Garden Bloggers Bloom Day September 2009

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.