Annuals
Our growing season is so compressed, that most annuals are only now looking their best.
These zinnias were cut for a early fall bouquet.
My children like to grow zinnias every year, and the bright colors of
Renee’s Garden Crayon Color Zinnias really appeal to them. They like both the Cool and the Hot. (As a member of the GWA, I received the seeds free to trial.)
Three diascia, two sweet potato vine, and one canna equals total yumminess.
I’ll be frank: orange is rarely a color I choose in a plant. But
Proven Winners sent me these Flirtation Orange diascias and Illusion Emerald Lace sweet potato vines to trial, and I saw right away that they were meant for each other. The canna was a passalong and I just guessed that it would work as well. It never did bloom, but the leaves were enough.
Other annuals blooming are cosmos, marigolds, petunias, snapdragons, alyssum, nierembergia, dahlias, flowering tobacco and morning glories.
Natives
One of many asters blooming in the fields.
Asters and goldenrod are two native plants flooding the fields with color. I’m
trying to keep the goldenrod out of my garden beds, but I tolerate asters here and there. I also have native black-eyed Susans blooming, and several colors of
Phlox paniculata, which is also a native.
Especially Planted for Fall Color
Cyclamen purpurascens
I purchases these cyclamen from
Seneca Hill Perennials in 2005 and they are finally starting to look like something. No fault of the nursery, cyclamen are a little slow to increase. The photo doesn’t do justice to the flower color, but I just love the intricate veining in the leaves.
This passalong chyrsanthemum is passed along for a reason
This is the only chrysanthemum I have. It was given to me by Debi Lampman, the owner of Bedlam Gardens. When someone who sells plants is willing to give you a plant for free, chances are the owner is confident there will be more of it. It is almost weedlike in its ability to vegetatively reproduce. It is only just starting to bloom.
Colchicums
I call them the little angels of autumn. These pictured here are offsets from the colchicums I found growing here when I moved in. They inspired me to seek out others. At this point I’ve grown about
two dozen different kinds-not all of which have survived here. Some I’ve tried a second time after improving drainage, and they’ve done better.
It Will Be Gone Before You Know It
This is what most of my garden beds look like now: a vast jumble of overgrown plants and weeds. Soon it will be gone, all gone, as we typically have our first frost sometime next week. It hardly seems possible as the nights have only been going down to the 50s(F) lately. Perhaps this fall won’t be typical. Pictured here are Angelica gigas and black snakeroot, Allegheny vine, jewelweed, flowering tobacco, and ferns. You can’t see them, but down below are Johnny-jump-ups and pansies weaving themselves through the whole mess. And you can see the goldenrod blooming in the field across the street. If you’ve got good eyes, you’ll probably spot the blob of orange peeking through some of the flowering tobacco. That’s an annual rudbeckia that popped up of its own accord, a reward for failing to deadhead in a timely manner.
Inspired by the words of Elizabeth Lawrence, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year,” Carol of May Dreams Gardens started Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, garden bloggers from all over the world publish what is currently blooming in their gardens, and leave a link in Mr. Linky and the comments of May Dreams Gardens.
This is what most of my garden beds look like now: a vast jumble of overgrown plants and weeds. Soon it will be gone, all gone, as we typically have our first frost sometime next week. It hardly seems possible as the nights have only been going down to the 50s(F) lately. Perhaps this fall won’t be typical. Pictured here are Angelica gigas and black snakeroot, Allegheny vine, jewelweed, flowering tobacco, and ferns. You can’t see them, but down below are Johnny-jump-ups and pansies weaving themselves through the whole mess. And you can see the goldenrod blooming in the field across the street. If you’ve got good eyes, you’ll probably spot the blob of orange peeking through some of the flowering tobacco. That’s an annual rudbeckia that popped up of its own accord, a reward for failing to deadhead in a timely manner.
Last week, we had a great time at my grandfather’s farm. He has a flower farm with different flowers and I am not really familiar with its names but I saw some of them like your flowers here such as zinnias and chyrsanthemum. There are all so lovely!
Best Regards,
san diego screen printing
Beautiful flowers! I love all of them. My favorite one is the chrysanthemum. For me flowers is a medium for relaxation.
.-= John @ bigjobsboard´s last blog ..Credit Supervisor, Atlanta, GA to $65K =-.
Frost next week! It hardly seems possible. But yet, even in my garden the signs of Fall are unmistakable.
And I like how you organized your bloom day post… annuals, containers, natives, planted especially for fall!
.-= Carol, May Dreams Gardens´s last blog ..Hortotropism at the Old Mill in Pigeon Forge =-.
I too am inspired by the cyclamen. I had always thought of them as a plant that only deigned to live in the rarefied climate of the British isles or such. If you can grow them, I guess I should given them a shot.
.-= PlantingOaks´s last blog ..The almost walnut door =-.
Just love the cyclamen. Didn’t think you could grow them in “a cold climate” – maybe I should look into that. The planter is beautiful, the orange flowers of your diascias echoed in the suptle stripes on the canna leaves. And of course zinnias – so completely easy and reliable.
