Winter crashed the party

The perfect fall weather had to end sometime. The deep blue skies, golden sunlight and 60+ degree days couldn't last forever. It's beautiful today but cold -- and windy. Time to bundle up! There is still garden work to do.

I have spent the fine autumn days planting the remainder of the perennials that spent the summer growing on the front porch. Since I propagate most of what I plant myself it's fun, making up a garden every year. Not the whole thing of course, but a good portion of the so-called "perennial" parts. Some perennials live up to their name and others are just poseurs.

Some woody plants got moved too, like this beauty: Blush Noisette. What genius planted her there? If all goes well this rose is going to end up at least 4 feet across and there isn't enough room for her in this spot.

From this June picture you can see her context in the garden, if you can make her out (to the right, in the foreground). She was between flushes when this picture was taken.

Blush Noisette is just to the left out of sight in the view below. There's two issues shown here: the little bed to the left and the line of tall Commuter Daylilies in the distance.

The little bed was made to allow water to run away from the house, with the idea that the beds would eventually merge but still leave a little swale. That was before Blush Noisette was planted. Now needing more room, I moved the little bed over (water can still run around the perimeter) to adjoin the larger bed.

The commuter daylilies are much shorter in the big perennial bed down the hill but shot up to this towering height in richer soil. I didn't know they could get this tall. Just goes to show that prior real life experience with a plant may not be helpful. lol The fragrance is delicious but they look a bit odd all grouped at the side, taller than everything else.

The muhly in this picture has now been overtaken by the suckering rugosa rose, and I decided to move the Blue Mist Shrub that was falling over and ruining.

The blue mist shrub just starting to bloom to the right of the coneflowers in the picture below.

Caryopteris doesn't care if it's in clay or sand, dry or often wet, as long as it has sun, room, and a diet that's not too rich. If I can ever respect its wishes it'll look good for more than one year. I love Caryopteris and always want one, but it'll have to be at the edges of the garden rather than in it.

The Purple Coneflowers are stars every June and have seeded in some, so I scattered coneflower seed all over.

I thought that this two-toned pink was a noid, but when I divided it there was a tag from the plant's original owner. This is Bleu Celeste, a vigorous 1959 daylily.

Most of the daylilies I have produce a lot of divisions and yet don't have much foliage and don't take up much room. I was able to spread around some of these beauties:

'Moonlight Masquerade'

'Ah Youth'

'Lemon Berry Frost' and 'Ah Youth'

'Ruby Spider'

Seedlings of 'Mokan Butterfly' and 'Mask of Eternity'. All of the seedlings from this cross are beautiful. The seeds,'Moonlight Masquerade', and 'Lemon Berry Frost' came from littlewing.

'Beautiful Edging' may be my favorite. Isn't it lovely?

For a while the garden was bristling with pink, white and blue flags until the plants were ready to be on their own, which didn't take very long.