At this time of year, I'm still pulling out summer vegetables (well behind my intended schedule) and grumbling about the time change and fewer daylight hours. The garden is looking bedraggled, with brown sunflower stalks, which I left in place to feed the finches (and rats, as I found out to my sad surprise), leaning askew. The shrubs are losing their leaves and faded flowers, and the garden has begun to acquire an air of late fall bleakness. Only the weeds – oxalis and wild onion – are green and lush and thriving, which makes me grumble even more.

But then a spot of brilliance catches my eye. A spot of red brilliance that I wouldn't notice in a riot of summer garden blooms or if the sun was higher in the sky. It takes a low fall or winter sun to really highlight the charms of this flower – Alonsoa meridionalis, the ‘Red Mask Flower.' I've planted the Red Mask Flower in several pots, where it blooms for over three months of the year, including during the winter when a bit of color is more than welcome. The plant does well in pots, even in hot and windy locations. It grows to about 30” tall by 18” wide. Cut it back when it gets scraggly and it will rebound. The foliage and the form of the plant are nothing to rave about, but the cheerful, orange-red, non-stop blooms make it worthwhile.

And on one fall day, seeing the bright blooms of the Red Mask flower backlit by the low sun, makes all the difference between a grumpy garden day and one where I can slow down and appreciate the change in season.