Foliage Follow Up - October

Foliage in the October Garden is all about the changing colors, the berries, the seed heads and the loss of the gorgeous all over summer green. Sigh.

I do have some nice fall foliage in some of my shrubs, like the Clethra alnifolia Hummingbird (nicely accented by the dark green holly behind and the dark Heucheras in front),

and the Fothergillia gardenii Blue Mist,

and Amsonia Halfway to Arkansas, also just starting to turn,

as is Cornus hesseyii Garden Glow which will display red twigs (not obvious in this picture) all winter.

I don't know if anything will eat the seeds of these Asclepias tuberosa but the seed heads provide some nice interest in the fall and winter.

My Hydrangea Lady in Red (maybe) has nice dark stems shooting up above this years spent blooms. This is another plant I've been very happy with and can heartily recommend, even to a small garden.

Let's not forget the berries on the Viburnum Cardinal Candy. I hope the birds start eating those sometime over the winter.

I also have berries on Viburnum Brandywine. It's not nearly as large or prolific a plant as the Cardinal Candy but provides a nice, different look.

And let's not forget some of the starts of the late summer/fall garden - the grasses. Here are seed heads on Panicum virgatum Heavy Metal.

Thanks to Pam at Digging for this meme.

It's September

Welcome to September. For many gardeners September is a great month with cooler temperatures and a second planting season. For me, my garden is starting to go downhill, I'm back at work [trying to convince college students that are only taking science because they have to that Biology really is cool!] and Winter Is Coming.

But it's not all doom-and-gloom. Yet. I still have tomatoes ripening.

My Buddleia, butterfly bushes, are just past their peak (with a patch of Gaura to the right) but still attracting butterflies.

My Sambuncus (Elderberry) Black Lace is looking gorgeous and the birds are nibbling on the berries.

The view against the side fence is fabulous but hard to photograph because the neighbor's house is white. It really needs a paint job - do you think I can convince them to change the color so I get better photographs? Left to right - Physiocarpus, Ninebark Diablo, Buddleia evil ways and Paniculum virgatum, switchgrass Cloud Nine

Lacecap Hydrangea, possibly Lady in Red, past her peak but still handsome

Hard to photograph but this is Thalictum, Meadow Rue (afraid I don't know the variety) growing up over the edge of the deck (as planned).

My experiment with Palms in pots got mixed results. The palms grew but also got some sunburn. I think I'll try something different next year. The New Guinea impatients in the bottom did very well (they're pinker than they appear)

That's my garden as the month changes. How's yours doing?

Wordless Wednesday

Highlights from my garden this week.

 Coreopsis Red Shift

A gorgeous, large dragonfly, I haven't identified it yet 

Echinacea purpura 

Allium tubersum (garlic chives) 

Hydrangea, purchased as Lady in Red, but I'm not confident in the label 

Hydrangea lostustagus 

Lots of people up here didn't get good blooms on their hydrangeas this year. It's not a problem for me.

Santolina chamaecyparissus (Lavender cotton) 

Growing in the hellstrip and threatening to eat the sidewalk 

Liatris spicata Kobold 

Thalictrum (meadow rue) 

This plant is taller than our deck - probably 8 - 10 foot tall 

Monarda fromneighborii 

Buddleia nanho purple with Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)

Garden Blogger Bloom Day July 2014

My garden is in full summer form right now and the native pollinators are HAPPY! As am I.

The Echinacea purpura wild type has gotten established and is blooming well.

I also planted a couple of different colored Echinacea but they aren't doing quite as good. This is consistent with what I've heard from others - the fancy hybrids just limp along and die out while the species does fantastically well.

Likewise, my Liatris spicata Kobold has gotten established. The first year it flopped over really bad but now it's producing strong flower stems. And it's spread around a little. I'm ok with that. I'm ending up with a garden that has a few different plants that do well and have spread around so that they look like I deliberately repeated them. THEY are making ME look like I know what I'm doing.

