October Bloom Day A Bit Late

Agapanthus 'Galaxy Blue'

The first flower scape of Agapanthus 'Galaxy Blue' was devoured by deer in early summer, and with it being so dry, it is only now that the plant has decided to re-bloom. Its deep blue flowers complement the red bush Salvia next to it. I kept thinking this Salvia was 'Windwalker Royal Red' and referred to it as such, but today I ran across the plant label (I save them so I can later identify the variety, but I sometimes lose track of them) and found out it is actually a red bush Salvia 'Maraschino.'

 

Red bush salvia

I was away the week before, attending the ASBA Annual Conference in Mobile, AL and missed posting at Carol Michel's May Dreams Garden's "Bloom Day" on the 15th. When I tried to post, I had trouble loading the images onto my blog. It took a while to figure out how to change the settings to fix the problem, so it's only now that I'm catching up with October Bloom Day. 

The pink Muhly grasses are sporting their feathery plumes as the leaves begin to turn--amazing what a transformation can take place in one week!

 

Herb's bed in October.

The Verbascum 'Southern Charm' my sister gave me is re-blooming, and the few Chrysanthemums that didn't get eaten by deer over the summer are also in bloom. The red variety is very pretty; I bought the orange one at Lowes' recently and am looking for a spot to plant it in the ground.

 

Verbascum 'Southern Charm'

Red Chrysanthemums

Orange Chrysanthemum.

The yellowwood tree ( Cladrastris kentukea) in the west side had turned gold when I got home last week, and this week the hickories in the woods behind our house are turning. The oaks are just starting show a bit of color.

West side bed with yellowwood tree turning gold.

The woods in back from the deck.

The back yard from the west side.

 

The aromatic asters are starting to bloom, but aren't fully open yet. My oldest clump seems to be hollowing out in the center, an indication that it will need to be broken up and re-planted next spring.  Two other clumps that were separated and planted in other beds aren't making much of a show yet.

 

Aromatic asters (Symphyotrichum oblongifolius)

 

I brought in most of my tender houseplants before leaving on my trip, just in case there might be a frost while I was gone. When I got back from my trip, the yellow hibiscus greeted me with lots of flowers--I rarely see this many at one time.

Yellow hibiscus.

I wonder if there will be any flowers in my garden for November Bloom Day? Surely the first frost will come before then.

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.

The Mushroom Factory

 

Mushrooms growing on fallen oak tree.

Last weekend's tropical storm Ophelia dropped more than 2.5 inches of very welcome rain on our area. It's been such a dry year, I hadn't seen a single mushroom all spring and summer. Yesterday, after all that rain, seemed like a good time to look for mushrooms. I went out back to forage for specimens to sketch, and look what I found! A wealth of fungi on the fallen trunks of the old oak tree that came down two years ago--it's like having my very own mushroom factory!

 

The base of the oak trunk.

The base of the old oak tree had these Turkey Tail polypores laddering their way up the trunk in lovely shades of violet and brown. The fallen trunks were covered with tiny orange colored polypores, as well as Turkey Tails, Coral Polypores, and Lord knows what else.

 

Greenish polypores, likely algae on old Turkey Tails.

Polypores growing on fallen tree trunk.

 

Coral polypores (Byssomerulius incarnatus).

More Coral polypores.

These look like Lion's Mane mushrooms, but I'll have to take a closer look to make sure. Mushrooms can change quite a bit as they develop.

 

Lion's Mane mushrooms (Hericium erinaceus)?

After reconnoitering here, I crossed the drainage ditch and went up the hill into my neighbor's woods, and found several single mushrooms growing here and there, but nothing like the profusion on the rotting logs. The three specimens I collected on the hill, I suspect are the same variety of mushroom, but at different stages of development.

 

Agaricus placomyces?

