September Bloom Day

Blue Lobelias in east garden.

All-whilte Lobelia.

 

A very wet August brought us respite from the heat and drought--I recorded over 11 inches of rain during the month of August this year--and my garden seems to have revived to nearly normal. Every 15th of the month is Bloomday, hosted by Carol Michel's May Dreams Garden blog, so welcome to my September garden: let's take a look at what's blooming.

The deer ate back the buds of most of my Blue Lobelias, but after the rains the plants recovered enough to offer a nice array of flowers. They really set off the area of my east garden where I've been trying to create a shady woodland. I had just pruned the Japanese maple tree which I grew from a 6" seedling twelve years ago when I took this photo. I even found one all-white Lobelia in there--a sport or mutant? Lovely in any case! 

 I have two other Japanese maples in my little woodland, as well as a Carolina Silverbell tree and a Pagoda dogwood. The bed is finally starting to look somewhat as I had envisioned, but will need a few more years' growth to achieve fullness.

 

The east garden miniature woodland

 

Also on the east side of the house, my  Viburnum 'Brandywine' is making a wonderful display as its berries turn from pink to blue.

 

Viburnum 'Brandywine' berries

Moving on towards the back yard, the "Autumn Joy' Sedum is looking nice next to the wild blue Ageratum--unfortunately deer are very fond of this Sedum so it must be kept protected or there would be nothing left. I call this the "Herb bed" because my husband Herb dug the first part of it. Our hummingbirds love the red Salvia as well as the Brazilian Salvia 'Black and Blue.'

 

                Sedum 'Autumn Joy' with blue Ageratum and Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster'

Red Salvia 'Windwalker Royal Red'

 

Behind this bed I have a witchhazel variety named 'Diane' flanked by two Viburnums I grew from seed collected at Brookside Gardens in Maryland--by the look of the leaves I think these may be Leatherleaf Viburnum. And one of these has developed some flower buds--unseasonably, it seems to me. I'm curious to see what the flowers and subsequent fruit will look like. It may reveal more about the particular species.

 More interesting is to note the chewed-up leaves. A number of clearwing hummingbird moths visited my garden this summer, and Viburnum is the host plant for the caterpillar of this moth, so I hope they are feeding on my Viburnums and will make my garden their home.

 

Leatherleaf Viburnum? budding.

 

I recently planted one of three Gaultherias I bought this past spring under the witchhazel tree after treating the soil with acidifier. Let's hope it survives and prospers. The alkalinity of the soil here can be a problem for many acid-loving plants.

 

Prairie sage and wild sunflowers.

A lovely color combination found in the back-most bed I call "The Badlands" was this blue sage (Salvia azurea) with some late-blooming native sunflowers. My display is still very skimpy, but hopefully will grow fuller with time if I can get the deer to stop eating it. Deer aren't supposed to eat salvias, but they will browse it if nothing else is available, and the sunflowers too.

 

Beautyberry (Callicarpa dochotoma 'Early Amethyst')

My two Beautyberry 'Early Amethyst' bushes are displaying their lovely berries and haven't been too badly chewed by the deer. And there are still some flowers on my butterfly bushes, they're finishing as other fall flowers come into bloom.

 

Butterfly bush 'Miss Molly'

I spent the past two days cleaning up a bed on the west side of the house--the crabgrass was almost up to my knees!--and while doing so, I transplanted a lovely wild purple aster that I'd found in the very back of the yard near my neighbor's fence. The aster was so tall I had to cut off the top so it wouldn't pull out of the ground, but hopefully it will recover and show even better next year. This one was a volunteer, I think it came from seeds collected in Warm Springs, VA, a few years back. Some times these volunteers can be wonderful additions to a native garden.

 

Purple aster with Caryopteris shrub in the west bed.

Also on the west garden, my Ceanothus 'Gloire de Versailles' has recovered from the browsing and is producing some blooms. This plant is a hybrid of the native New Jersey tea plant (Ceanothus americanus) with the California native lilac. Its flowers are fragrant.

