What is left of the garden at the end of Sept.
Fall flowers
Salix ~~ your gardens are looking great, especially for the end of September. Here's a pic of a "free" garden Mother Nature gave me (impatiens reseeded in lava rock in an area up close to the house). It wasn't a planned garden but I'm not complaining :-)
The Nicotiana was also a gift. I have 6 and haven't grow it in years. Amazing what pops up. I have a Petunia in another bed and have never grown them.
Herman
Very pretty! Have you ever grown the nicotiana from seed? Everyone tells me it is easy, but I have had zero luck myself.
The seed drops from the plant after ripening and sprouts in the spring. It's been so long since I've had Nicotiana I can't even remember if it was in that bed. I have 6 plants and didn't plant a seed. Last year it was yellow cosmos that volunteered to grace my garden. One year it was Prickly Poppy that doesn't grow in OH, but lasted for 3 years. The joys of gardening.
Herman
I picked these flowers from my garden today. I love fall flowers. The arrangement consists of goldenrod, flamingo celosia, Thomas Edison dahlia, swamp sunflower, and some kind of purple basil that gets huge and sets some mean seed heads. Oh and I tucked in a leaf from a sweet potato vine. The weather here has been so nice i have actually been able to get out and enjoy the garden!
Poke berries are a nice addition. Too bad they don't keep. Birds love them but the seeds don't digest and are deposited along with a bit of fertilizer under my Spruce trees and any where else the birds roost. Unfortunately I'm a Yankee and can't cook the greens properly.
Is that what those are? I wasn't sure but they are all over the place around here.
That is poke salat. The young greens are the only edible part. Root, stems mature leaves and berries are all poisonous. It only spreads by seed, but once the root starts, it can grow to 6" aroundd and 2 ft deep. Plants make a good addition to the compost pile.
Herman
Your fall garden is lovely - which white iris is that? I have two rebloomers, Total Recall and Lo Ho Silver, a white median. I also have some late cut back fuchsia yarrow that is blooming so well. It is about the last thing still in bloom after a couple of frosts that killed most everything else. I didn't cut it back real early and the timing was perfect for a late garden! I am so thrilled to learn this I will have to get some more yarrow next year. I set a hoop of cut off fencing over the plants and they grow through it and stand up very nicely. Where do you think the Nicotinia seed came from? In the soil for years? Dropped by a bird? Inside a nursery plant? I love the unexpected surprises of a garden!
People at the Iris Forum think it is Immortality. I have been covering it at night and have 2 more stems to bloom. I have no idea where the Nicotiana came from. There are no other flower gardens in the area. A cast-off cigarette? It is probably over 10 years since I had them The only other place I had them was at the GF 's and they died out there, too. I brought the Rudbeckia from there as a seedling this year. It is the result of Indian Summer bought many generations ago. It keeps reseeding, but I think the plants have changed. The top flowers are showing signs of frost. The Verbena Boriensis has also succummed. It did stand some light frosts. High temps in the 60's are expected. We may go a week w/out rain. A major drought for this year.
Salix
I too think your Iris is Immortality. I love the pure white of immortality, don't you?
I love your garden in September and I am especially a fan of the nicotiana - it adds just the right punch of white and the shape of the flowers really adds something to the garden as well.
Thanks. There are still a lot of changes to be made, too many things are taking up too much space. Russian sage and
Sundrops want to take over. A lot of Iris have to go, too.
Herman
salix_man, It's funny about seeds, they blow in or stay dormant for years.
I have wishbone flower, tourenia, still coming up in my partial shade gardens every Fall.
It must be 6 or 7 years since I last bought a flat. Since I am trying to limit the amount of non-natives, and it is determined to come up among the patches of bluets, Houstonia caerulea, I am carefully nurturing to spread, I keep moving them to my neighbors garden where they never come back.
Never plant Gaura. Although very pretty, they cannot be dead-headed and seed profusely. Houstonia was the first Latin name I learned. I was around 7 walking with a botonist on our farm. He was telling me the names of plants when I said "I know that one, it's a P--s-a-bed". I was corrected. After 70 years I remember Houstonia. It grows more abundantly in NE CT where I grew up. I saw little of it in NJ where I lived before coming to OH.
Herman
7 was early to start your Latin education. Isn't it wonderful to remember those early garden stories? Thanks for sharing.
It took me 3 tries and 3 different areas of the garden before the Houstonia would grow for me but then I read it likes to grow in moss and it is very happy now.
It's new competitor is a very vigorous salvia lyrata which is seeding everywhere.
Since I planted the S. lyrata and want it in the garden as a ground cover I'll have to manage it better and remove stray plants. It has nestled nicely among the bluestones though.