The flowers of fall

At "home" in Colorado, where we lived most of our lives and where we still vote, pay taxes and receive our mail, they have already seen snow and had enough temperatures below freezing that, most likely, the flowers have seen better days. The flowers of fall bloom in September and are mainly chrysanthemums.

Today our "home," the structure we actually live in, is parked in Mesa, Arizona, and the flowers are very different. We spotted one barrel cactus with a few blooms left.



The bougainvillaea is blooming all over the park.



And roses are blooming. By this time of year in Colorado, we would be cutting back the plants and mounding the dirt to protect the grafts so the bushes don't die back to the wild rose roots. Here are a few that we took pictures of today.







Many of the bushes in the Valle del Oro rose garden are planted in memory of former park residents. That makes it special to have them blooming as the snowbirds return for the winter.