For a minute it was summer and then not. Our warm weather has faded and we’re getting a taste of autumn, with chilly nights and dewy mornings, and temperatures which make a gardener think about what’s to come.
The bulldozer path to the back of the house is fading away as new lawn sprouts and the new daylily border fills in. A purple mound of Lespedeza ‘Gibraltar’ fits in nicely with the pink and purple theme.
What’s to come? Snowdrop season of course, but not until a thousand things get done and a million plants move indoors, and a billion weeds get pulled.
I went to a snowdrop gala in March and of course ended up with a daylily, in this case ‘September Sol’, off the sales bench of Matthew Bricker. It does indeed come into bloom during September and brings a nice shine to the purple verbena masses.
So those are the good intentions, and hopefully they still amount to something because although I need more hardscape in the garden, I don’t want my paths to be paved with the good intentions which never became. Walking down that path would not make for a nice garden tour and I’d rather just stick to gravel if that’s the case.
The new grass path behind the potager is officially over-run with verbena bonariensis. I think this is far nicer than lawn would ever be so obviously I’ll wait until November at least before running the mower through.
Perhaps it’s obvious, but thankfully this will be a brief post rather than the usual babbling on about all kinds of unrelated topics. These photos were taken last week, and I hate to not remember these last joys of summer just because I was too distracted by other nonsense to get a post up. So come February hopefully a thrown-together post from a lush September will at least be better than nothing.
The potager has officially gone to seed. We’re down to a few rotting vegetables and the flowers have completely taken over.
For obvious reasons my garden never reaches the well-tended, beautifully curated stage which many of my friends’ gardens become at this time of year. There are no clumps of shapely mums and vignettes of asters and ornamental grasses, instead it’s a weedy wave of viny tangles and seedy remains… and it really suits my tastes 🙂
The ferny tendrils of cypress vine (Ipomoea quamoclit) go from soft and innocent to smothering within days if the heat and humidity are there for it.
Or perhaps it’s possible I’ve convinced myself over the years that this is how I like my garden to look by September. There’s just no time for immaculate care when thoughts are turning to the bulbs which need planting and the cuttings which need taking, things end up getting neglected, and for the sake of the gardener’s sanity it’s better to just think all is as it should be.
This year the ‘Terrace’ was almost tame in how many pots ended up there. A summer of dirt-moving has a way of dampening the urge to pot up hundreds of cuttings…
So with everything going according to plan maybe a few considerations towards the future are in order. Lots of things should come in for the winter… but there’s only so much room…
Fuschia ‘Gartenmeister Bonstedt’ does very well in the cool winter garden but needs to be watched for spider mites. Blue Streptocarpella will also come in, and is carefree if kept on the dry side.
Going around the garden and making a plan for it all is a terrible idea. Better to start small and ignore the scope of it all until a sudden cold night forces your hand. Nothing like going around with a flashlight on a 33F night and making on the spot decisions about what you can and can’t live without. The desire to lug in a 100 pound pot filled with sharp agave foliage drops quickly when your fingertips are numb and your pajamas are soaked.
Maybe the passion flower ‘Kew Gardens’ deserves one more year. The flowers seem to only open in the evenings and I often miss them, but they are pretty cool, and I always have a weak spot for vines.
Coleus cuttings in water will be first, and then maybe I’ll drag a few caladium pots in closer to the house so they can dry off a bit. Maybe. Some lantana cuttings is another option. Eventually…
For all the effort some things get, it’s often a stray seed or corm in some leftover potting soil which does best. A handful of Bessera elegans corms were carefully potted up and then promptly rotted. Here a stray corm in some re-used potting soil is thriving.
Bah, it’s still the middle of September, there’s plenty of time. Let me just enjoy the summer flowers while I can.
This ‘Sun Parasol’ “original dark red” mandevilla or whatever they’re called right now is surprisingly easy to overwinter. Cool spot, some light, easy on the watering, and it will even try to flower all winter… unlike others (do you hear me ‘Alice DuPont’?) who promptly drop all their leaves and go dormant…
Enjoying the lingering summer flowers is even better when you can enjoy a few colchicum blooms at the same time. This month I started an incentive program where the gardener gets to transplant a few colchicum on each day he reaches his to-do list targets. To-do list targets are obviously less fun than transplanting colchicums, and they include debris hauling, concrete setting, and the endlessly boring task of lawnmowing. I think it goes without saying that my teenage children are essentially worthless for everything on the to-do list…
The always fun, tesselated flowers of Colchicum x aggripinum. It’s a neat and long blooming smaller type and I wish I had as many as I used to, but one year they decided they didn’t love it here anymore so far I’ve been unsuccessful in winning them back over.
