Fall arrived in the Northern Hemisphere at the moment of the autumnal equinox on Monday, September 23. I was not ready to accept that summer was over, but my gardens have since convinced me with their tangled mess of some-living and many-dying plants. In addition, today the weather turned most definitely fall-like with much cooler temperatures. I donned a sweater and headed out with my camera to capture those flowers surviving amidst the end-of-season chaos. (I really must begin the fall clean-up soon.)
At last, the cosmos are blooming cheerfully in the cutting garden. I don't know what they are called; they were part of a packet of free wildflower seeds that I scattered randomly.
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| Cosmos blooms atop their tall feathery stalks |
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| The Kitchen Garden with cosmos in the top left-hand corner against the fence -- competing with zinnias. |
The calico asters have self-sown aggressively at the bottom of the Kitchen Garden. Many gardeners find this wild plant quite weedy but I like its tiny white flowers with their maroon and yellow centers.
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| Wild calico aster (Symphotrichum lateriflorum) |
The New England asters in the Cottage Garden are gorgeous.
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| New England aster |
An abundance of leaves have fallen already and those that remain are taking on their autumn hues.
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| Compare the top picture of Serenity Garden taken a couple of weeks ago with the bottom one taken today. |
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| The corn in our fields is turning to gold. The trees are changing too. |
I need to transplant the shrubs that I put in large pots when I purchased them in the spring. The pots gave them height but wont survive the winter. I thought the diervilla would have a brighter orange color but its just yellow. Maybe the color will change as autumn progresses. The sweet autumn clematis on the trellis had few blooms this year. I'm ready to pull it out and plant something else.
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| Shrubs in pots: Left hand side - Diervilla 'Kodiak orange'. Right had side - Ninebark 'Tiny wine'. |
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| The leaves of dwarf cutleaf maple (Acer palmatum) have started to turn red |
Some bee-magnets that are blooming in the Cottage Garden today:
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| Cockwise from top left: Helianthus 'Brown eyed girl', Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna', Agastache foeniculum Anise hyssop, and Caryopteris 'Dark Knight' |
The blooms on Japanese anemone are very sparse this year:
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| Top:Rose (Rosa 'Peace'). Bottom: Japanese Anemone (Anemone 'Honorine Jobert') |
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| Duane planted this white pine a couple of years ago |
It's nearly time to empty out the hanging baskets; the petunias and calibrachoa are very leggy. But as long as there are a few blooms, I'm loath to give them up.
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The sedum that Jonathan planted in the bathtub miniature garden is blooming. I think it's common name is October Daphne.
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| October Daphne (Sedum sieboldii) |
In the bug hotel mason bees are nesting in some of the bamboo tubes and in the drilled holes of the log chips. There is a butterfly chrysalis attached to the bottom but I believe it is no longer viable -- it has been there too long.
Charm, the miniature horse, has begun to acquire his winter coat -- another sign that summer is over.
Summer was over too soon for me. Perhaps I feel that way because because it was such a wonderful one for me this year. Last week there was an article in the newspaper about my GardenComm media award. You can read it HERE. I hope you had a great summer, too.
I'm joining Sarah at Down by the Sea for a September view through her garden gate in Dorset, England.
Wishing you a happy seasonal change, wherever you garden.
Pamela x
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