Blue Mist spirea, blue mist shrub, whatever you call it is one happy asset to the late summer /fall garden. Trouble is, it can be really difficult to establish. I have tried caryopteris x clandonensis ‘Dark Knight’,  ‘First Choice’ and ‘Worcester Gold’ and caryopteris ‘Bluebeard’.

 The problems begin with the fact that although a shrub (or sub-shrub), here in Zone 5 ( 4 some winters) it will die back to the ground and hopefully reshoot from the roots.  But in a really cold or wet winter it will just die back, and forego the reshooting altogether. In one winter I lost several, and due to my plant labeling skills, who’s to say who it was that actually survived? I can rule out ‘Worcester Gold’, it leaves are yellowish, but after that it just becomes “caryopteris” .

 The problems continue if you forget that like many late bloomers it gets off to a slow start. Then you are apt to pull out the bunch of twigs you left that died, or replant in the  curious bare space that exists if you cut the stems in the fall. Sometimes gardening is nothing but a pain in the behind.

After the “Great Loss of ’08” I now a.) leave the stems and b.) place a 4 inch pile of mulch over the base of the remaining, unnamed plant. Success. The caryopteris is beautiful this summer.

One of my other favorite shrubs in the fall (ish) time is snowberry, or symphoricarpos albus. It has glaucus blue leaves and although covered in small pink flowers all summer, they are reallly really tiny so it is hard to notice. this time of year it fruits in plump white berries that are a good food source for game birds like pheasant and quail, of which we have none. Therefore the berries remain on the shrub for an extended period of time and look great if you cut the brancehs to use in flower arrangements. They are also said to have a sedative effect on small children, which is a good enough reason as any to keep the shrub around. Some nights they just won’t go to bed, just kidding my friends, I use benadryl for that.

Everything I have ever read says snowberry likes to be planted in the shade. well, here, as you know there is none, and it is a wonderful arching berry filled bush. It will sucker and colonize as it gets older, giving you shoots to share with your friends whose kids are unruly and hyper . It has a gentle nature though, so will not agressively annex all the real estate in your garden.

Who is that screamin in my  ear???  Street preacher? Doomsday prophet?  One of the Seven Angels or Four Horseman? Garden Writer?

This time of year it is impossible to escape all the screaming and yelling, only in this case from garden magazine writers and columnists , instead of the usual  cardboard sign carrying crazies, preaching change your ways!..plant more fall color!! The season is waning…is your garden prepared?!!

Well, I can’t speak for my soul, but my  garden seems A-ok. Still, I fall under the spell of their hypnotic chants…ornamental grasses…asters…foliage and textures…. and I feel as though somehow I am NOT ready,  yes, I need to re-assess, re-vamp, plan better for the slow down of Fall

Wait a minute, No I don’t. One quick look at the garden tells me that I actually have quite a bit going on here, and a follow up closer look tells me I actually have more in bloom than I did in July. Check out this list written poorly with no italics or proper botanic names 😉

Traditional Late Bloomers: helianthus x multiflorous, Joe-Pye weed, Sedum (‘Matrona’ ‘Autumn Joy’ ‘Brilliant ‘Vera Jameson’), Trumpet Vines, Rudbeckia, Coneflowers, Caryopteris, Hydrangea (paniculata and grandiflora) Hosta, Hibiscus ( perennial and Rose of Sharon) asters,allium,and buddleia

Long Bloomers that have great staying power: Hydrangea (var. species) catamint ,knockout roses,Christopher Marlowe english rose, magic carpet roses, fairy roses, bee balm,pansies,yarrow,poppies,persicaria (firetail) coreopsis grandiflora ,rose mallow, garden phlox,potentilla, clematis (‘Huldine’ ‘Betty Corning’  ‘Kermesina’ ‘Comtesse de Bouchard’ ‘Dr. Ruppel’  integrifolia and texensis), summersweet (clethra anifolia) shasta daisy, hucheras, perennial verbena’Annie’,blanket flower,

Bushes in berry: snowberry, holly, viburnums (arrowwood and burkwodii) dogwood

Annuals in their prime; bacopa,petunia,nicotiana, sweet peas, helenium, snapdragons, amaranth, sunflowers, hyacinth bean vine, zinnias, cosmos, nasturtiums, stock, pelergoniums and  dhalias

Things re-blooming after being cut back : stella d’oro daylily, armeria, dianthus, feverfew, germander, lavendar, geraniums, spireas,

That’s nothing to sneeze at, and on that subject,  NO I am NOT going to plant solidago (goldenrod), it may not be the cause of the hay-fever (which is it’s look alike- ragweed) but it IS a look alike to what I think of as an ugly weed/plant, and you can’t make me like it!

