What\'s Blooming #3

Hi Loretta NJ, just luck that I save the tag ,The name of the Anemone is Hupehenis and I have lots of plants and can send you some if you need.I usually sow the Gromphena from seeds and they do very well I also have white ones too.

That Anemone is very pretty Cytf! I grew Gomphrena for the first time this year and really enjoyed them, I dried some for an indoor arrangement and I harvested the seed from others.

Yesterday:
Cotula 'Tiffindell Gold' and Zauschneria septentrionalis ‘Select Mattole’
Rose 'Elina' with Ceratostigma plumbaginoides
Sedum 'Elsie'Gold' with Heather and Rosemary
Gaura is now 5 ft tall!
Geranium 'Rozanne' 8 feet across, eating my plant ghetto.

Monkshood and a white Echinacea
Helianthus annuus 'Lemon Queen'
Glandularia (Verbena) lilacina 'De La Mina' and Fuchsia procumbens with berries
Commelina tuberosa, the last flower
Japanese Anemone 'Wild Swan with an aster

"September Charm" with persicaria "Golden Arrows" in front:

cytf, I've grown gomphrena from seed before too but since they were easy to get and cheap, I didn't continue it. Plus room is tight under the lights. How far ahead to you start them? Hupehensis is a beauty!
Pistil, so many interesting plants, I have to look some up. But I must ask, do you grow
Commelina tuberosa on purpose?

[quote="rouge21"]"September Charm" with persicaria "Golden Arrows" in front:

Beautiful combo!!!!

I have asters & a few mums blooming and beauty berries by the limbs full.

That is something, Rouge!
Berry nice, Brenda!
A few more berries - Ilex Wintergold, callicarpa Issai, ilex Winterred and Viburnum trilobum start the season.

Wow you guys, you're making me drool. Very nice berries and blooms!!! I wonder if Persicaria "Golden Arrows" is at all drought tolerant, I have a place for something special that competes with tree roots from the neighbor.

Still lusting after that Cotula. Probably another mis-fit for my zone, but so-o-o-o cute!
And I still can't get over my fear of persicaria.
I know it's irrational. But I've spent so much time pulling their kindred.
I can't imagine letting one loose on purpose...
I'm looking forward to my aconitums, which are still just budded up.
A couple weeks from now, they should start popping.

Actually I do have Persicaria "Fats Domino" but it hasn't taken off yet. I got it last year and its still just a stem. I need to get into a happy spot.

I thought both Cotula 'Tiffindell Gold' and Zauschneria septentrionalis ‘Select Mattole’ were pretty exotics and they sure look good together.

Loving the pics, keep them coming!
Loretta- I do grow the Commelina on purpose, have been trying to do a true blue garden (not much success). The flowers are that perfect true blue, and there are lots of them for over 2 months in the summer. After I planted it I found out some Commelina species are invasive. This one may turn out to be invasive, I am getting volunteers, even 40 feet away from the plant, but there are not millions, and they only grow about 4" the first year, so are easy to pull out. We shall see...
Wee- interesting your monkshood have not flowered yet, mine have been flowering for over a month, in fact some are about done, like the one in that photo. I still think you might try the Cotula, in a little pile of gravel or in a brick or gravel path, who knows, it might be fine. It certainly has been one of my better experiments from High Country Gardens, a place that specializes in plants for the high desert!
Rouge- 'Lemon Queen' is a great plant. I also have 'Dakota Queen', but I think I will have to kill it. It is spreading too fast, and now is making babies...LQ seems to be sterile as far as I can tell, but don't tell the bees that, they love it!
Mipii- The Cotula and Zauschneria do look good together. As you can see they are planted in gravel and rocks, not my usual clay. I just planted the Zauschneria this spring, it struggled at first in our long gloomy chilly weather (like all Californians), now looks fine. I really hope it survives, this variety is on the "Great Plant Picks" list for the PNW. I got some Zauschneria seeds from duane in a swap and I am going to try wintersowing them this year.

OK now you have sucked me into shrub photos, which I resisted before (well I guess the rose is a shrub too).
Cestrum 'Orange Peel'
Hamamelis 'Pallida'
Mahonia 'Soft Caress' bloomed last year in winter, this is strange.
Skimmia japonica
Hebe 'Blue Mist' and a dwarf Hyssop I grew from cuttings, blooming in the pot (need to plant these).

Oh yes Hebe, those are what dreams are made of for us Northern gardeners...

