Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day – September 2012
I swear, I went away to Wales for a few days and came back to a completely different garden! In those few days Autumn has crept in… Perhaps I was kidding myself before and turning a blind eye to the subtle changes? I haven’t been doing a great deal in the garden over the past few weeks thanks to still having a nasty cough from the cold. I managed to weed a border of Couch grass and now have space for some of the many, many bulbs I have – 630 to be precise. Some will go to my parents, and the others will quickly go, especially as I often plant the smaller bulbs such as Crocus in groups of 10; it’s the Narcissi, Tulips and Camassia that will take more time to plant.
Surprisingly, the ground was actually quite dry?! In some places I struggled to get the fork/hand trowel in to dig it up!
At the moment we have three main bloomers: Sedum, Rudbeckia and Aster. There are some other hanger-oners such as Persicaria, Verbena, Gaura, Roses and Scabious but they are not at their best now like the former three species.
Well, I might as well get this photo party started!
I’m really pleased with the Rudbeckia this year, and actually, the Coneflower has done well. I’ve had this plant for a few years now and only just planted it; I’ve always had poor luck with coneflowers as they never come back so I’m hoping this survives because I do love its long, thin petals.
This photo makes it look like there’s a lot of white in the front garden… I suppose there is but it isn’t that noticeable thanks to the orange of the Crocosmia.
Over autumn I really need to get to work moving various plants and giving them the chance to get some roots down before winter arrives. So far I’ve held off moving the Astilbes into the front until I plant the Skimmia bush. This will hopefully open things up for the small shrub Rowan to flourish as it’s being drowned a little. Then, I want to move some of the Thistles but may have to wait until early next year as they’re still blooming and get rid of a couple of the Shasta Daisies (they’re too leggy and I don’t need so many!)
Meanwhile, the back garden is quite pink with the Sedum, Persicaria, Gaura, Miscanthus and Coneflower.
The Persicara has been a real stalwart this year, blooming for what feels like ages! Shame it’s getting a little too large for its space though… but I’m not sure there’s anywhere else it could go.
So far there are no signs of blooms on this grass either; last year it had very pretty blooms/seeds, I wonder if the rain has affected this and the Miscanthus. However, its splashes of red are very pretty and I think it too would be better suited to a more prominent position than it currently has.
The upper tier is in a ‘white phase’ at the moment, now the Veronicastrum and Aconitum have finished blooming and before another flush from Gertrude Jekyll and a purple Aster starts blooming… I hadn’t planned this if I’m honest, but actually having a muted palette is probably for the best!
And today I’ll leave you with Caryopteris, Ammi, some ripening Pyracantha berries and a rogue bloom on a wild rose… I’ve never seen roses this late on this bush.
Please pop over to Carol at May Dreams Gardens to see other posts.
Copyright 2012 Liz.
All rights reserved. Content created by Liz for Gwirrel’s Garden.
Gwirrel's Garden 
I just love all your fabulous white blooms. How wonderful to see that white Rose against the deep blue sky. What a great shot. The photos are all quite lovely. You have a simply lovely Fall garden at the moment. Have fun planting all those bulbs!
Hi,
I’d like more white in the garden, and I had intended there to be more but the white Liatris had a poor turnout (as did the purple) and of the 40 bulbs I planted only 2 have bloomed – not quite the show I’d planned!
Yesterday I made a start on the epic bulb planting, but only managed around 100 so I’ve still plenty more to go… Thankfully today’s weather will be nice and warm; perfect for the task.
Lots of lovely flowers, rudbeckia is a star here too, such a lovely sunny plant. All your white flowers look so beautiful, your garden must be looking very pretty at the moment. I don’t think we can deny that autumn is almost here, signs of it everywhere unfortunately, summer didn’t last very long!
Hi Pauline,
Indeed, where did summer go? I can’t believe it’s only September and yet it’s already quite cold! I’m dreading the coming winter… please please please be mild again this year! It’s meant to get to 20C here today so I’m looking forward to a nice warm day to get plenty of bulb planting done (it’s just a shame I’ve no idea where I’m going to put most of them).
WOW, i love the blog, i wish i could get mine to look as amazing as yours, your photos are simply wonderful and the post is a joy to read
Hi Liz
You have a lovely and interesting selection of blooms. I will look into Veronicastrum and Liatris and definately need to get some grasses. My soil is rock hard at the moment, I tried to take a hoe to it earlier today but only succeeded in jarring my wrist so have given up. Bulb planting will have to wait until we have had some rain. My Astrantia gave up the ghost weeks ago. It is quite nice to be able to start to have a tidy up now, make notes and decide if things need to be re-arranged for next year.
