I guess that’s one thing I haven’t considered about moving further south is that you have to rake leaves in the winter as well as the fall. Here in central Indiana, I give up in early December after raking most of October and all of November. It is too cold, and soon enough we have snow or other precipitation which makes it difficult. We are having our first real snowfall of the season.
Up until this week, the temperatures have been more like late spring/early summer. My petunias are still flowering prolifically, dianthus doing well, and one of the mini-rose bushes has buds forming! I don’t know if they will fully develop as the temperatures have dropped dramatically and are now in the more normal range for this time of the year.