Nearing the End of One Bloomin' Season

The days are getting shorter.  The air is getting cooler.  The flowers are slowly disappearing.  Here is what is still blooming in my garden.

Roses.  The Knock-out roses are putting on a lovely show.

Sedum Spectabile is in its full glory with heavy flower heads:

This Sedum Album is not my favorite, but I have a lot of it.  It tends to get top-heavy and fall over, but I do love those lime-leaves.

This Limelight Hydrangea is truly lime-colored:

And Quick-fire is getting hot:

This classic Hosta 'Gold Standard' is lovely sitting under those lime flowers above:

Coral Bells 'Color Flash' is changing leaf color and those red stems really stand out:

And I couldn't resist posting another photo of these beautiful Katsura leaves against the blue sky:

There is a lot of clean-up, which I have already started.  I think my transplanting is done for this fall, but I do need to find a spot for a rose that has been growing in a pot.  Where oh where?  

Thanks for visiting.

One Bloomin' Season - Where is the Rain?

A week ago they warned of heavy rain and damaging winds.  Well, it never happened in my garden. Saturday they again said we were to get rain.  Well, not enough to do much good.  And last night's thunderstorms never arrived.  With temps headed into the 80's it looks like I need to get out and set the hoses.

Not much happening in the garden this week, likely due to temps in the 50's overnight, cool days and no rain.  Here are this week's pics.  Welcome to my garden...entering from the south side pathway.

Green.  Lots of green right now.  Below is a picture of my Sweet Gum tree.  I am at the northern fringe for growing this tree and after two tough winters I was a little worried this spring when it took so long to leaf out.  Fortunately, it made it.  I am standing under the tree for the photo.  The tree has a variegated leaf which accounts for the shades of green.

And those cool temps are already causing the leaves to change color as seen on this double-file viburnum shrub

And this Katsura tree:

The only new flowers to begin blooming this week are the fall blooming sedums.  Here is Sedum Spectabile, just starting to show color.

The highlight right now is the Monarch butterfly enjoying the flowers:

On Joe Pye Weed above and on heliopsis below.

So, heading into the long holiday week-end, I leave you with a picture of the moon on Friday night.  I had wanted to do a comparison of the size of the moon between Friday and Saturday night, since on Saturday it was supposed to be 30% larger in size due to its closeness to the earth.  And then Saturday came and it was all cloud cover.  Oh, well.

Have a great week.

One Bloomin' Season - Week Four

As I sit here preparing this post, it is raining - again.  And they say there is more to come.
Here's what's bloomin' this week.  First, the entrance to the North garden got a little more colorful.

This peony was labelled 'Red Charm' but it is more rose-pink than red, so I think it was mislabeled.  The patio furniture is out and for those of you who like eating your food covered with cottonwood seeds, be my guest.  Why do nice elms and ash trees get killed by insects and not these junky cottonwoods????  UGH!

I love this single white peony.  They remind me of eggs sunny-side up.  Like in this shot:

I don't grow coral bells for their flowers, but this old variety does put on a nice show.  This blooming 'Sweet Tea' (below) is grown for its pretty leaves.

I believe this next photo is Sedum selskianum, but not really sure, so if you know, let me know.

Unfortunately, the last two extreme winters managed to kill two of my old clematis.  This one up against a fence managed to survive, but it is struggling.  I need to use some fungicide on it.

This also was the first year that I had to cut all of my roses down to the ground.  I lost two of them, but this knockout rose is already blooming, probably because it spends the winter in a pot in the garage.

And last but by no means least, the flowers on the Kousa dogwood are opening, just not as large as some years.  It was another rough winter.  Oh, did I already mention that?

A few garden chores still remain.  I still have three more honeysuckle bushes to remove and a very old viburnum needs to have most of the old growth taken out.  Maybe by then the cottonwoods will be down spewing and I can just sit and enjoy the rest of the summer.

As Summer Fades to Fall

I have already begun my fall garden clean-up, but I can't resist taking pictures of what is happening in the garden.  Except for the monstrous bees and wasps and whatever, it is quite beautiful out there.  If I could bottle up today's weather and sell it, I'd be a billionaire.

The seeds on these small coneflowers attract lots of small birds.  And several fall blooming sedums are putting on a colorful show:

 

 

 

Hosta 'Royal Standard' is in full bloom:

As is the very fragrant Hosta 'Fragrant' (duh):

This Maiden grass, which needs to be moved come next Spring, is blooming now,

right next to this sweet autumn clematis.

And speaking of autumn, red leaves and berries are showing up in the yard.  Here is a viburnum already changing color:

And the berries on a high-bush cranberry:

Think I'll go out and enjoy this fine weather while it lasts.

Now You Sedum

For long-time followers of this blog, you might recall that I have spent quite a bit of time trying to identify, remember, catalog, whatever, all of the daylilies and hosta plants that I have in my garden.  I haven't figured out everything, but I have a decent idea.  I just won't be starting a nursery anytime soon.

These last few weeks I have been busy taking lots of photos.  I found several varieties of sedums and coral bells.  I also realized that for most of these I had no memory of what I bought.  It seems that work and child-rearing got in the way of cataloging anything.  So, I set out to try to figure out what I had.

Today I present the sedums.  I love these because they are so undemanding.  And the ground cover sedums are great.  They crowd out the weeds, save on mulch and water, and spread like...well, weeds.

This first sedum was given to me by a friend who had a rock garden.  It pops up all over and can become invasive.  When the flowers die, I just yank them out, thereby keeping the spread in check.  Some call it rocky stonecrop.

This dragon's blood sedum is another that has moseyed all over the landscape mound in front.  The bees absolutely love it and I do not recommend getting too close when it is in bloom.

This variegated sedum, Sedum spurium 'Tricolor',  is another favorite.  Last year I grabbed two clumps, laid them on top of some soil in a new bed, and now I have ground cover in another area. 

 

The tricolor were planted along with this October Daphne, a lovely blue spreader that radiates from the center.  I only remember the specific name because I found the tag in my garage.  These were planted last year so I am curious to see how they will mature.

 

 

 

Another great spreader is this white stonecrop (?) (with an errant astilbe trying to poke thru).  This stonecrop has a much better habit that the yellow one above.  The flowers do not get as tall and flop over.  This also pops up in unexpected places.  I am not that fussy, so I usually leave it.
 

Of course, not all sedums hug the ground.  Some are much taller, such as this red-leaved variety, of which I have no idea what its name is.  It blooms much later in the season.  This picture was taken in mid- August last year.

 

Most of the taller varieties bloom in late summer and autumn, so I will keep my camera handy and photograph them as the season wears on.  With over 400 varieties, I doubt that I will be able to pinpoint what I have unless a name strikes a familiar chord with me.

 

So, now you sedum.