 

The annulus, the ring that encloses the veil which some mushrooms have is clearly visible on the stem. Unfortunately I didn't take photos of the other two in situ, but in my sketches you can see that the youngest specimen (lightest in color) had a conical cap and the veil still covered the gills completely. The veil began to detach from the cap as it dried out. The third stage is between the mature and the young, with the veil still partially attached to the cap and the gills turning dark.

 

Sketchbook page, Agaricus placomyces.

Specimens collected on Sept 26 (upper l to r):  Puff-ball fungi, unidentified, maybe Inocybe sororia, Coral Polypore, acorns.

I drew the ones below yesterday from  fresh specimens collected that day. For a minute I thought the beautifully colored polypore could be the edible Chicken-of- the-woods mushroom but it's not yellow enough to be that, so Coral Polypore is the best ID I can do with my limited knowledge.

Mushroom sketches: Puff-balls, Inocybe sororia and Coral Polypore.

Meadow mushroom in our lawn (Agaricus campestris)

And here's another sketch from my Fungi sketchbook. I'll have to keep an eye on the mushroom factory in the woods as the season progresses--who knows what else might show up?

Mosaic Worshop at the Red House

Amanda McGuire's Red House Residence mosaic.

 

Two weeks ago I returned to the Red House in Bath County to take part in the workshop offered by the then-current resident artist Anne Atkins, a master in mosaics. Anne is from the Richmond area, and I met her through the Chickahominy Colored Pencil Artists (CCPA) group. I wasn't sure exactly at what time the workshop was starting, so I left my house early in the morning for the two and a half hour drive there. 

It was very foggy when I left, I could only see about 50 feet in front of me while moseying out of my neighborhood. As I sped out onto I-66 and then south on I-81 the fog gradually cleared, and somewhere before reaching Harrisonburg, the sun broke through the clouds for dramatic glimpses of our valley and its mountains with wisps of fog. 

 

Anne (standing) preparing for the workshop.

By the time I got there it was 10:30 AM and sunny. As it turned out, the workshop didn't start until 1:00 PM, so I had a chance to visit with Judy, the artist who helps Amanda with the artist residency, as well as Anne. Anne's old pit bull Sumac kept her company during her stay at the Red House, and she'd also brought her three lovely pet painted finches.

The workshop was held in the roofed shed next to the Red House; Amanda had set up another tent next to it so we could spread out and have plenty of room to work--the day was very warm and an electric fan kept us cool.

 

Anne with students.

Anne answers questions.

Anne had all the materials organized: different colors and sizes of mosaic tiles (both ceramic and vitreous), glass, and broken shards of pottery in zip-lock bags, 8"x 8" plywood panels for the supports, small plastic bottles filled with glue, tile cutters and files for each student and a styrofoam tray to sort our tiles and apply the glue, everything was so well planned!

There were seven of us there, and a few of us already had an idea of what we wanted to create, while others improvised, inspired by the assortment of colors and textures. We settled down to our work while chatting, and the afternoon just flew by. In the middle of the afternoon it started to rain lightly, but under the tent, everyone stayed dry and kept on working until the rain eventually tapered off.

We didn't have time to get into the grouting portion of the workshop, since only a few of us had finished gluing the pieces to our substrate, myself included--I particularly loved including a few of Judy's colored pencil stumps for the stem of my flower. One always wonders what to do with these stumps of colored pencils, it seems like such a shame to throw them out when they become too short to be usable.

We had so much fun! It can be tricky, trying to fit these small pieces of tile, glass or found objects the way one would fit a jigsaw puzzle, but it sure can be addicting! Take a look at some of the pieces created during the workshop--each one is so original!

 

Judy's "picassette" style mosaic with costume jewelry and beach glass.

Nell's flower and bee mosaic (in progress)

Amy's crab mosaic (in progress)

My ruby-throated hummingbird mosaic (in progress).

  

Most of the participants left right at 4 o'clock, and I wasn't able to photograph everyone's piece. I stayed a bit longer trying to get my piece as far along as I could but there wasn't enough time to finish it, so Anne was very kind to let me take the cutters and materials home to try to finish my piece here.