 

Ceanothus 'Gloire de Versailles'

In the front yard on the west, my Abelia "Panoramic Color Radiance' did not get too badly eaten this year, and has some lovely blooms.

 

Abelia 'Panoramic Color Radiance'

The dogwood tree in front of the house is starting to show its fall foliage. And the deer left me a few hardy begonias under the cherry tree to flower and re-seed themselves, only because  of timely spraying with repellent.

 

Dogwood tree and front walk.

Hardy begonias.

Some of my potted plants are looking good too--the white Heliotrope on the front walk is lovely, as are the porch hanging baskets.

 

White Heliotrope.

Fuchsia in hanging basket.

Porch hanging basket.

The tuberous Begonia in the hanging basket on the back deck is still blooming but starting to fade, while the Salvia 'Black and Blue' is holding its own. The humming birds love this plant and we've had quite a few of them visiting our deck. Most of them don't seem to be bothered by our close proximity and feed while we're there, but a few are very shy.

Tuberous Begonia on the back deck.

Salvia 'Black and Blue'

I hope you've enjoyed this stroll through my garden on a lovely September day. Can't wait to see what the Autumn Equinox will bring!

Late Summer Rains and Sightings

Viburnum 'Brandywine' with rough green snake.

 

Close-up of berries.

 

This past week we've had a couple of big storms bring a lot of wind and rain--yesterday's thunderstorm dropped 1.67" of rain on my still somewhat parched garden. These late summer rains have brought out some fascinating sights that I wanted to share.

Let's start with the Viburnum 'Brandywine' berries--this is my favorite stage as they are turning pink, with a few blues here and there. Eventually they will all ripen to dark blue and then black. I took the first photo and didn't notice that there was a little green snake crawling on the branch--it wasn't until I downloaded the photos and looked at them on my computer screen that I realized that what I'd taken for a blade of grass was actually a green snake!

As I understand it, these rough green snakes (Opheodrys aestivus) eat caterpillars and other small insects, and he might have been feasting on clearwing hummingbird moth caterpillars. Viburnum is one of the host plants for this moth, and I've seen quite a few of the moths here this summer nectaring on the Asian butterfly bush. I've seen the caterpillars on previous years, but not recently. I wonder if that could be the reason why? 

 

Clearwing hummingbird moth on Butterfly bush (photo taken by David Maza).

 

The abundant rain has stimulated my 'Natchez' crape-myrtle to produce more blooms than ever before, and my Abelia 'Panoramic Color Radiance' has been sufficiently spared by the deer to offer a few blooms too.

 

Crape Myrtle 'Natchez'

Abelia 'Panoramic Color Radiance' is blooming.

 

The wild Petunias planted a couple of years ago keep getting eaten by the deer, but recently one of the three plants managed to offer enough flowers to appreciate its beauty. This year I grew some Mignonette (Reseda odorata) from seed. Its flowers aren't exactly showy but the scent is supposed to be wonderful. I've only detected a slight perfume, but the bees love it, so I hope it will re-seed itself for next year.

 

Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis)

Mignonette (Reseda odorata)

Another pleasant surprise to see was that one of the two Viburnums that I grew from seed collected at Brookside Gardens had some flower buds--my Viburnums appear to be of the Leatherleaf variety or perhaps a hybrid of them--Brookside has quite a variety of Viburnums growing in that area. I'm curious to see what the flowers will be like. Let's hope the deer won't devour them--they seem to be blooming unseasonably, but some Viburnums do bloom at this time of the year.

Viburnum flower buds.

The deer left me a few buds of the bush Clematis 'True Love' to enjoy--the color is lovely!

Clematis 'True Love'

My double flowering quince has produced a few out of season blooms, and other summer flowers are re-blooming after being cut back:  Verbascum 'Southerm Charm' and a red-hot poker.

Double-flowering quince

Verbascum 'Southern Charm' rebloom.

Red-hot Pokers reblooming.

With autumn just around the corner, the Japanese Anemone 'Honorine Jobert' is developing flower buds. It lives under a protective cloche which I removed to take the photograph, but any buds that protrude from the cloche get eaten.