Lene
.-= Salix´s last blog ..Meme Award – What you don’t know =-.
Beautiful zinnias … I must not forget to grow them next season. In my south-central Connecticut garden, the asters are still just buds – though the earlier pruning they received from the resident deer likely pushed back thier bloom.
.-= Joene´s last blog ..Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day-a tardy entry =-.
Now I want those zinnias!
.-= Rosemary´s last blog ..Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, September 2009 =-.
I love the zinnia bouquet. Very colorful. I’ve decided this is something I need to grow next year.
.-= KayGee In the Weeds´s last blog ..Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – September 2009 =-.
Kathy, that container is divine. My children also love zinnias, always have, always will. BFF, Aimee, and I have a classification for ourselves. She calls herself a zinnia (reliable bloomer, easy to grow, in other words a good friend.) My heart fell when I read that you will get a frost next week. That just doesn’t seem fair.~~Dee
.-= Dee/reddirtramblings´s last blog ..Gardener Know Thyself =-.
Dee, I didn’t say I will definitely get a frost next week, just that it is typical. See my reply to Les.
I love the colours in the container, but I am a big orange fan. It seems after the cold summer we have had, that my containers have just filled in and became gorgeous. And like you, I am expecting that we will have a frost soon, although it seems to be becoming quite a lovely Indian Summer.
I just had one colchicum, leaves in the spring, but I impatiently dug up some soil around it only to find it a hollow shell. Any thoughts?
.-= Deborah at Kilbourne Grove´s last blog ..Garden Visits: No Rhyme, No Reason Garden =-.
Deborah, the typical growth cycle of colchicums is that the old corm dies and a new corm is created every summer. So if you dig them up to divide them, you do find empty, or almost empty husks–but a new bulb is growing at the base. However, sometimes I have seen slugs at the base of the foliage as it’s dying back. Perhaps your slugs made a meal of the whole corm. Perhaps that is also why some of mine did not return for a second year.
I floors me that you are expecting your first frost in a week or so, I have at least two months. But I look forward to it so I can take a break from keeping up with all the foliage. Speaking of which, I love the foliage on that Sweet Potato Vine and will be looking for it next spring. Happy GBBD!
.-= Les´s last blog ..Bloom Day – I Think I’d Like To Have Another =-.
I can’t say that I am actually expecting a frost next week, just that it is typical. If you ask me in the middle of winter, “When do you usually have your first frost of autumn?” I would say, “Third week of September.” If you ask me, “When do you think you’re going to have your first frost this autumn?” I would say, “Hmm, my best guess is first full week of October.” Currently, the lowest temperature predicted for the next 10 days is 43F, and that’s for this Friday and Saturday, and then it warms up again.
I might just let the asters take over; they’re such happy-looking flowers. If I were facing frost next week, I’m almost certain I’d move 150 or more miles south… and to think you aren’t even in Canada!
.-= cityslipper (social marketing strategies)´s last blog ..Social Marketing Strategies for Picking Screen Names =-.
What beauty Kathy!!! I love your salsa hot container. With the cool summer you’ve had it creates its own sun:) Your angelica gigas has inspired me to seek out that plant again – what a show stopper! Beautiful stuff!
.-= Lorene´s last blog ..My garden in September =-.
I can hardly tear my eyes away from your orange-and-chartreuse canna planter, Kathy. Shazam! I love it.
It’s so hard to believe your average first frost is next week. But then again the past few days we’ve been enjoying late October weather in mid-September. Strange weather patterns these days.
.-= Pam/Digging´s last blog ..Rain relief Bloom Day =-.
Yes, that container is the kind of planting I’d expect in your garden. I rather pleasantly surprised myself. And now I got a Shazam! from Pam Penick!
I can see why you love the passalong chyrsanthemum – what a lovely color. A friend gave me a lone Colchicum bulb this summer. I planted it in the bed outside my office window, but sadly the flower has not shown up. I presume the resident chipmunks have stolen it, just like they have made off with every bulb in the ground that isn’t a daffodil.
.-= Country Gardener´s last blog ..Ornamental grasses for beginner gardeners only? No way! =-.
My colchicums are just starting. More than half of the kinds I have are still not above ground. Also they are poisonous to animals, so I don’t think the chipmunks stole them. Furthermore, sometimes when they are dug up and replanted, they skip a year of bloom. If you get no leaves in the spring, then you worry. But on occasion they skip a whole year and then show up. So don’t give up quite yet.
Love your yummy pot. Great plant combo. Also, wish I had a bouquet of zinnias, though a virtual one is nice too.
Lovely, lovely! I think I might make an exception to my no-orange rule for orange Diascias. Your container planting with them is inspired. I’m so envious of your Cyclamen. Last time I tried to plant them, the squirrels dug them all up and ate them. Even without blooms, your Cyclamen would be beautiful.
.-= Mr. McGregor’s Daughter´s last blog ..If There Are "Asters," It Must Be September =-.