Show Your Late Summer and Fall Treasures Here (2)

Yes, and 4 more phlox arrived today! Yippes! I told you I was an addict. I didn't show you the back yard. Today I planted an iris back there that had been in a pot for 3 years! It is amazing how healthy it looks.

I'm still waiting for lily order and allium order to arrive. It feels weird not to have any baby perennial seedlings to get settled in the nursery for the winter. o well finally sorted all my seeds this week and I have enough to plant a whole new garden so there will be lots of babies to tend to next year ^_^

I am envious of you lucky ones who have space left to plant. I have a garden full and filling. The one good thing though the trees are getting big enough so he woodland gardens are good to finish planting the shade plants I have to put down.

My lilies haven't come either and the only alliums I am waiting on are garlic. I am going to put in a row of shallots, too -- assuming I have enough time. They grow really well here.

I tried shallots in the spring one year and they only produced soso. Is it better to put them in in the fall like garlic?

This is my late summer/early fall treasure - sugar snap peas still flowering! These are the plants I planted in the spring. (Sorry that the picture is sideways, but I can't figure out how to rotate it. It's been rotated on my computer, but it keeps attaching like this.)

I saw my first hummer here Saturday. It was feeding in my calibrachoas. They're right on the edge of the balcony, giving the birds good access.

What do you know! There are still some around! I haven't seen or heard any.

I think mine are gone too.

I haven't seen any at my house for at least a week it seems like. I still have the straggler theory, that some may be coming in late.

I'm workin with that theory too roybird. Although I doubt it with the 'blackbird vs bluejay' gang war that's going on in the hood right now for the feeder. Shades of West Side Story!!! I'm cheering for the Jays. Singing: lalala 'When you're a Jay you're a Jay all the way, and you're blue like the sky which is why you can fly..." (ok, I know, don't quite your day job ;))

Whatever you're having, I want some, too! We have a visiting blue jay recently. She flies right up to our front window and makes rude remarks to my parakeets. No black birds, though.

Gosh,
We are loaded with Ravens who fly through the tall pines at alarming speeds. I can't believe I haven't found any dead Raven bodies at the bottom of my trees. The sit in the trees and speak to one another in a language my DH and I marvel at. Sometimes they are flirting and other times they are yelling at one another.
They ignore us and I am really glad. I recently read in the NYTimes or Washington Post that all members of the blackbird family can recognize human faces and react accordingly. If you have been nice to them they come around looking for handouts. If you have been nasty too them they harass you and follow you everywhere!
We have just ignored them -- except for observing them -- and they act like we are trees or something to be dodged.
They are fascinating to watch and, by bird standards, huge!

My MIL in AZ puts a handful of nuts on her porch every day for the jays, If she misses a day, they get really obnoxious.

Bob o boy do I scolded if the 'jay' feeder is empty. Paj, ravens are the smartest birds I've met. When I lived in the arctic they worked as a team to move large dumpster covers to get at the goods. The Department of Renewable Resources tried to catch them by setting traps and they worked as as a team to spring them, get the goods and escape. They used to drop tennis balls from the nearby tennis courts on the roof of the trailer I lived in when I first moved there just to tick me off cuz I tricked them on the dog food. They used to tease the neighbours husky; one would taunt her to the end of her chain away from her bowl while the rest would steal her food. HA! Just add a foot to the dogs chain and alls fair. After that tennis balls were dropped on my roof for a month. Very Hitchcockian.

Dan Hinkley raised a baby crow in his back yard and when he went to school it followed him and sat outside the room screaming "Edgar" at him and trying to get in. He was lucky because he could get out of school and take him home and put him in the cage till he got home. He followed us everywhere. They can get much of our language and do a good job at saying it back.

Mary Had a Little...Crow? LOL who's Edgar?

I heard that the ravens in some town in Alaska figured out that if they covered the light sensor on a street light with their wings, the light would come on and warm them up - clever!

Great story about Dan Hinkley's crow! So much more interesting than having your dog follow you to school! I assume Edgar was referring to Edgar Allen Poe's Raven?
I used to be a high school teacher and for some reason one year we did not have a cafeteria so the schools provided brown bag lunches in the school lunch program. The kinds would eat this or that out of them then throw them in the dumpster -- which didn't have a top. And pretty soon they were scattered all over the school property. The principle began to get a little nutty on the subject and claimed that the ravens were going to the dumpster and taking the bags and eating what they wanted from them then dropping the rest on people like bombs! They probably have a sense of humor, too. And who knows what all those teenagers inflicted on them.

