems with remnants of seed heads on them where the finches haven't quite stripped them yet shoving thru the new growth of next years leaves.

The last mum to bloom in my gardens that resides in it's oversized nursery pot is cranking out more buds and the white petals are turning an interesting shade of washed out pink-red. And September planted mums are still putting out buds and flowers. Irises in the BBQ fountain garden are sending up their green leaves and some are almost three foot tall...............

My lilac buds on the older bush are beginning to bulk up, and I have a hydrangea blossom on one of the young shrubs I tucked under the variegated bush that is still cranking out textured and delightful white and green leaves.

I don't see noses yet, but I know given time I'll see them poking thru the loose rich soil I've laid down for them to live in. And my hellebore are cranking out their new leaves earlier than they should.

Little rosettes of spring plants underneath this past season's spent efforts has me wondering how the plants can be so fooled? Hopefully the frosts will come and the foliage will be nipped back and they can truely rest until true spring next year.
I just thought I'd share this unusual occurance.

madgardener up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler where it's overcast, very fall-like still, overlooking English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36