There weren't enough vitreous white tiles to finish the background, but I visited the website Anne had recommended and purchased a small package of those, and one of assorted tile colors, hoping to create more mosaics later on. My ruby-throated hummingbird with cardinal flower mosaic is now complete, and ready to grout.

 

Ruby-throated hummingbird and cardinal flower mosaic.

 

Even Fewer Blooms Day

 

Black Cotton Flower (Gossypium herbaceum 'Nigra'), watercolor, 12" x 9".

Today the 15th is garden bloggers Bloom Day, hosted by Carol Michel's "May Dreams Garden.' This month I have even fewer flowers than in August. While the drought continued the deer managed to eat further and further into my plantings, stripping my hydrangeas and anything edible. A couple of thunderstorms finally brought us a good drenching at the beginning of the month, and now everything seems to be growing once again. But, with the plants and buds gone, very little is left to bloom. So, instead, I'm headlining my post with some blooms in a painting. I painted this little watercolor last week from photos taken last year--one of the black cotton plants I like to grow from seed in pots on my deck.

The flowers of the cotton plant hide under the foliage, so it's easy to miss their extraordinary beauty: the exquisite veining of the petals, and the dragon-like dark bracts that will enclose the boll after the flower fades. Here's a look at the blossom from above (taken last year).

 

View of black cotton flower from above.

 

Here are a few more blooms for today--my hanging baskets were out of the deer's reach, but they didn't exactly fill out as much as I would have liked. Trying to keep these going through the drought, my water bill went through the roof last month!

 

One hanging basket on porch.

Second hanging basket on porch.

Out in the yard there are a few flowers that have been spared by the deer, but these aren't making much of a display. My Viburnum 'Brandywine' is displaying its lovely berries turning pink--later on they will turn dark blue.

Viburnum 'Brandywine'

'Texas red' Salvia

The 'Texas red' Salvia I planted this year is just starting to bloom--you can see the deer ate the top bud. Rather unusual, I've never seen deer go after any members of the Salvia family before this year. My Agastache 'Blue Boa' is one they didn't touch--will definitely plant more next year.

 

Agastache 'Blue Boa'

 

Inside my enclosed veggie patch the eggplants are still flowering, along with Marigolds, Roma tomatoes and Calendula 'Neon.' I have one small pumpkin of 'Galeux d'Eysines' growing, which I don't think will get much bigger, now that it's starting to show the characteristic "peanuts" that indicate sugar deposits.

 

Eggplant flower

French Marigolds.

Calendula 'Neon'

'Galeux d'Eysines' pumpkin

The Jerusalem artichokes in a grow-bag became enormously tall this year: the tallest flower stalk is probably nine feet tall. I have yet to harvest these, let's hope the rhizomes will be as impressive as the flowers. Whereas my fingerling potatoes, in a matching grow-bag, didn't amount to much--just enough for a couple of meals.

Jerusalem artichoke flower stalks.

 

The three Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue' shrubs I had died off last winter, only one plant put out a few shoots, but some volunteer seedlings have started to grow to replace them--I have no idea if these come true from seed, but the new plants seem to be similar, though not as tall.

 

Seedlings of Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue'

Russian sage

I have two of varieties of Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) flanking each side of this group of arbor vitae: one is the ordinary genus, but I think this one is a dwarf variety which has turned out to be much taller than I'd expected.

 

Mushrooms in flower beds.

 

This morning I found some mushrooms growing in my weedy flower beds--maybe the pleated ink-cap?--first mushrooms I've seen in this entire, very dry year. The day before I had noticed something strange growing in one my houseplant pots inside, and upon closer examination found three mushrooms growing in there too!

 

Mushrooms growing in houseplant pot.

 

Looking on-line to try to guess what variety they might be, it's likely these are Leucoprinus birnbaumii, AKA "flowerpot parasol." There's always so much to learn from one's garden, I love having my own laboratory!