I’m even later than standard with my bloom day report this month. In Maine, fall is within the air, and my backyard is starting its transition to winter dormancy. Right here and there, crops are displaying hints of autumn foliage colours.
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The exuberant floral shows of summer time have been changed by a a lot sparser flowering through which every particular person flower is a star. Even Geranium x oxonianum, a backyard stalwart which has been blooming constantly since late Could, has only some flowers left.
Daylilies (Hemerocallis), too, are principally completed, though a number of late bloomers nonetheless grace me with their presence. These embody ‘Autumn Minaret,’ which has been blooming since late July and remains to be going sturdy, the very late selection ‘Richard,’ the re-blooming ‘Rosy Returns,’ which has many as-yet unopened buds, and ‘Whir of Lace,’ which struggled to open its final flower on a really cool morning.
Different summer time flowers nonetheless blooming in September embody spirea, balloon flowers, heliopsis, and some final coreopsis.
Asters are usually the celebrities of the September backyard, and alongside the roadsides, New England asters are blooming in colourful splashes of purple and pink. Alas, not a single New England aster will be discovered blooming in my backyard; they had been “pruned” so determinedly and repeatedly by woodchucks earlier in the summertime that they’ve given up attempting to flower. Fortuitously, I do produce other, extra understated asters in bloom, together with big-leaf aster (Eurybia macrophylla) and flax-leaved aster (Ionactis linarifolia.)
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Goldenrods are one other member of the larger aster household that attain peak bloom in September. I’ve about six totally different species of goldenrod blooming. Most are volunteers that had been rising right here earlier than I created a backyard. They’re discovered most frequently on the wild edges of the backyard, though they sometimes seed themselves into flower beds. I’m comfortable to have all of them, however the one which I’ve intentionally launched is zig-zag goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis), which is now blooming within the new woodland border with a profusion of tiny aster-like flowers.
Ironweed (Vernonia) is a relative and frequent companion of the asters. V. lettermanii ‘Iron Butterfly’ is commonly the final plant to start blooming in my backyard and has simply opened its first flowers on the entrance slope.
Sedums additionally herald the arrival of fall. Two at present blooming in my backyard are ‘Matrona’ and ‘Neon’
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Backyard phlox (Phlox paniculata) is generally the glory of the August backyard. This 12 months, nevertheless, the phloxes additionally suffered from the eye of the woodchucks. Two varieties have nonetheless managed to bloom in September.
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One in all my favourite flowers within the September backyard is the aptly named Rudbeckia cultivar ‘Autumn Solar’ (‘Herbstsonne’ in German). This statuesque plant has shiny yellow flowers that mild up the again of the border from late July till frost.
There are nonetheless many stunning flowers blooming in September, and I take further time to get pleasure from each throughout my morning walks by the backyard. The enjoyment these flowers convey me is bittersweet, nevertheless, as a result of I do know that the backyard season is waning and that blooms will all too quickly get replaced by frost and winter snow.
Backyard Bloggers’ Bloom Day is a celebration of flowers hosted every month by Carol Michel at Could Goals Gardens. Go to her web site to see what different gardeners have blooming this September.
