Fall's last hurrah

While I'm very slowly but surely needle-blending a sky behind the beagle in my new canvas, I wanted to share some photos of the last addition to my perennial garden. Have you ever seen a chrysanthemum this big before? I know I haven't!

It's name is "October Glory" and is a species of English chrysanthemum that I planted two years ago. Over the course of the summer, while the bunnies were happily nibbling on the aster next to it, "OG" just kept growing bigger, and bigger, and bigger. It squeezed out the Shasta daisies, spilled out over the phlox, and encroached on the plumbago. Just a week ago, it started to hint at the glorious peach of its blossoms and now, two-thirds of the way through October, is still popping new flowers daily. And yesterday, when these photos were taken, it had a visitor--a plump bumble bee in the middle of the second photo!