There is a comfort in seeing plants bloom when you expect them to bloom. You sense the rhythm of the seasons that is one of the pleasures of gardening. But if the garden were totally predictable it would get a little boring. That's why even though my garden is supposedly full, I continue to add new plants, even if it means taking out others. Read on to see the plants that are either new to me this year or just hitting their stride this August.
What's missing from this picture are the autumn crocuses. They should be blooming now. No, I don't mean colchicums--they're done. (And they're not crocuses!!) I mean bona-fide crocuses that bloom in the fall. Crocus speciosus, to be precise. I planted more than one hundred of them four years ago, and for the last three years [...]
I am happy to report that our area is no longer "abnormally dry." It is however, abnormally hot and humid. I have been moving plants in the cooler part of the day and keeping busy in the house the rest of the time. I'd thought I'd show you some highlights from August. I love them [...]
I have been spending every free minute gardening this season and enjoying myself thoroughly. I focused first on getting all plants into the ground as soon as I acquired them, and then switched to weeding. Only another gardener could understand the pleasure to be had from setting a bed to rights, especially if the soil [...]
Greetings, cold climate gardeners! It's feeling autumnal around here, and starting to look it, too. The mid-August garden is a garden in transition. The early summer plants are looking shabby and the fall garden is just getting going. The beds that used to look so lush now have gaps in them because the Johnny-jump-ups have [...]
After whining all year about seeing too much bare dirt in my garden, I am happy to report the problem has been rectified by several annuals that finally got going this month, just in time for the first frost. Fortunately, a lot of the annuals I favor are not fazed by a light frost, so [...]
Many gardeners complain of a surfeit of yellow and gold in the fall garden, but mine is a preponderance of lilac-pink.The dry spell we had this summer caused many spring bloomers, including the Phlox subulata 'Purple Beauty,' to rebloom this fall. When I planted the phlox on either side of the Colchicum agrippinum, I thought [...]
Our first frost this autumn was later than usual, and was actually a hard freeze, dropping to 26F(-3.3C) on Sunday, October 10th. Most gardeners in warmer climates imagine a hard freeze like this: But cold climate gardeners know the scene can just as easily look like this: It takes more than one hard freeze to [...]
It always seems like there is nothing blooming in mid-May, but when I really look around, I realize there is a lot blooming but none of it is flashy, like the big yellow sheets of daffodils previous or the three Grandes Dames of June that will soon be here. The blooms of mid-May are modest [...]
Annuals Our growing season is so compressed, that most annuals are only now looking their best. 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 [...]
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