Yeah, I thought about not doing the shrubs and I did hold back on the annuals in these threads but the shrub thread didn't continue and nothing is going on in annuals. Plus it's time consuming to keep up with too many threads.
Pistil, I love your shrub collection. I can't believe your Pallida is peeking through! My witch hazels are just forming buds. Mahonia tends to winter burn around here but I love it. Skimmia got terrible fuzzy aphids and killed my plants a few years ago. Now I could manage that but back then I was a beginner.
Must also mention that Wild Swan is adorable! I love the purple reverse.
Now as for the day flower. Be warned. I also let it go because it is an attractive plant but like Lady's Thumb (another one I let have a go), it never leaves and is quite aggressive.

Hi Loretta I sow the Gromphena in March and they are very easy to grow. I put the container on my Window sill that gets the morning sun and they germinate welI . I also have a sunny West room that gets lots of sun too .I only have one grow light but the way I sow my seeds I alternate the seedlings under the light then put them in the sunny room. I saw where Gromphrena can be sowed outdoors in Spring so I will try it this year. I came across some volunteers in my sunny garden beds , so I thinks it works.

Thanks for the information, cytf. Did the self sown plants become mature by the end of the season?

Pistil, I think my aconitum species routinely blooms this late.
I just went out today and both my blue (A carmichaelli Arendsii) and bicolor (A x cammarum Bicolor) are totally budded up, but just barely starting to bloom.
I only found a single bloom of Arendsii practically lying on the ground. And I've been disappointed in Bicolor - the white portion just looks muddy to me. I've been hoping it would improve with maturity, but the plant is a beast (maybe 7ft tall) and no improvement. But these are just the earliest of blooms, so maybe when all those other buds open it will look better.

1. It really is fall now!
2. Finally I found a red helenium "Ranchera". The flowers are very small though and maybe not as nice as Morheim Red Beauty which I never see for sale. But it is smaller.
3. Before I picked up Ranchera, I found Fuego. Most of the plants were a straw color but there was a single yellow and a red which probably fades to straw. These are also very small. Maybe they will do better than all the fancy coreopsis that never return.
5. Also found this Lychnis flos-cuculi Petite Jenny which is suppose to be sterile. It's cute and new to me and it was the last one so I grabbed it. It also reminded me of a new gomphrena that I ran across this year and didn't pick up because it was the end of the season and it was an annual. And there were no seeds on it either. That was Gomphrena globosa 'Cosmic Flare'. Anyone else see it?
http://plantsnouveau.com/plant/gomphrena-globosa-cosmic-flare/

A few other blooming items for me today.
(and now that shrubs are legal, a couple of them, too).
1. Strobilanthes rankanensis. A shrub, not hardy here, so in a pot. It's starting to get big, so not sure what I'll have to do with him. All budded up, but just one open today. As luck would have it, we're leaving town for 2 wks, so I'll probably miss the whole show.
2. A tricyrtis - not sure which one. You can see it's in a cage because they otherwise get eaten.
3. My oxalis crassipes Rosea is going to rebloom. I thought it was done (in June), but it's got new buds and starting to open.
4. Rabdosia longituba is a woodland perennial which is in full bloom now. This blue one is the straight species. I've had both white and a pretty lavender in years past, but either they reverted or I just lost them. The species can be a little rambunctious, but in my woods, I don't mind.
5. My pet plant, Ainsliaea cordifolia has been budded for over a month - today's buds look like they'll open soon. Of course I'll be out of town for the show. Sigh ...

Wow, Loretta, those oranges sure look like fall. I'm jealous for more sun to grow more of those guys. Very nice.

Well if you are going to miss Ainsliaea blooming, so are we! That is a pretty one. I do favor interesting foliage plants.
Now toadlilies are another one of those flowers that just takes great photos. And that shot of Rabdosia longituba came out very nice! That's an interesting plant too and its hardy here!
As for the oxalis, last year I threw a couple of bulbs in the ground and it overwintered although feebly. Still it did. Unfortunately, I pulled it out by mistake. Oh well.

Loretta,

I hear you about the other threads. I stopped posting in peonies or lilies or roses. Not enough active participation. What's Blooming covers a lot of territory.

Loretta, I grow a dwarf variety of Gomphrena called 'Gnome' every year for a border. I start it from seed and it takes off nicely. It blooms all season, still blooming.

What a beautiful border Birder!

Thanks, Robin.
The frilly flower behind it is Agastache rupestris. I really like it. Once it gets started, it blooms until a hard freeze and smells like licorice.

Wow, Birder, I agree, that border is stunning. I had wondered about Gomphrena years ago when I was thinking of starting them from seed, as you did. After those pictures I have no more doubts, and they are in my plans for next year.

