The autumn gallops over my garden. The temperature is falling down and it hardly reaches 10oC during day time. Colors are fading. It’s raining every day and it’s really windy. The wind just tears the leaves out of the trees and crumples blossoms of the late bloomers. I hardly find moments to get out and to make photos. On some days sun peeps out of the clouds just for a couple of minutes in the evening. But even when there is enough light I still struggle to make photos because of stormy wind. It’s sad. But some plants are still booming. And I just caught myself thinking what a nice thing GBBD is. It inspires to be attentive and to gather together the prettiest moments of a month. It just keeps my focus on positive. Isn’t that therapeutic? So here are a little bit of these positives from my garden.
The real autumn champion is a tiny Polyantha rose ‘Marie Pavic’. It still unfolds tens of new buds on nice deep red branches.
Rose ‘Martin Frobisher’ is already ending its show, just few blooms left.
Other roses still produce single new buds. It’s nice, although sometimes they look like wet origami.
Two old Hemerocallis, ‘Stela d’Oro’ and “Little Wine Cup’, are trying to resist autumn rains and winds. Sad, but days are too cold and too gloomy for booms to open fully.
I would like to have more asters in my garden. Now I have only three of them. Aster pyranaeus ‘Lutetia’ is blooming from the end of July. Aster dumosus ‘Rosenwichtel’ just begins its season. Aster lateriflorus “Lady in Black’ has a lot of buds but I doubt if it will manage to bloom this autumn. I’m afraid frost will come earlier.
Polygonum affine is persistently blooming from the end of May. Nice and reliable, although a bit aggressive.
Chrysanthemum maximum blooms repeatedly for the third time this summer. Love its simplicity.
Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’ blooms from the end of June. I like how they look together with golden leaves of Iris spuria.
Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’ is flirting with autumn. Like supermodels, they always look well in photos.
My garden is a bit too wet for sedum. But I couldn’t resist a temptation to try them anyway. Sedum ‘Frosty Morn’ now looks very lively. I hope it will survive long wet autumn and winter thaws.
And again and again… Verbena bonariensis. They still keep structure and color of my garden. Just love them. Happy GBBD!
You have some very nice autumn flowers in your garden! I liked the Rosa ‘Marie Pavic’, if I could manage to squeeze in one more rose in my tiny garden I think I would have liked to have it…I also grow Sedum Frosty Morn, it is quite tough and survives both wet and dry winters, good luck with yours.
Thanks for good news about toughness of sedum ‘Frosty Morn’, Helene. I saw how nice this sedum looks in your garden. I planted three of them in August. They do well. However it will be their first winter. Plants with white foliage sometimes are more sensitive to growing conditions. It’s nice to know it is not the case with this sedum.
The Hicote and Verbena are really beautiful. I am very intrigued with Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’ and often wonder how gardener’s definition of “aggressive” varies from one another. You have some very lovely blooms this month.
Thanks for your compliments, Mario. You are right about definition of aggressiveness, it’s really subjective. I think sometimes this is because a plant behaves differently in different growing conditions, but also because people perceive the same things differently and have different expectations. I labeled polygonum affine as pretty aggressive because in my garden it spreads fast and overruns neighbors. This is not a very good feature for very limited gardening space I have, so I have to control its spread. But I know that other gardeners, who grow polygonum affine in different soil conditions, do not have this problem.
Beautiful post, I need to find some of that Polygonum affine. The final photo of the Verbena is stunning!
Thanks, Scott. It is a great pleasure for me to get a positive evaluation of my photo from you. I enjoy your photos very much. Especially – your ability to create an effect of softness and to catch a play of light. Your blog is really inspiring to learn more about gardening and about photography. I’m trying to learn 🙂