Here’s just one un-glamorous view of the colchicum progress. The no-rocks rockgarden along the house is becoming a rocky colchicum bed, and before each new clump gets moved and planted the truck ruts need digging and loosening, and the rocks which were dumped in the ruts so the trucks could make more ruts, needed prying out and hauling off. Just to be clear, this is the reward part and not part of the to-do list, so having this fun has been a slightly drawn out process.
After division and some compost I’m expecting great things from ‘Nancy Lindsay’ and her friends. I hope to get the whole bed mulched this autumn, and maybe in the spring add a few sedum and thyme starts to fill in the bed while the colchicum go dormant.
The colchicum project seemed much more innocent when the first bulbs were getting their new spots, and it still seemed fun after the second and third clumps, but today while replanting ‘Spartacus’ a little tinge of concern came over the gardener. There appears to be a colchicum collection developing. For years I’ve been adding one or two, just to see how they compare, and as you know one or two little bulbs really don’t amount to much, but one day they do… assuming (and this takes me out on a limb) they don’t die, and apparently enough haven’t. Maybe a more honest confession would be excitement rather than concern, but let me just say next autumn should be colchi-rific and that’s a good thing, not a medical condition.
Hope your September days are full of good things and you enjoy the weekend!
sorta like suburbia 
I’m very envious of your colchicums. I have started on this “a few new ones each year” and have been delighted with some successes but I have also had some failures. I note you are growing yours on beds which are a little raised and so have better drainage than the surrounding ground. It is something I may imitate as losses here have been in the wetter areas.
I should have added that recent rains have brought the messy conditions we associate with winter. Yesterday, I cut the grass and this left very significant marks on the grass. It may dry out again for a while which would allow me to keep the grass reasonably short over the winter.
Good luck with your colchicum adventures. One might think out of all the fussy little things which are planted here, that colchicum corms would be foolproof, but I also find that’s not the case. Sometimes they just die, perhaps to be spiteful, but maybe because of something the gardener did.
In general I find they do not like being planted deep when the flora tube is already beginning to come up. I’ve dug a few no-shows in the autumn and often the flowers are a bunched up mess that can’t seem to find its way to the surface. To make it worse, next year’s foliage follows inside the tube and also won’t make it up… and the corm often just gives up. So long story short, I usually plant new corms with barely a covering… and as you noticed I also give them a well-drained spot.
We are under the drenching effect of a tropical storm this weekend and lawns are also in a messy condition here. I don’t think the tropics understand that I only have so much time left to transplant daylilies and colchicum, and plant new snowdrops! I hope we both still get a chance to dry out a little.
Just home from a weekend away – with plenty of rain also. I have a package of colchicums due in the post and hope to get them into the ground in the next few days .
I’ve very much enjoyed the tour of your garden, Frank, it looks very colourful and happy. Colchicums have started to flower in the meadows in Switzerland, it’s quite a sight. Your passionflower is very pretty too. Can you leave it outside over the winter? Apart from the ordinary one I have Constance Spry and took a cutting of a violet one which must be carnata. They’re all pretty hardy. Happy autumn days 🙂
Hi Annette! Always nice to hear from you.
I would love to be able to see alpine meadows filled with bulbs and such, but would need to travel across this continent to find anything close. Sure we have other nice natural wonders, but I do love the smaller things.
This passionflower comes in for the winter and as far as I know it’s one which can barely tolerate frost. I have been eyeing the hardy ones though, so much less trouble I would think!
A happy autumn to you as well
Lovely to get an update on your garden Frank. You always manage to find room for the most important plants, but I know that feeling when you see frost is suddenly on the forecast at 10pm! Is that Persicaria in the potager that has got so tall? Please tell me it is Persicaria orientalis, as I have just bought seed and am planning what to do with it… 😉 The Bessera is really pretty, and new to me.
Enjoy the rest of the summer Frank!
Yes, it is Persicaria orientalis! I really like it and it seeds around on its own once it gets started in your garden… but only on bare, disturbed soil when the weather is warm, so not a pest really… unless the height and how fast it grows scares you lol!
I don’t know for sure, but I think the seed sprouts better if it experiences the cold of winter. Someone said it has low germination but perhaps that’s from seed stored warm indoors.
A few of the ones here topped 9 feet this summer and none are staked, but I suspect on your hilltop they might need some help. The birds enjoy the seed, and they’re nice all summer unlike sunflowers which seem to fall apart after August!
Oh, that is great news! I love things that seed themselves all over. (Famous last words?!) My seed packet says to sow direct in October, so I will try it in a few different locations and see what happens. 😃
Who are these friends with well-tended, beautifully curated gardens at this time of year? Have you been visiting John L and David C again? 🙂
Haha, I don’t ever see a single weed in any of your photos, you
are one of those people!
