So another growing season has come and gone, and the trees are doing their annual reminder that nothing lasts, and that for everything there is a season. It’s enough to make a northern gardener weep. But wait just a minute! Is summer really over just because the calendar says so? Certainly Missys Brother in New England thinks it is; what a lovely paeon to autumn he presented in last week’s SMGB! Great photos, MB!
But here in Minnesota there is still a great deal of activity going on in the garden. The bees are busy, the hummingbirds are still here (as of Sept 26), and many flowers are still blooming nicely. I am not ready to say goodbye to summer quite yet. Neither are many of the plants in my garden. Many of the grasses are flowering now and in the phlox garden the Joe Pye weed is going strong. I usually try to pull out most of the native, self-seeded goldenrod in the spring, because it is so invasive, but invariably a few escape my eagle eye. This one hid itself deep within the clump of Joe Pye. It’s such a flowing, elegant plant; I wish it weren’t so invasive.
And, of course, the bees love goldenrod!
And since it is the phlox garden, there is still phlox!
Another self-seeder, Rudbeckia triloba, brown eyed Susan, has colonized itself in the big garden. She is fighting for supremacy with the native echinacea and appears to be winning. I may thin them out a little this fall, but they are so cheery and the flowers last for weeks.
In the rock garden, the gentian is still blooming. It is the clearest, most gorgeous blue and never photographs as true as in life. The bees are still buzzing in the borage and on the agastache.
While most of the coneflowers in my garden are the native purple ones, I did break down this year and plant a few of the new hybrids, after researching which ones seem to survive our winters. According to one local expert, the SombreroR and KismetTM varieties appear to do best in our harsh climate. They are bravely still blooming, although they are a little the worse for wear!
Coreopsis Zagreb blooms all summer. If I would remember to clip off the spent flowers, there would be more blooms even this late in the season.
And then there are the hydrangeas! I have quite a few of them in the garden, and they are a feast for the eyes from mid summer way into fall, as they gradually change color. My oldest hydrangea is a LimelightR, and it has become a monster this summer, with all of our rain. I will have to prune off the lower branches hanging low in this photo because they are hiding my irises from the sun!
This LimelightR by the garden gate on the south side is just beginning to change color. I always cut many large sprigs from my hydrangeas and bring into the house in the fall. They dry and look fabulous all winter. I still have some in a vase from two years ago. I often include a few sprigs of coral bell flowers too.
Almost all of my hydrangeas are Paniculatas, the Macrophylla varieties such as the Endless SummerR series, (unaffectionately known as “Endless Bummer”) do not usually do very well for me, or for many of us in this climate. I do have one Macrophylla, Twist and ShoutR and it is stumbling along in its second season.
I can’t remember such a deep pink on this hydrangea in previous years. Perhaps because of all the rain we have had this summer. It is either Vanilla StrawberryTM or Mega MindyR. The other one is Little LimeR. The Amsonia in the background is just barely starting to turn yellow in some places.
I have several QuickfireR hydrangeas too. The flower heads are much more open on this variety.
I am reminded of a sentence from Henry Mitchell on Gardening:
There is no need to think of September as the trash bin of the year, with just scraps of leftover things in the garden, because many things are only coming to perfection at the end of summer — a soft and gleaming season that reminds me of a long-eared hound with his yearly bath, sweet like a hay field (186).
So as we ease out of summer, the late summer and fall bloomers are starting to shine. This is the time of year for the turtleheads, monkshood, and some of the native prairie plants, like this enormous Pale Indian Plantain, at the back of the big garden. It is eight feet tall, and I had to stand on a ladder to take its picture. I have since discovered that it is quite aggressive, and I’ll pull the flower head down with a rake to cut off the seeds before it can compete with my other big garden boys. I don’t know why I didn’t plant it in the grasses garden, next to the Queen of the Prairie, the Ironweed, and Prairie dropseed where it belongs. I might drop a few seeds over there when I cut the flowers.
Most hosta bloom in July here, but Royal Standard blooms late: in August usually, but this year in September. I have many different varieties of hostas because they were the object of one of my plant obsessions years ago, but Royal Standard was a gift from a friend just two years ago and is a bright spot when all the others have quit blooming. An oldie but goodie; the scent of the big white flowers is exquisite.
Other plants blooming now in late September are this short Aster and Helenium. My tall New England Asters are just starting to bloom.
One of my favorite late summer/ fall blooming plants is the anemone ‘Robustissima.’ It took a few years to become established, but now it is very vigorous, almost invasive in fact!
The University of Minnesota has a long history in the development of winter hardy chrysanthemums.
This is one of the three winter hardy mums in my garden. I have had them for many years, but unfortunately, they have become shaded by some enormous blue muffin viburnums which has affected the bloom, and I plan to move them in the spring. They have been reliably hardy.
Of course, many of the sedums are blooming now too. All of my Autumn Joy sedums are full of bees. This bright sedum is called ‘Neon.’
Years ago I transplanted several Rose of Sharon plants from my mom’s New Jersey garden. They are zone 5 plants and my garden is in zone 4 (moving to 5 because of climate change), but I planted them next to the house on the south side and they have thrived there. I have lost a few to very severe winters, but that was my fault for not protecting them with mulch. I still have three, all different colors and there are a few blooms still. Some years they don’t bloom before frost kills the buds.
The Heavenly Blue morning glory vine has lots of buds, but we have only seen a few flowers so far. It does usually bloom late in the season.
On Tuesday as I walked through the garden I spied this little dwarf iris, Forever Blue. It is a fairly reliable re-bloomer, hybridized by Chuck Chapman in Canada.
The long-term weather outlook for the lower 48 indicates warmer than usual weather through December, and Mr. Mimer and I are still enjoying our nightly 5:00 beer in the gazebo. For as long as we can continue to do that, it will be summer in my garden.