September Bloom Day

Blue Lobelias

 

Hard to believe September Bloom Day is here--Bloom Day on the 15th of every month is hosted by Carol Michel's May Dreams Garden Blog--welcome to my Zone 6B garden in Virginia, friends! It's been a dry August and even drier September so far, with no relief in sight--my garden isn't looking its best, despite lots of very expensive watering.

My native blue Lobelias, which normally bloom during August, started to bloom quite late this year but are still going, though the foliage is yellowing (admission: some of my photos were taken from two to ten days ago). This year I kept them sprayed so the deer wouldn't eat the flower buds, and that worked. 

The one original plant I bought and put under my 'Bloodgood' Japanese maple has multiplied amazingly over the past twelve years--this year I have several white-flowered mutants in this expanse under the three Japanese maples in my woodland garden on the east side of the house.

 

East garden woodland with blue and white Lobelias

Blue Lobelia clump

White Lobelias

 

Tropical Salvias are a great attraction for our hummingbirds at this time of the year--I love seeing them come by to feed. This summer I expanded my previous purchases of  'Black and Blue' and tried again last year's 'Bodacious Hummingbird Falls' which hadn't done well the previous year. I added 'Amistad' and 'Faye Chapel' to my selections. The 'Bodacious Hummingbird Falls' in the hanging basket seems to be the star this year--the hummers have visited this one so much--they can't leave it alone!

 

Salvia 'Bodacious Hummingbird Falls'

 

'Amistad' and 'Black and Blue' in pots along the front walk have attracted their share of hummers too, and the Fuchsia 'Billy Green' on the front porch. 

  

Front walk in the evening

  

Salvia 'Black and Blue'

 

 

Miniature yellow Dahlia along front walk.

 

The big red Salvia 'Faye Chapel' also on the front walk, proved too tempting for the deer (they'll eat some salvias!), they kept eating back the buds until I moved the pot to the deck, where they can't get at it. It finally started to bloom earlier this month, but it hasn't attracted as many hummers as the others--why I can't imagine, with that luscious color! Perhaps it's getting late in the season--I have the feeling that most of our local hummers have already left for more southern parts, and the ones we're seeing now are migrants from farther north. The nights have been getting cooler and these hummers sure are hungry!

Salvia 'Faye Chapel'

Double Tuberose blooms

My double Tuberose finally put out two blooming spikes--better late than never, the scent is delicious!

The foliage of our dogwoods is turning, which is normal for this time of the year, but a number of other trees are exhibiting early signs of fall, probably more due to drought than the season. We're still getting eighty-degree days.

 

Front walk in early morning.

Reworked stone path

 

A few weeks ago, tired of seeing the stone path across my long island bed drowned in crabgrass again, I decided to take up all the stones, get rid of the crabgrass, and put down some weed barrier cloth before setting them back. I thought a bit of gravel between the stones might look nice and keep the path weed-free. 

Good Lord, was it hard work--now I know why they call it "hardscape"! A bag of pea gravel weighs a ton, carrying it out from my car to the back yard was almost more than I could do! My husband Herb couldn't help--doctor's orders--so I had to do it all by myself. But it's finally finished--next spring I'll try to do the same with the stone threshold of the veggie pagoda. I wish the contractor had had the presence of mind to put down weed cloth there before he laid out those stones!

In addition, I expanded the bed in front of the enclosure to put in three new Salvia plants--'Pink Nebula'-- and re-planted the 'Purple De Oro' daylilies that the deer were eating back. The light blue Salvia that was there got moved to the left side of the path. The soil in that part of my garden is 100% rock and clay, very inhospitable, I worked in two cubic feet of clay-breaker mulch in there plus compost--more back-breaking work! I sure hope to see the rewards next spring.

 

Herb's bed  with Texas Red Salvia

'Autumn Joy' Sedum with Muhly grass

Moving to the right of the enclosure in Herb's bed, the Sedum 'Autumn Joy' blossoms are turning pink while the Muhly grass is getting ready to put forth its airy plumes. The Agastaches and blue Ageratum are still blooming, but starting to slow down, showing stress from the drought. The pink Gaura is blooming beautifully.

The 'Autumn Joy' in the other bed keeps getting eaten by the deer, despite my barriers, so it looks very skimpy. The few Chrisanthemum plants I have left are starting to open too.

 

Agastaches in Herb's bed

Pink Gaura

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The autumn-blooming Colchicums I planted last fall have started to pop up in the back bed, with a little bit of watering, but they're not very impressive at this point.

 

Colchicum bornmuelleri

 

Colchicum album

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another expansion project I'd like to undertake is joining up Herb's bed with the one just outside the veggie enclosure. I don't know if I'll be able to do it this fall, as I'm teaching three art classes; one class in Maryland's Eastern Shore is a two-day class, and will require two nights' stay at a local hotel. I may have to put off this project till next spring. I want to have more herbs in my garden, and perhaps a tiny water feature like a tub for a waterlily. One can always dream.

 The Badlands bed has the Prairie sage showing its sky-blue blossoms right now--the native sunflowers that complement it so well had most of their flowers eaten by deer. But these are still blooming in the veggie enclosure, along with some companion plant Marigolds and Asian eggplant.

 

Prairie blue Sage

Native sunflowers (Helianthemum annuus)

 

Marigolds and Asian eggplants in the veggie garden

A friend gave these native wild Poinsettia plants, but the deer kept eating them--after spraying them I finally got to see the red flowers--they're tiny but so cute!

 

Euphorbia Cyathophoria

 

My Viburnum 'Brandywine' is now at its most spectacular--when the pink berries start to turn blue, and the bush exhibits both colors--with the foliage turning red, it's just stunning this year!

 

Viburnum 'Brandywine'

 

I created a painting of this plant recently to put in a show presented by the Botanical Artists Society of the National Capital Region (BASNCR), the chapter of the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) that I belong to. Our show, titled "Autumns Splendor" is now at Montclair Library in Dumfries, VA, where it will hang until the end of October.

 

Viburnum 'Brandywine' and Clearwing Hummingbird Moth, watercolor and graphite.

 

The porch baskets are showing seasonal wear and tear--these purple petunias have the most wonderful scent I've come across in a petunia. They came from a mix called 'Pretty Grand' that a local nursery was selling. Oddly enough, the other colors barely have any scent, but at night these purple ones permeate the air on the porch. I hope I can find these again next year, though I'd prefer all-purples ones.

 

 

'Pretty Grand' Petunias

Porch basket with Bacopa, purple Ipomoea, Petunias and Pelargonium

Indoors, a miniature Dendrobium is blooming--the plant was so vigorous that I divided it into two during the summer, and both are blooming now!

 

Pink Dendrobium orchid

 

Dendrobium orchid with two blooming spikes.

 That's it for this month, thanks for visiting!

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!