True Fall Bloomers Part II

This American Lady appears to be brand new, its colors are so vibrant. It's feeding on Caryopteris x clandonensis 'Dark Knight'.
 

Georgia aster
 

The first flower of Aromatic or Shale Aster, which will begin to bloom in earnest in a couple of weeks. It's a low-growing aster that's native to the Appalachia mountains. The foliage is sticky with a sweet pine scent.
 

Bidens with Wild Ageratum.
 

Looking across big perennial bed toward neighbor's pasture. Buddleia davidii
'Potter's Purple' is in the foreground and Bidens are in the background.
 

True Fall Bloomers

Klondyke Cosmos
 

Anemone Honorine Jobert
 

Sugarcane Plumegrass can be seen all along roadside ditches, as it loves moisture. It's extremely colorful, a bright silvery purple, almost the same shade of purple as Muhlenbergia capillaris.
 

Here it is growing in a ditch near the hay shelter where its roots are submerged in water most of the year, with M. capillaris and Bidens. Plumegrass is so tall that I can't think of anything else that tall that would go well with it except for Hibiscus grandiflorus, which I haven't had any luck with yet.
 

The big green blob next to the building is Miss Bessie's aster, an aster I had to get after reading the description in the Niche Gardens catalog. It usually holds off blooming until after Halloween.
 

Although a bit awkward because of its height and skinniness, Sugarcane Plumegrass is nevertheless beautiful because of the color of its blooms -- silver, mauve and purple, all at once.
 

Close-up of M. capillaris with Bidens. I love the airy see-through nature of the M. capillaris blooms.
 

Start of the Last Hurrah

September is the start of the garden's last big hurrah, the fall blooming season. The weather is finally cooling off and we are getting decent rainful without the wind and deluges from hurricanes (although two hours away Siler City and north of Hillsborough received over 10" from the remnants of Hannah). The Bur-Marigold (Bidens species) is blooming, many perennials and roses that took a break in the heat have started back up and the fall flowers are beginning to make an appearance.
 

Azalea "Encore Amethyst" with Bidens. I have two of these azaleas that started blooming around the first of September and will bloom into October or November. The fall blooming time of Encore azaleas is much longer than the spring blooming time. They got a healthy dose of compost early this spring and responded by blooming far more in the spring than they ever had before; they were literally covered in flowers. Before this year the spring bloom had been somewhat stingy, but the fall bloom has always been very good.
 

This second Encore Amethyst always blooms later because it gets a bit more shade. These are 8 years old and 3-4' high and wide. The foliage is beautiful all year, a glossy dark green that becomes tinged with purple in the winter.
 

I allow Bidens to come up in this bed with the azaleas because it's an excellent filler and blooms very well in part shade.
 

 

Although American Beautyberry is my favorite Callicarpa, I like the Asian species too. The white is C. japonica and the purple is C. dichotoma. C. dichotoma has a weeping or fountain habit while C. japonica is more upright.
 

After the recent rains the spiderworts are blooming again. The Tradescantia virginiana types are tireless, blooming spring to frost as long as they get enough moisture.
 

With Clotilde Soupert
 

Clotilde Soupert
 

Stoke's Aster
 

Rosette Delizzy. This lovely tea rose almost died on me last winter, in spite of the mild and dry conditions, but has rebounded well and produced small flowers all summer that are reminescent of the famous Hybrid Tea Peace.
 

Marie Pavie
 

Hansa
 

Bidens in full bloom

The Bidens (not sure of the species, either polylepis or aristosa) fully opened about a week ago and will continue to bloom until October. This is the long narrow bed next to the neighbor's pasture which is only a couple of years old. I've let Bidens pretty much take it over for now. The only new additions I will make will be woody plants. The perennials I put there just did not fare well in last year's drought.

Looking south, toward the house and at the hill in the neighbor's pasture.
 

View from upstairs window, big perennial bed on left of driveway and bed beside neighbor's pasture on right.
 

 

 

Along with Biden are end of the season dahlias. And not a JB in sight!
Rothsay Reveller
 

 

Anemone "Honorine Jobert"
 

My husband saw an amazing sight today, and unfortunately I missed it. A mature Bald Eagle flew right down the middle of the driveway (our driveway turns into a grass road that leads to Middle Creek) and alighted in one of the trees behind the horse shelter. We used to see Bald Eagles all of the time at Jordan Lake but I've only seen one relatively close-up. There are all kinds of sloughs and ponds adjacent to Middle Creek so this area is good feeding for an eagle. I'm surprised we have not yet seen an osprey in the fall or spring.

Late Summer Blues

I have two other true blues that I forgot to mention in my first entry: Bog Sage, and Azure Sage.

Bog sage (Salvia uliginosa) is a tall plant with cobalt blue flowers that begin in late spring and continue until frost. It's a native of South America. In moist soil it spreads like wildlife and sprawls all over everything, but it's easy to pull up when it goes too far. The foliage is strongly aromatic, almost of ammonia -- very strong and even a little hard on the stomach if you're weeding in the middle of it. Deer will not touch it and bees love it. Like Obedient Plant I prefer to put it where it can roam at will.
 

Azure sage (Salvia azurea) is new to my garden this year. I grew these from
seed obtained in a trade. They are a lovely very pale shade of blue.
 

I do have another true blue that grows on the farm, a native gentian called Soapwort (Gentiana saponaria). It has beautiful powder-blue closed flowers that poke up just above ground level and blooms very late, in October and November.


Salvia transylvanica. This salvia is short-lived but seeds in prolifically. A lovely cottage garden salvia. This shade of gentian blue-violet is my favorite color in the garden.
 

I remember reading about the ageratum effect in a book about perennials, but the color came out very true in this photograph. This is a short form that starts in July and August and blooms until October.
 

Mexican Petunia (Ruellia brittoniana). I love the metallic blue highlights on these flowers.
 

Looking purple in broad daylight
 

Laurie at Niche Gardens told me that Veronica "Sunny Border Blue" is a spreader.
I certainly hope it is, as I love the color.
 

We have Blue Lobelia growing wild in all of the ditches here, and like
Cardinal Flower I just let it re-seed where it will.
 

Blue Mist Shrub (Caryopteris clandonensis "Dark Knight")
 

Bluebird Aster is one of the earliest of the
blue asters.


With Lindheimer's Muhly
 

Early September

Early September is the time of year when Bidens start blooming and roses come into their own again. This shot was taken Sept. 1st, looking across the big perennial bed toward the neighbor's pasture. The Bidens were just starting to open up. In the foreground are the flowers of Seashore Mallow and the seedpods of Carolina Bush Pea.
 

A view of the big perennial bed and the bed next to the neighbor's pasture from an upstairs window.
 

The fruit of a seedling of Callicarpa japonica "Leucocarpa"


Four o' clock -- the fragrance of this one
is exceptionally sweet.


Rose Hansa


The beautiful and very fragrant Clotilde Soupert
 

 

Basye's Purple


Noid spiderwort


White wood aster is a lovely ground cover for part shade. The late summer/ early fall flowers have an understated beauty, but I like the fresh green foliage and burgundy stems in spring just as much.
 

Lemon Horsemint (Monarda citriodora), a very showy annual.
 

A purple Penstemon obtained in a trade that puts on a
spectacular show every spring and blooms sporadically thereafter.