This is Rudbeckia hirta Cappuccino. I bought several types of Rudbeckia when I first moved in. I didn't realize they were self - seeding annuals at the time. Cappuccino is the only one that's come back. Just goes to show you can't always trust what you read on the label. Perennial, my a$$

Veronica spicata Red Fox (I think, either that or Eveline, I planted both and can't remember which one went where and did NOT do a good job of record keeping - Bad Gardener!)

And Friend.

Monarda fromaneighborii

Our winter was warm until the end then it got cold. Because of this many people's hydrangeas had started to come out of winter mode too early and got nipped back to the ground. This Hydrangea mislabeledus (labeled as Lady in Red) is planted close to the house so it was protected and is blooming just fine, thank you.

The Helenium Mardi Gras is not looking as good as last year but I still like the flowers. It accidentally ended up too far back in the bed and needs to be moved in the fall. Remind me to go out and stick a label on it while it's in bloom and I can remember where it is.

I moved several of these Coreopsis verticallata Zagreb to the Hell Strip. So far they're doing well. This is the remainder of the clump. I like how it contrasts with the Hyssopus officinalis. I just have to keep the Zagreb in check. It has delusions of taking over the world [with a name like Zagreb of course it thinks it's an Evil Genius]

I like daisies [Leucanthemum Becky], although the white color doesn't go well with the rest of my bright summer garden. Or my bright, colorful house, or my messy, mud-covered life. 

I do not have to be consistent if I don't want to be and you can't make me.

Thou Shalt Not Pass. Also know as I need to find a better way to stake up the Gaura. I have several varieties: whites, pale pinks, bright pinks and the offspring of them. It's another plant that volunteers to move about the garden and create a sense of repetition. I just wish the middle and dark tones pinks survived as well as the pale pinks...

I bought a collection of Petunia called "Blueberry Muffin". I have to say I really, really like the result in that thin wedge of dirt between the front landing and the fireplace. 

Finally, last week's plant of the week - Asclepias tuberosa, friend to gardeners who want summer color, friend to those of us who don't like to water the garden, friend to Monarch Butterflies, and friend to lots and lots of bees.

I support native pollinators.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams for this meme.

The Great Hydrangea Hunt of 2010

Earlier this year we had our house painted.  When the painters were done I looked at the mad side of the house and thought it needed something....

Something being a collection of shrubs with a large specimen right in the middle, in that big blank space.  So I thought about it and thought about it and finally made my decision.  A large white blooming panicle type hydrangea.  So I started looking.  Nope, not quickfire or pinky winky - no pink flowers.  Nope, not the pom-pom colors of endless summer.  Nope, not one cut into a standard (seriously?  trying to form a hydrangea into a small tree?).  And don't get me started on Limelight.  I like green flowers but they aren't show stoppers, they're get up close and personal flowers.  I wanted something to stand out against the green house.  No one seemed to have one.

Then...  Last week...  I was at a Big Box store picking up some supplies for the house and wandered through the garden center and there it was!  One white blooming hydrangea.  Size around 8 foot.  After all my looking at the local garden center this was the closest I had come to what I wanted - an old fashioned, large, shrubby, white-blooming hydrangea.

It was... Pee Wee.

Lousy name.

Ok.  So it isn't perfect.  I don't like the small size of the leaves.  This is not a good time to plant in New England.  Pot bound and the potting soil it was growing in was crap (so I washed away as much as I could).  But very cheap (half the price of the ones I'd been looking at at the local garden centers).  So I snatched it up, planted it with as much care as possible and I hope it will have enough time to put down roots before winter.

If not then come back next year for the Great Hydrangea Hunt of 2011.

Bonus mushroom photo (we finally got some rain!).

And since you've been good here's a bonus photo of gomphrena Fireworks.  Don't bother with this plant.  I planted about a dozen and while the bloom is nice it's tiny and there aren't enough of them to make up for their size.  For the cost (well, I started these from seed so for the amount of effort) you can get a much better showing of other annuals.