I love Raven stories. They might be my favorite birds. I didn't want to bring it up but, my parakeet, Beatrice died this morning. She had been sick with what was most likely a cold and getting bird antibiotics. We thought she would pull through and seemed to be improving. But, we were wrong. Now, Spot, her buddy, is calling and looking for her. It is so sad. She was not terribly old, maybe 8 years. If it wasn't for Spot being so unhappy I wouldn't get another one. I'm going to play the radio for him all day because he likes the music and voices. Classical music, he likes best.

O that's so sad roybird. Soory to hear. Is Spot also a parakeet?

Oh, I am so sorry to here about Beatrice! Your birds have such personalities! I hope Spot doesn't catch what she had. Glad to hear Spot has good taste in music.
Someday you have to meet Green Jay and hear about her African Gray Parrot. It is an absolute hoot. ( screech?) It loves football on TV and her dogs. It has so much personality.
And I know your little parakeet had a lot too. I am so sorry for you and for Spot.

Thanks for the sympathy. Yes, Spot, is a parakeet. He's doing better now. He ate almost a whole leaf of chard and listened to classical music most of the day. I like African Gray Parrots best of the parrots! They are really smart. Spot seems quite healthy. He is younger, too. I think we didn't get their heater on soon enough. Poor Beatrice had always been sensitive and getting ailments so maybe it was just her time to go.

Phlox 'David' oops too much sun. I'll post a better pic when its all open

Cone and bee. You will note chomps in some of petals in these picks. I have someone with big teeth right now and I don't know who. I call it the 'chomper'.

White balloon

Seedum 'Autumn Joy' and mum.

Rudbeckia and mum

A berriful year for the mountain ash. Maybe just maybe I'll get some cedar waxwings (hope,hope)

I luv the oxalis at this time of year when it turns hot pink instead of deep purple. I will miss it when I amend this bed. It will have to be banished to the lane of disaster due to its agressive nature.

The lobelia 'Crystal Palace' looks very blue against the forsythia mini-gold.

and repeated up the path.....

... because it leads to my new blue nook (one of this years projects so ignore the construction debris). I'm quite pleased with the rudbeckia seedlings showing. Hopefully it will bigger and fuller next year. Its fronted by arabis which is a sea of white in the spring.

Your rudbekia is lovely, what is the pretty fuchsia red plant? Don't tell me it is a fuschia.
Did I tell you all that I toured a really beautiful property this past weekend with the Herb Society of America? There were 19 different gardens there, each with a different theme. You would have loved it, all of you. The owner is in her 90s and is a life member of the Herb Society of America. Very nice lady.

No fuschia this year in my garden. Which pic paj?

The pic of the rudbekias with the blue bench and garden gate with cute window. There is something fuschia colored amidst them.

That oxalis is really pretty Dahlia, what variety is it? And it's aggressive?

Sorry to have dropped off but I just got to Juneau today. 'Edgar Allen Crow' was the name of Dan's baby crow. I sat out the window repetitively calling his name when summer ended and school started. Of course the teacher knew it was Dan's crow because as soon as we got out of school it would fly to Dan and land on his head or shoulder. Edgar was a summer time fun toy. Though he would never shut up and we had to take him out of town many miles to get him to "wean" his dependence on we humans. Never raised any more after that another learning mistake of bringing the wild home.
Does the oxalis reseed in Calgary? Mine does in Montana but not aggressively. I use it to fix nitrogen in my soil and look pretty.

Paj. The fushia plant is the John Cabot rose which has shot up a few canes that are too late to prune now. So its a bit floppy. Oxalis is oxalis siliguosa 'Sunset Velvet' very pretty with its dark purple leaves and tiny bright yellow flowers in the spring. It is a prolific selfsower here so you have to watch it. I suppose I could always dead head it.

The fuschia color is gorgeous. I have a little volunteer Oxalis. I don't recall seeing it bloom, but luckily it isn't wet enough here that it will spread and take over as it does in some places. I think it is a cheery looking little plant, myself. Haven't tried any of the nursery versions, but perhaps I should.