Chrysanthemum 'Venus'

 

I first saw and fell in love with Chrysanthemum 'Venus' when I saw it blooming in the White Garden at the JC Raulston Arboretum. It had a beautiful relaxed form. Nothing like the rigid round potted mums you see for sale everywhere in the fall. I also liked the color, as well as the elegant simplicity of the single flower. Niche sells several of these "fall daises", so I was able to pick Venus up there. We make the hour-long trip 2-4 times a year when we visit our old stomping grounds in Chapel Hill. Niche Gardens is primarily a mail-order nursery, but is open to the public and has a very nice display garden.


Venus with Pineapple Sage, Muhlenbergia filipes, fall-blooming Cosmos,
and in the very back, next to the hay-filled wheelbarrow, Queen of Siam
Basil.
 

 

 

 

Aromatic Aster

Aromatic Aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium), a beautiful low-growing aster which blooms for over 4 weeks in the piedmont of NC, may be my favorite aster of all.
 

According to Gardening with Native Plants of the Southeast by Sally Wasowski (one of my favorite gardening books of all time), Aromatic or Shale Aster grows on shale barrens and limestone outcrops from zones 4 to 8. Shale barrens occur along a band of Devonian shale in the ridges and valleys of the Appalachian Mountains. Quite an inhospitable environment, but in the garden Aromatic Aster likes acid as well as lime and appreciates a rich soil. It grows much wider than high, usually only topping out at 1 to 2 feet, but will climb into shrubs to obtain a much greater height than usual. The foliage is sticky with a sweet resinous scent, like pine sap.

I'm a NC Botanical Garden member and participate in the Wildflower Seed Distribution Program, which is how I acquired this plant. I managed to grow one Aromatic Aster from seed, and now I probably have at least a dozen good-sized plants that are divisions from that original seedling.

The flowers have that magical blue-violet color that I love in asters and catches the eye even when driving at 55 mph. The color appears more blue than lavender in low light. I have read that once pollinated the center of the flowers changes from yellow to brown.
 

 

Cooler temps and green grass

The fall temperatures and green grass means the horses have a lot of ENERGY! We mostly have endophyte-free fescue on virgin pasture, which has peak growth in spring and fall.
 

 

Of course they soon have to get down to the real business of being a horse, which is eating.
 

 

 

 

Rothsay Reveler and Crinum 'Royal White'

Now that frost got my Rothsay Reveler it's time to put up the last pictures I took of it. Dahlias are so tender that they're always one of the first things to go when the weather turns. I leave it in the ground every winter but will divide it next spring.
 

 

 

There are still some Monarchs around, although most are now
on their way down to Mexico.
 

A Hibisicus that's blooming very late, along with Muhlenbergia
filipes, as it was grown from seed this spring.
 

This Crinum is another plant that usually blooms earlier than this for me, but was waiting to be fed. After being mulched well it put up bloom scapes soon after. This is probably Crinum x digweedii (a real name whose absurdity, unbelievably, I did not notice until it was pointed out to me), also known by the more appropriate name of 'Royal White'. The flowers have a beautiful fragrance and the leaves have the longitudinal crease characteristic of C. americanum. 'Royal White' is thought to be a hybrid of C. scrabum and C. americanum, a native of our southern swamps. When in rich soil and given enough water it blooms from mid-summer to frost.

Also unbelievably, I got this crinum from a lady in Alabama who was a victim of Hurricane Katrina. Thanks to saltwater flooding, she lost everything in her yard except for her bulbs. I sent her some plants and in return she actually sent several bulbs of this crinum as well as hardy Amaryllis and an Agapanthus.

She sent me so much crinum and it's such a good doer that soon I could share it with a gardening friend, who posted a picture of it on Dave's Garden in the hopes that someone could identify it. A poster did tentatively identity it as C x digweedii, which my friend thought was a joke! I looked up x digweedii in my copy of Garden Bulbs for the South and there it was, the crinum! The identity was right in front of me, I can't believe I hadn't noticed it before. Nor can I believe I hadn't noticed what a ridiculous name digweedii is for such a beautiful plant, lol.

Crinum x digweedii 'Royal White'
 

 

The Big Perennial Bed in Fall

Standing at the southern end of the big perennial bed, looking north toward our pasture. There's white and pink seashore mallow, Bidens, Buddleia "Potter's Purple", and in the distance, Lindheimer's Muhly.
 