Sadly, you are mistaken. Weeds abound. And I’ve found that if I wait to take a picture until after I’m caught up with weeding, I don’t wind up with very many pictures. I think that must be why most of us are so fond of close-ups or cropped pics. You are quite brave consistently show us so much of your garden, but we love you for it.
haha, yes! There are always buckets and hoses, wheelbarrows and shovels all over the place. Maybe someday. -and don’t get me started on the number of weeds! There’s only so much you can do when cropping 🙂
Late summer lovelies abound in your garden, Frank. Colchicum x aggripinum has a delightful pattern. Not a bad obsession to have really.
I’m not envying your fall migration back to the winter garden. Your energy bank is larger than mine, that’s for sure. At least the cooler weather will be more suitable for working outside. Time to withhold those teenagers allowance! 😉
Sadly the teenagers never relied on us for an allowance. Even the 15 year old does well enough babysitting to have enough for shopping and going out… I wish I was in as good shape lol!
Of course I exaggerate. They will help when asked, and honestly I do enjoy my garden time, even when it does seem like a lot of work.
Four little succulents came in this weekend, the migration has begun! All the rain has me bored so I started some lights in the winter garden and I might as well put a few things under them, right?
A great start!
I am happily contemplating retirement at the end of November. I am imagining all the amazing things I will accomplish in my garden next year. And then I remember how wrecked I am when I spend 7 hours out there in the same day. But of course I won’t have to do that when all the days might be gardening days. 🙂
Hahahahahaha, Oh the dreams of retirement! Your big danger will be coffee on the deck and long walks with the dog and then talk about what’s for lunch… or at least that’s were I will end up. You will do great things, and I should get up there for the ‘before’ visit.
I suspect you’ll still spend those 7 hour days out there, but at least a rainy weekend and loss of two days won’t derail your entire summer plans. It will be som much easier to reschedule 🙂
Yes, I am so looking forward to it! You are welcome to come visit any time. 🙂
Your garden is wonderful, don’t worry about what other gardens are like, yours is fantastic for the wildlife! Love your autumn flowering Day lily, would like some of those here. Also like your Colchicum, very pretty at this time of year. Everything is changing at the moment, bit of a rush to beat the frost, which was late last year, but can’t rely on that each year.
Smart of you to think of frost that way. Here I usually imagine it will never come and then act surprised, and am totally unprepared when it does.
I have taken a few things inside already, and that’s unusual, so maybe I’m finally growing up and beginning to act responsibly?
Enjoy your autumn, hope there are plenty of dry days
Colchi-rific sounds like a terrific condition to have. I think your fall garden looks great. I do love those volunteer vines that softens the edges a bit. I have the native Passion vine. It makes those maypops which makes the vine pop up here and there. I have yet to see the butterflies it is supposed to attract. Maybe some day.
I also like the fall potager. It is nice to see the fullness and all the colors. Color is void mostly in my garden right now except for the greens, golds and browns. We need rain desperately. Even the wild ginger is drying up. UGh…
My once helpless teens have grown up to do a bit of gardening. They aren’t quite as obsessive as I am but it is fun to have something we can bond over. Hang in there. It might happen. Chores in the garden don’t hurt them.
Cheers
I didn’t realize you were still so dry. It’s so frustrating to go into autumn like that, especially after dealing with the same problem last year. I don’t have any motivation when things are all brown and wilted or just unhappy, and I’m not one to water any more than a little life-support spritz. Hope you get a good soak soon.
I’ve been eyeing the native passion flower. The only thing which is a little concerning is that I planted dutchman’s pipe and maybe one suckering monster is enough! I was very lucky to plant it in a bed surrounded by lawn, and most of the spreading is controlled by the mower…
This summer I found a ‘Margarita’ Carolina Jasmine. From what I can tell there’s a chance it will be hardy here so I’ll let you know how it does. Have you tried it or know anything about it? I’m already imagining curtains of yellow spring flowers hanging from the Heptacodium which I planted it against.
Have a great fall!
Your garden is most inviting, Frank. The colchicum project is a great incentive to progress. The flowers are beautiful. I never remember to buy them or don’t see them for sale, even.
I’m lucky to have a friend who pushes colchicum corms on to me almost every time we meet up. They are tough to find in the stores, I’ve only seen it once!
That pink passiflora just stopped me in my tracks! Of course it’s not hardy for us, and $20 (give or take, depending on who is selling it) for a single annual usually puts me off but wow, that’s a really great color. (says the person who once spent $20 on a pink mandevillea in her previous garden and then lost it because she forgot to take it inside for the winter….)
Heh heh, I think I did pay $20 for the passiflora, it was an impulse buy and the grower was really nice and convincing, and then seemed offended when I suggested I could grow it as an annual when she started the overwintering advice. I owe her one more year I think, and after that maybe I’ve done my best and can let it go.
The pink mandevilla on the other hand is probably 5 years old already. You should try another, even though mine always looks like garbage as it overwinters, but fortunately I have that back of the garage to hide it in.