Late Summer Planting

I learned to garden in The South where right now is a great time to plant. The hardest season for most plants down there is summer (especially August which tends to be hot and dry except when tropical storms come around) so planting right after summer gives them the most time to get established before things get rough.

Not so up here in New England. Up here the hardest season is definitely winter. Summers are fabulous, with only a few hot days, and we (usually) get plenty of rainfall during the growing season. So up here planting in the late summer and fall is risky and spring is the best time to add plants to the garden.

Still. I can't resist one last chance to make additions to the garden.

Plus, everything is ON SALE right now (correspondingly, selection is low).

Here are my new additions. May they all survive the winter.

Hakonechloa macra All Gold, which looks great against my jumbo sized pot

Hibiscus Kopper King (a HARDY Hibiscus) Love those leaves

Lavender hidcote - planted two of these in August in the Hell Strip. Plenty of sun and a little dry.

Andropogon (or Schizachyrium) scoparium The Blues. I really like the fall color against the color of the house. Looking back we should have changed the color of the house when we had it painted so that my green plants showed up better....

And lastly, I replaced the worn out Petunias who were against the fireplace all summer with some Pansies. Pansies are pretty cold hardy but tend to die during the heat of the summer so hopefully these will bloom all fall and still be alive when the snow melts to start blooming early in the spring.