Rothsay Reveller

A few years ago a very kind fellow gardener sent for free extra dahlia tubers from her garden. I planted them in two or three gallon buckets with the bottom cut out and mulched with sharp gravel on top to keep the voles out. At that time I wasn't aware that there are some dahlias that can handle heat better than others, and as it turns out only one dahlia has survived. It has been wonderful!! It's worth many dahlias combined.

The dahlia is Rothsay Reveller, and although it's not on this list of heat-resistant dahlias (http://www.dahliasocietyofgeorgia.com/HeatTolerantDahliasAlphabetical.pdf), it handles the heat of piedmont NC easily. I don't stake it but allow it to sprawl, and by fall it forms a 4' wide shrub that is magnificent in bloom in the fall. Rothsay Reveller blooms all season but is at its peak in September/ October.

Some of the blooms are almost self colored and are a lovely contrast with the purple and white blooms.
 

 

 

 

Anemone Honorine Jobert and garden companions

 

 

American Beautyberry
 

Aromatic Aster
 

Swamp Sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius)
 

 

The beautiful "Writing Spider" or Black-and-Yellow Ariope is everywhere in the fall.
 

 

Monarch on Potter's Purple
 

Muhlenbergia

There is nothing lovelier than Muhlenbergia capillaris in bloom early in the morning; it truly looks like purple cotton candy.

Pink Seashore Mallow with M. capillaris and filipes
 

 

M. capillaris with Lindheimer's Mulhy and Salvia 'Betsy's Choice'.
 

Lindheimer's Muhly with M. filipes in foreground.
 

Lindheimer's Muhly in front of a Therese Bugnet seedling, Swamp Sunflower, and Panicum "Cloud Nine."
 

Close-up of Lindheimer's Muhly bloom
 

The sun starting to burn the dew off of M. capillaris, creating thousands of prisms.
 

Why I Love Fall

Not only is the weather glorious, but the fall AND summer bloomers are putting on a show. Even some spring bloomers are making another appearance.

Hansa, with Buddleia, Bidens and Joe Pye seedheads in the background.
 

Dahlia Rothsay Reveller. This dahlia is always glorious in the fall.
 

This Encore Amethyst azalea has been blooming for over a month and may continue for a month more, depending on the weather.
 

Iris Harvest of Memories is a very vigorous repeat bloomer hybridized by Zurbrigg. This iris bloomed beautifully this spring and is blooming again now. The fragrance, like that of Sunset Sky, is lemon cake. Yum. I would like to collect more of Zurbrigg's iris: they don't succumb to rot (are either resistant or outgrow it); they re-bloom; and they are fragrant and beautiful. I'd like to add English Cottage, Violet Miracle, and Perfume Counter.
 

True Fall Bloomers Part III

I am not the biggest fan of red flowers in the garden, as I find them a bit difficult to use with the color schemes I like, but I love Pineapple Sage. The fragrance of the foliage is exactly that of a pineapple and the red flowers are lovely in the fall.
 

Pineapple sage in foreground with Cosmos and White Lespedeza. There's a Monarch feeding on the Cosmos in the top left corner.
 

There is a Pineapple Sage that is hardy in zone 7b, but in case mine is not that type, I will overwinter rooted cuttings. I got this one in a trade last fall and put it out in spring.

White Seashore Mallow adds at least another month to the season of Seashore Mallow bloom, as it starts about a month later than the pink. These are seedlings of the cultivar 'Immaculate' with Bidens. There's also Buddleia 'Potter's Purple', Lindheimer's Muhly and Joe Pye going to seed in the background, with Panicum 'Cloud Nine' in the far distance.
 

 

Coastal Plain Tickseed (Coreopsis gladiata) is another member of the aster clan with glowing yellow flowers. I grew this from seed from the NC Botanical Garden. I'm not sure how or if this plant is different from Coreopsis helianthoides. Both like a lot of moisture.
 

My favorite sunflower of all is Swamp Sunflower, Helianthus angustifolius. The color is so vivid it really jumps out, even from a long distance. I also grew these from seed that I obtained from the NC Botanical Garden Wildflower Seed Distribution Program. These sunflowers have thinner leaves and seemingly healthier foliage than the Swamp Sunflowers I got from Niche. I say "seemingly" because the first year I had the Niche Swamp Sunflowers they were very healthy and clothed in leaves and flowers from top to bottom. In subsequent years they have been attacked by a fungus that kills the leaves 1/2 to 2/3s of the way up the plant. So I will wait a year or two before the final verdict on the NCBG H. angustifolius. Even with the fungus the Niche Swamp Sunflowers put on a beautiful show every fall. I would not be without them.