A Warm Fall in my Garden

Colchicum 'Waterlily' bud.

 

Nothing says "fall" like the fall-blooming crocuses: two days ago I saw the first bud of the Colchicum 'Waterlily'  peeking out of the ground. Today, the flower is fully open! I hope there will be a few more flowers, the bulbs have been multiplying slowly. I must plant more fall-blooming crocuses! Maybe try some golden-flowered Sternbergia next year?

Colchicum 'Waterlily'

 

Some seasonal flowers are appearing, but the deer have been so voracious this year, there's not a whole lot left to blossom. I found a few flowering spikes on the smooth blue asters (Symphyotrichum laevis), but by the time I took this photo, the few yellow mums in front had been devoured. This year the local deer have eaten plants I've never known them to touch before: mums, Asian lilies and salvias?

 

Smooth blue asters.

 

I did come across an unusual find--a beautiful deep purple wild aster hiding among the tall weeds in a hard-to-reach area in back. I wonder where it came from? Last year I collected a couple of dead flowerheads from some wild purple asters I found in Warm Springs to broadcast in the back yard, could this be one of them? Or is it a natural hybrid of the wild asters with the smooth blue? I definitely want more of these beauties, and will try to transplant them to more visible locations in my garden.

Volunteer wild aster in a weedy area.

The blue prairie sage I planted this spring hadn't become very tall, but was starting to bloom when the deer devoured them--all that is left are a few bare stems. I hope the plants make it through the winter and have a chance to become established. I've been working on establishing my very own "Postage Stamp Prairie" in the area we call the badlands in back.

Blue sage (Salvia azurea)

Another lovely surprise was to see some buds on the Japanese Anemone 'Honorine Jobert' I planted last year. The deer had been eating this one so much I had to put a wire cloche over it or it wouldn't have lasted very long.

 

Buds of Anemone 'Honorine Jobert'

 

I think this red salvia is 'Royal Windwalker Red' and not 'Texas Red' but I'm not sure--will have to look at my collection of saved labels to find out. This one was munched by deer too, but not badly, and is only now starting its display. The weather predictions say we should be having a warmer than usual autumn, with no frost until the end of the month, which will give these flowers a chance.

Salvia 'Royal Windwalker Red'

Only a few flower buds of the tall swamp sunflowers that usually bloom so profusely in my fall garden escaped the depredations of the deer. Ditto for the Sedum 'Autumn Joy' and the Beautyberries.

 

Swamp sunflowers (Helianthus angustifolius)

Beautyberry 'Early Amethyst' (Callicarpa dichotoma)

Not very noticeable, but I finally found one or two red berries on my 'Berry Poppins' hollies in front--it seems the 'Mr. Poppins' I acquired last year turned out to be a male plant for real. The previous specimen I'd bought had turned out to be female, so let's hope Mr Poppins grows bigger next year for a nice crop of berries..

A berry on "Berry Poppins' holly.

The foliage on the Viburnum 'Brandywine' is turning beautiful shades of red while the berries turn from pink to blue. The white lilac which didn't bloom at all this past spring has put out a few buds now, after the 2.5 inches of rain that tropical storm Ophelia left us. That's the second fall this shrub has bloomed, isn't that odd?

 

Viburnum 'Brandywine'

Pink and blue berries of viburnum 'Brandywine'

White lilac blooming in fall.

Next week I'll be away at the ASBA Conference so I won't be around for the Garden Blogger's Bloom Day on the 15th, but this is what is blooming in my garden now. It's not the masses of flowers I'd hoped for,or even the modest displays of the past, it's been a bad year for gardens here in the northwest corner of Virginia.

Fall Flowers

Swamp sunflowers (Helianthemum angustifolium) by the house.

 

As my birthday comes around once more, the season is marked by some of my favorite fall flowers. First to bloom are the swamp sunflowers, with their cheerful, airy scapes, then the chrysanthemums and the asters. The smooth blue aster (Symphyotrichum laeve) blooms earlier--the flower spikes tend to be tall and slender, but this year, mine were eaten back by deer, and thus pruned, they barely peek out from under the Amsonia behind them.

 

Symphyotrichum laeve with yellowing leaves of Amsonia hubrichtii.

Colchicum 'Waterlily'

The Colchicum 'Waterlily' flowers were spectacular, if short-lived--three gorgeous flowers emerged on leafless stalks. The leaves will sprout in the spring, grow, and then disappear. No signs of the saffron I planted in a wire cage in the back bed this year--Herb caught sight of a squirrel digging up the bulbs I had planted in pots and despite covering those with wire cloches, there's yet a flower to appear. Maybe the squirrels have already eaten all the blooming-size bulbs.