Hi Ronnie,
I was tempted to move some of the Stipa I planted temporarily in the Aster border, but with the ground being so dry I’ve left it for now. I did manage to get around 100 bulbs planted, but it’s just too difficult, especially when trying to pop them in around the plants that are still blooming so like you, I’ll wait for some rain to soften the ground first.
Have you tried dead-heading your Astrantia? I find they will then produce a second flush – this year has been poor though with only the one bloom on two plants and three on another.
But I have begun tidying up, I’ve also started to chop back the Buddlejas ready to borrow my parents’ shredder to mulch the branches/stems.
Normally I leave the Sea Holly and such, but this year they’ve grown so large they’re annoying me and I’ve chopped quite a few stems off but left some for winter interest; but I have opened up the border nicely and more light is getting to the smaller plants now.
Liz I thought for a moment, a brief moment you were describing my garden with sedum, rudbeckia and aster in bloom…but then I saw all the others and I was just in awe…I will wish mine to be but a speck of yours…Happy Bloom Day!
Hi Donna,
Heeheee, the grass is always greener Donna! I’m sure I’ll be saying the same about yours too!
Reality is, I don’t feel like we’ve had a summer at all. It came late, far too late to properly enjoy it and now autumn is creeping in, we only got a 4 week summer this year. Even now, it feels much too cold for September; normally we’d have lovely warm days but although the days are warming up, the nights are just too cold and this shouldn’t happen until October, early November.
I’m so surprised to hear you and Ronnie talking about how dry and hard your garden soil is; I thought it had rained all summer?! you have some lovely blooms; I think in the soft English light soft colours often work best. Christina
Hi Chistina,
It had rained pretty much solidly until August, since then it’s been far more reasonable with only a bit of rain here and there… At least that’s been the case where I am. Also, the ground is hard but then my back garden is south-facing so has dried out very quickly. My front garden wasn’t as difficult to dig, but then I was using a fork and spade and it was a corner which receives no direct sunlight; another border in the front where I tried to place bulbs was tough to dig.
Autumn light is gorgeous, and actually I’m certain the light is a bit odd considering it’s only September! Sitting in the house, the sun seems unusually low/dark for this time of year. But I don’t see how that can be the case.
What lovely blooms! Our South Carolina garden is looking quite tired–thank goodness for the Japanese anemones and lantana, because they are helping to provide a bit of color! Your sedum and photos of the gaura are beautiful–I would be very pleased to leave for a bit and return to a garden so full of blooms. Lucky you! Look forward to visiting again soon to tour your garden! Happy Bloom Day!
That coreopsis is simply stunning, such a beautiful colour. Lovely rudbeckia too, didn’t manage to shoe horn pictures of ours into my GBBD post.
Hi,
Photos of the coreopsis are a little misleading, as to the eye they’re more of a lemon colour and I much prefer how the camera sees them as a light creamy shade 🙂 pretty none-the-less but this hasn’t appreciated its move from a large pot into the ground; hopefully next year it will do much better.
I think I need to stop with the Rudbeckia photos now… they’re all I ever post!
Lovely photos, and the rudbeckias and sedum are a sure sign that autumn is here.
Hi Crystal,
Indeed… I can’t believe how cold and dark it’s suddenly become. Normally I don’t start to feel it until October, but then the clocks change and it gets lighter in the mornings again… But it seems to feel more like Oct/Nov for how chilly it is… Such a shame, guess we’ll not get a late summer then.
Super pretty! And so many flowers still blooming. I’ve not had time to do much photography, gardening or blogging of late and need to get out and use the lovely September light to snatch some more photos before the frost cuts everything down in a month or so. I picked up a pot of persicaria at the nursery a few weeks ago and was tempted but didn’t have a good place for it – the tag says it gets 4 feet wide! Is that how big yours is getting?
Hi VW,
We’ve had very strange light here; it seems more like February/early March and I’m sure it’s not normally so low in the sky at this time of year… It’s hard to describe… But normally the light would be nice and soft, with a warm yellow hue, but I’ve found the only flowers that I can photograph are the sedum.
4 feet wide… Hrmmmm, quite possibly mine will get that large, yes. I will definitely have to move one then, because 3 x 4 is quite a large area! They don’t tend to be a really dense habit, rather sprawling so things can grow up between their stems.
Hi Liz,
I enjoyed seeing your blooms. Your vacation photos are stunning, too. I think my favorite photo in this post is the one with the bee on the flower.
I have a few persicarias, and one of them spread farther than I wanted it to, so I dug some up and planted it across the street. I forgot to water the clumps today, so I wonder how they doing. There is still more that I will probably move.
Beautiful blooms, Liz. I need to come here more often. I’ve added you to my blogroll.
Hey Liz,
i posted a comment a while ago but i put it as a reply to a reply, dope, 🙂
your blog, garden and photos are absolutely exquisite l look forward to coming back and having a look at your future post