Garden Bloggers Bloom Day October 2014

This might well be the last Garden Bloggers Bloom Day of 2014 that features outside plants. I better start fertilizing the Anthuriums so I'll have some winter blooms to post!

A lot of my blooms this month are from annuals.

My fall pansies (that I will leave all winter and get to enjoy again in the spring). These particular ones look almost psychedelic.

And, of course, I have a couple of mums, in bright, cheerful colors.

And this annual. I'm not sure what it is, but I LIKE it. It's had a nice lloonngg bloom period, too. If I see it next year I'll be sure to buy it again.

On to the perennials.

This Coreopsis redshift has done really well this year.

I added this Helenium Mardi Gras just recently. I have one in another spot where it's kind of hidden and I wanted one up front. Does it count if I bought it in bloom just a few weeks ago?

I hope so. Cause if not I can't count this Solidago spacelata Golden Fleece. I'm hoping it's one of the less aggressive ones. I hear such good things about Solidago as a plant for native organisms (like the tiny wasp in this image) but bad things about them taking over. This one is planted in the back yard where Piper, our dog, can potentially do damage. She does sometime like to run and dig (hence the support structure -  not because the plant needs it but for protection against the fuzzy menace.).

The fuzzy menace, herself. Unlike me, she likes the change in the weather and looks forward to spending more time outside, especially when it snows!

My Vernonia angustifolia Plum Peachy is almost done but the last of the butterflies are still finding a few blooms. Like the American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) above and the out-of-focus Monarch (Danaus plexippus) below.

And I have a very few blooms left on Buddleia. Also a nice stopover plant for migrating Monarchs (Ok, I admit it, the photo is from a week ago but I've just been eagerly waiting a chance to post it and now's a good time, right?).

My Aster (Symphotricium) October Skies is still in it's full glory.

As are most of my Gaura (which really don't photograph well except on very, very still days, which we don't often have here at The Edge).

I'm even getting some reblooming on this tiny thrift (Armeria Amada Rose) that I have tucked between the bricks edging the bed and a small bird bath.

That's it for my garden this month. Thanks to Carol at May Dreams for this meme!

Uh-oh

I've heard that Buddleia can be invasive. I've even seen it - in England they are growing everywhere along the rail ways, on top of abandoned buildings, in cracks in the sidewalk.

It's not something I've seen in my local woods or my own garden.

Until now. Time to reconsider my obsession with Buddleia because there is no way I can keep my 5 shrubs deadheaded.

Dammit.

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)

Carpenter Bees

I support my local pollinators. I give them a diverse range of plants to feed on, places to build homes, I leave leaf litter and debris in the garden for them to overwinter. In return they give me... TOMATOES! It's a fair trade.

This past winter was harsh and my Buddleia were all killed back to near or at ground level. After I was sure they had finished sprouting from what wood remained alive I cut back the dead. But the carpetner bees had beat me to those dead branches.

Carpenter bees chew into dead wood and create long tunnels parallel to the stem or branch (or deck railing). They put food in the end of the tunnel, lay an egg, close off the end to create a chamber and repeat till they have filled the tunnel with food and potential offspring.

I was both thrilled and dismayed to find this when I cut back my Buddleia. A carpenter bee nest cavity, complete with caterpillars for her offspring. As you can see several of the chambers are empty, probably from when the branch split and the caterpillars (and eggs) spilled out. 

What's a pro-pollinator biologist to do?

I collected the branch and set it up in a plastic bin. I put a little soil in the bottom in case the larva survive and need some substrate to bury themselves as pupae. I cut a hole in the top for gas exchange (and covered it with window screen because, really, even I don't want loose bees in the house). And now I wait and see - will any of the eggs survive? I wish them luck. 

It's JUNE!

It's been a long, cool wait here in New England until we finally arrive at the month of JUNE! Warm weather, good gardening, lots to get done before the heat arrives and it's too late to plant anything else.

The iris in my rain garden are still blooming - the early bloomers are done but I have some late bloomers still going strong.

Penstemon Husker Red is not shy about self seeding. Every time I see a plant growing in a crack in pavement like this I am amazed at nature will find a way.

My Centaurea Black Sprite is just starting to bloom. It's much less aggressive than Amethyst in Snow and I really like the contrast between the nearly black blooms and the yellow-green foliage.

Nepeta is going strong and attracting plenty of native pollinators (this is Dropmore, a shorter version than Walker's Low - the blooms are a bluer purple than they look on my computer monitor).

My Cornus Garden Glow is at it's peak - gorgeous leaves, gorgeous blooms. A bit larger than the predicted 3-5 foot. I've started cuttings in the hope that I can plant this somewhere away from the house and take down these oversized shrubs. I can't seem to find it for sale anywhere or I'd just buy a new one and dig these out (and won't THAT be a chore!).

My Hostas are fully opened. I have a fondness for BIG hostas. I plant them inside the fence and the dogs are a good deer deterrent. We're fortunate that we don't have many deer despite bordering on a couple of hundred acres of woods. I think the coyotes are keeping the deer in check. Just don't let your cats run free around here.

At this point if a plant hasn't poked it's leaves up I'm assuming it didn't make it. 

You made it just in time, Helenium!

By the end of this month I hope to have a fresh layer of mulch in all the gardens and to have made progress on the grass removal in the backyard (sadly not a sign of new beds being put in but of pulling grass away from growing shrubs that I didn't clear enough grass around originally).

And I hope my Buddleia are looking better. They died back nearly to the ground this winter. Not a pretty sight.

Decisions, decisions

My neighbor stores his boat just over the fence in his backyard for the winter. I live in New England. The non-boating season is LLLOOONNNNGGGG. As you can see, despite it being nearly Memorial Day the boat is still there.

It could be worse. It could be a rusted out old heap of a car... But I'd still rather not have it as the focal point of my backyard view.

To the left I have a very nice Physocarpus (Ninebark, Diablo) and to the right I have a large clump of Forsythia and during late summer I have a gorgeous Buddleia (Evil Ways) but there is a gap in my hedgerow and I've been trying to decide what to do.

Perhaps a nice, large Hydrangea paniculata or Hydrangea quercifolia would improve the spring view. 

Then again I have a male holly (Blue Prince) that I need to relocate that would fit nicely and block the view in a few years. The problem with that? Well.... Right now it's covered in native pollinators (read: bees) and it would be awfully close to the boat and my neighbor likes to spend lots of time "working" on his boat.... If he was friendly I could talk to him about it. He's not. He's... aloof [what a nice way to say that, huh?].

Decisions, decision....

Odd colored hummingbird

I took these pictures of this odd colored hummingbird in my backyard this afternoon.  I'm mostly sure it's "just" a Ruby-throated hummingbird (the species we normally get up here and the only one I've seen in my yard) but the golden sheen to the back caught my attention.