 

Red  'Double Knockout' rose

After a very wet September, the roses are re-blooming. The red 'Double knockout' roses in front look particularly lovely with the amber foliage of the dogwood. My Chrysanthemums were mostly a disaster this year--the plants burned so much during the summer drought, that very few buds were left intact, and the foliage all browned out. To console myself I bought a new pink mum at a garden center, and an ornamental kale. The two complement each other perfectly!

Pink mum with ornamental kale.

The aromatic asters (Symphyotrichum oblongiflolium) usually open a couple of weeks after the swamp sunflowers and last until well into November. In the two weeks since I started writing this post, the asters have opened just as the sunflowers begin to fade.

 

Aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium)

Close-up of the aromatic asters

October dawns on the front garden.

Despite the warm days, in the past two weeks the dogwood tree in front has gone from amber to burnished red, and most of the potted plants that I grow outside are beginning to die back. The cherry tree is turning gold. My pot-grown red Dahlia finally produced a few blooms--well worth the wait!

 

Red Dahlia

 

The weather has been so warm recently, and many of the summer-flowering plants I put in this year didn't start blooming until recently. The Calendula 'Neon', eaten back by the deer until I protected it, didn't produce many blooms until a few weeks ago; the perennial red Salvia planted this year is only now covered with blooming spikes. A shame that these will soon be cut down by the first frost, just as they're looking their best!

 

Calendula 'Neon' grown from seed.

Beautyberry 'Early Amethyst' (Callicarpa dichotoma)

 

Today the air is crisp and much cooler, it feels like the first really autumnal day. The frosts will arrive soon, and usher in the closing chapter of another season in my garden.

September Rains

From the front porch.

 

September has been a very rainy month this year. Historically, my birthday month in this area is quite dry, with an average of 3.8 inches of rainfall, but this year my home weather station recorded 7.45 inches! Most of it came down over two very stormy days and nights, several weeks apart. We had over three inches in one night earlier in the month, and yesterday's rainfall was over two inches! It's great for the garden--all vegetation, but specially trees, really benefit from a wet fall season.

 

The back yard on Sept 30.

The front yard, Sept 30.

The cooler night temperatures have started to bring out the fall colors: the sumac in my back yard has turned deep red, the dogwoods a lovely scarlet, and even some branches of the oaks beyond are starting to change color. I'm hoping we'll have a colorful fall season this year--last year was such disappointment for "leafers" who love the fall colors, myself included.

My veggie patch with wax bean plants.

The harvest.

After harvesting the garlic in late June, I planted some wax beans in one row of the raised bed (the English peas were still occupying the rest of the space). I nursed the plants through the July heat and drought and started harvesting the wax beans in late August. These are continuing to produce--above is this morning's harvest, enough for several meals--I had no idea wax beans would be so productive! I'll definitely grow these again next year.

Viola odorata 'Queen Charlotte'

 

My recently-planted Parma violet 'Queen Charlotte' loved the rain--I bought it for its fragrance, but I've yet to get a scent from it. It hasn't produced many flowers so far, perhaps a certain number of blossoms are needed to produce the classic scent? I'm hoping it will eventually spread to make a dainty ground cover with clouds of lovely fragrance.

 

Herb's bed and the Little Indians

 

During this season, the yellow Chrysanthemums in Herb's bed and the purple asters (Symphyotrichum laeve) in the far side of the Little Indians bed predominate, while the swamp sunflowers (Helianthus angustifolius) and the leaves of the bluestar (Amsonia hubrichtii) turning gold add to the display. Last fall I transplanted some of the swamp sunflower plants from the west side of the house to these beds and they have grown well in their new sites, though not as tall as the ones growing near the house.

 

Swamp sunflowers by the house.

 

Painting demo at Art at the Mill.

 

This past Sunday was my assigned day for a painting demonstration and sale for Art at the Mill, at the Burwell-Morgan Mill in nearby Millwood. This year, the Art at the Mill spring show was cancelled due to the Covid-19 situation. For the fall, in order to avoid large crowds, the show organizers decided to try a new format, booking one artist per day (afternoon) to do a demonstration and bring some of their art to sell. 

 The day dawned very foggy and overcast, and I was afraid that my watercolors wouldn't dry well under such conditions, but fortunately as the afternoon wore on, it cleared up and I was able to do my demo just fine. Just enough people stopped by for me to sell two works, and I had a great challenge painting my beautiful red Dahlias! 

Cathy Kuehner, a photographer who works with the Clarke County Historical Association (the show sponsors), came by and took this photo, and kindly allowed me to use it for my blog. You can visit the CCHA Facebook page here.