Anemone x hybrida 'Honorine Jobert' has been in bloom since August. This is it today. Although a young plant, it has a lot of secondary buds. I got it as part of an order from Forest Farm, and although I almost killed it by planting it with exposure to walnut trees, it has come back. I had this plant before, but I don't remember it being in bloom this long.

Rose de Rescht. It won't stop blooming. I am so happy that I added two more to my original one. The color really stands out.

Just starting to bloom again is salvia viridis in blue. I grew the plants last year, they came back this year from seeds, and now the plants that bloomed this year are reblooming.

The beautiful plumes of miscanthis sinensis 'Morning Light'. It is just about the last Japanese fountain grass to bloom. Worth waiting for.

Gnome - Gomphrena - very pretty, I like that edging Birder. I grow the deep purple gomphrena and I think it could be cut back to be short. So it is good to know that there is a "Gnome". I also like that agastache - that is a new plant for me this year and it bloomed earlier, then when it was 100 degrees or close to it, it backed away from blooming and basically disappeared, but now back and blooming again. It is good to see that yours has done well all along.

Donna - Love those HJ windflowers. Those really look healthy. Such beauties!

I think I have more annual blooming now than perennials right now. Let me see what I can find with perennials - here are a few:

The first photo up us close to the house and there is a mix of both perennial and annual flowers. Perennials such as Autumn Joy Sedum (a favorite of mine), pink guara (bottom left corner), there is a little bit of blue Russian Sage to the back sticking its head up. Then there are the volunteer annual celosia (white & purple).

In the second photo, what I like the most is the yellow Hilanthus Augustafolia which I brought up from a visit to the sister-in-laws in Alabama. This same yellow plant is in the third picture way in the background behind all the annual zinnia & celosia.

Fourth photo is my Angel Trumpet that survived winter in the ground. So it acted as a perennial in a somewhat protected area (close to the septic). HUM~

Wow Brenda, it really pays not to have any neighbors nearby. What a view!
Donna, I love that Honorine Jobert. I did find it and went back for it but someone bought the whole bunch. It's OK though because I did get a few Whirlwind.
Well, that's two for growing gomphrena from seed so I'll have to try if I have room under the lights. I think I need two areas now. One for overwintering plants and one for seed starts. Birder, I never saw such healthy and full gomphrena plants. Mine usually sprawl between other plants. Very nice!

Here are a couple.
1. Whirlwind - as I said, I'm giving anemones one more try. I picked up Snowdrop too. Everything is on sale now so it's hard to resist.
2. Sally Holmes and Grandpa Otts
3. Variegated toad lily Samurai
4. Not the best year for Lightening Strike. It needs better spacing.
5. Tatarian aster is so tall, I can't get a flower shot.

I've been out of town a couple weeks - nice pictures everyone.
I haven't had chance to even check out my yard since getting back,
other than the stench of another dead deer somewhere by the house.
Annoying to spend another $100 or similar to get rid of it.

Brenda, your plantings are amazing.
I've tried Brugmansia in a pot, but not a single bloom after 10 yrs... maybe about time to give up on it?..

Quite chilly today. But with this cooler wetter weather of Autumn persicaria "Golden Arrow" is at its peak.

And while out doing some cleanup I discovered that I have one "Toad Lily".

Even with a close-up these flowers are so small. (I wonder if anyone has done a mass planting of "Toad Lilies" ;))





This message was edited Oct 22, 2016 9:44 AM

Wow, wow, wow you guys! Great photos and specimens. I tried to find me some Persicaria 'Golden Arrow', it's not abundantly available.

I really like that Persicaria "Golden Arrow" and hope I can remember that I want some (and can find it).

Burr - 36 degrees here this morn with ice on the windshield and top of the car. There was lots of fog. I'm hoping the fog held the ice from my zinnia area(especially). Yep - that time of year. It is SAD when everything either dies of goes dormant.

Good for all of you with your toad lilies. Not my specialty.

I've taken cuttings from the Angel Trumpet in the past (sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't). Their fragrance is WONDERFUL when in bloom. They are heavy feeders and require adequate water (so I do occasionally water them especially when they have set their buds early fall).

Loretta - Very pretty Whirlwind as I like the doubleness of it. Doubleness apparently is not a work, but you know what I mean.

Loretta, I put my Gomphrena seed outside after danger of frost in cell pots. It grows quickly. Easy.
I plant Fosterenia Tulips or they are also called Emperor Tulips in that area. They bloom early, then, when they are finished, I plant my Gomphrena. The Emperor Tulips bloom early and have large cups.

'birder', I too love Gomphrena. But each year I plant the seeds in one single container. From seed to flower it develops so quickly!

As well I love "Emperor" Tulips. They flower extra early.