 

Anemone 'Honorine Jobert'

The deer overlooked a few of the blue Lobelias this year--in better years I've had a gorgeous display of these native flowers which have spread over this east bed. Maybe next year?

Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) in the east bed.

At last, my Salvia 'Black and Blue' is blooming! This hummingbird favorite is usually grown in a pot along the front walk, and I'd never known deer to nip it before, but this year they started to munch on it at the height of the drought, so I moved it to the deck to keep it out of their reach. The pruning set it back a bit, so it only started to bloom this past week, several weeks later than usual.

 

Brazilian Salvia 'Black and Blue'

 

I just love the color!

August Few Bloom Day

Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis)

 

Today is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, hosted by Carol Michel's May Dreams Garden Blog. Here in the northwest corner of Virginia, my Zone 6b garden continues to suffer from the drought that has affected the entire Shenandoah Valley this year. Other parts of the state have received some relief lately with summer storms, but the storms have brought only a little in the way of water for my garden. This August we are still short of even one inch of rain with half the month already past!

 

Another Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis)

Lobelia 'Starship Rose'

 

The worst part is that with very little to browse in the forests, the wild creatures have been extremely voracious--both deer and rabbits have been making deeper inroads into my garden than ever before, leaving me few flowers to enjoy.

A newly planted Cardinal flower and the Lobelia 'Starship Rose' above had to be fenced off to protect them. After their tops got munched I could see that I'd have no flowers otherwise. The first photo is  of one tiny cardinal flower that mysteriously popped up in the front yard--I have no recollection of having planted it there, but perhaps it came with some bee balm that I'd transplanted from somewhere else.

 

My front yard.

The hardy begonias in the front yard have been decimated, I wonder if they'll have any flowers this year? The other plants along my front walk aren't exactly putting on a dazzling display, but there are a few exotic flowers among them, like my Cuban rain tree (Brunfelsia nitida) and the double Tuberoses in bud. I planted the Tuberoses last year, but they didn't bloom, and I'm waiting for the buds to open so I can inhale their lovely scent.

 

Cuban rain tree (Brunfelsia nitida) with a blossom.

Double Tuberose buds.

Salvias and tropical plants along the front walk.

Other parts of the garden are looking pretty sad. I usually have spectacular display of blue Lobelias this month, but this year most of the buds have been eaten by deer, and only a few have escaped.

 

Blue Lobelia (Lobelia syphillitica)

Blazing meadow star (Liatris ligulistylis)

 

Only one spike of the Blazing Meadow Stars came up this spring, but it got eaten down, and only a few flowers have re-sprouted. The newly-planted Liatris 'Kobold' was eaten back too; that hasn't re-sprouted at all. The Stella de Oro daylily buds were eaten, as were all my other daylilies. Only now is one flower spike of Stella starting to rebloom.

 

Stella de Oro daylily.

The potted plants on my porch and back deck are about the only ones the critters can't get to, and even they aren't exactly dazzling--just getting by, perhaps..

Hanging basket on porch.

Plants on the front porch.

Zinnias, orchids and begonias on the back deck.

 

A yellow 'Benary's Giant' Zinnia I planted from seed has started to bloom--one of the few that made it, most got eaten, probably by rabbits.

Zinnia 'Benary's Giant'

My Abelia 'Panoramic Color Radiance' has put forth one tiny flower spike, let's hope it will have a few more, but the plant's variegated foliage is so beautiful on its own, it may not need to flower.

 

Abelia 'Panoramic Color Radiance'

 

The new bed with the Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) grown from seed hasn't filled in yet, but there are a few plants in bloom. The ensemble with white salvia, mountain mint, a sedge and oat grass will look better as it fills in with time, and hopefully become a pollinator magnet.

White Salvia with sedge, slender-leaved mountain mint, oat grass and Anise Hyssop.

Tomato harvest.

 

This year the only thing that has flourished are my deck-grown tomatoes: Roma, cherry and yellow pear. Please pray for rain for our parched gardens in Virginia!