 So, if the end is near, and we are woefully ill-prepared for the garden making it’s last stand, then someone better tell my Sheffield mums, they haven’t even started to bud yet.

At this time of year I tend to notice how everybody is going on and on about their vegetable gardens. They are all so smug and impressed with their gardening prowess and bounty.I want to go on and on about something too ! (hear the whine in my voice?), but I do not grow a vegetable garden for a plethora of reasons. A.) There are many perfectly stocked farmers markets in my area loaded with beautiful  produce  at dirt cheap prices  B.)Being an ornamental gardener if something seems off or doesn’t look it’s best I can move it, cut it back or replace it. Not so with the veggies, they must remain and try to produce . Does not work with my OCD.  C.)Given my failure rate with so very many types of plants, why would I add one more that may crash and burn , that seems like setting myself up for more heartbreak. Add to that ego slam a family that “tolerates” vegetables when they appear on the plate as opposed to “enjoying” them and I don’t really see the point for all that effort.

But since I do not like to be left out of the party, I will wax on about the two semi-veggies I DO grow. First is the bottle gourd. Given that it is  a squash plant, it alone amoung many seedlings survived the miserable excuse of an unweeded bed my cutting garden was this year. Meant to be the centerpeice of a sea of zinnias and Bells of Ireland, instead it is a jewel in the crabgrass. It is grown to be used as a container, or for me hopefully birdhouses if I can dry it correctly. And guess what?  even though it is a squash you can walk by me without lowering your gaze lest I hand you a bag of it, and you will not find any on your doorstop or your car seat either. Nor will I have to scour the internet for clever ways to incorporate it into tasty baked goods just to get rid of it. I may even have too few!

Secondly I am growing hyacinth bean (lablab purpurea) which is a wonderful vine that I spent $2 on seeds for several years ago and have had from that investment much August joy as it climbs with it’s big bold burgandy leaves and comes into flower with lovely purplish-white flowers that will then turn into electric purple seed pods, from which I will collect seed and do it all again next year. Hummingbirds go ga-ga over it too.

So there, beans and squash. No family drama, no ego slams, no worries about crop failure or late blight. Just birdhouses and purple-y goodness.

It is funny how quiet it is around here. CJ, our oldest son is rarely home between work and what he refers to as “out” AKA old enough to bar hop with friends, Dave in CA, Erin at two consecutive sessions of camp, and Faith the quiet one in general. Usually summer here means $400 a week grocery bills, a cellar that looks like a frat house, 5 loads of pool towels a day, etc. but now it is eerily quiet.

It is like that outside too. Lots of stuff has bloomed and passed, foliage is all yellowy or covered in powdery mildew, things look tired and boring. But that is all about to change both in and outside.

Saturday DAVID COMES HOME!! for a break from the Presidio in Monterey, and my nephew will also be here from CO with his new wife, This house will be full of people. Bill is on vacation,and all Dave’s friends will be here as well as all the family gathering to see both Dave and my nephew. Yipee!!

It is also about to change outside, asters , mums, sunflowers, false sunflowers, sweet autumn clematis, hyacinth beans,ornamental grasses and Joe Pye weed are about to burst on the scene. This is also the time to re-fresh some containers with new and exciting plants, and compost the leggy and bug eaten ones.

It feels like the garden has been on perpetual tour this summer, so weeding deadheading and removing yellow leaves have been a constant chore, with no respite in sight as we usually have at least one (maybe two) huge end of summer blow-out parties the end of August or Labor Day weekend. So I must be vigilant and not let the gardening chores get ahead of me , then they seem overwhelming.

Still,it is a joy to walk in the garden and see the sweet peas in full bloom, the white berries of the snowberry bush starting to appear, the dinner plate sized flowers of the hibiscus (above) and the hoardes of black-eyed -susans everywhere. It may not be the crazy riot of July, but the garden has a new sense of serenity and calm provided by the more muted colors of the fall bloomers[cincopa 10700280]

…ok…that was calm….FOR SOMEONE WHO JUST HAD THEIR DEBUT AS A GARDEN CLUB AND HORTICULTURE SPEAKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night at Elm Bank in Wellesley MA, the home of the Mass Horticultural Society, I gave my first presentation (on clematis) to a wonderrful group of ?? people (I did not count or even really look at them all I was so nervous). Bit I DID IT!and the experience was everything I hoped it would be. A big thank you to my teach…Betty S and my “boss” for the event Neal S. . It was incredible and I can’t wait to do it again!

So enough with the crabbing already… what IS going on in the burrow?   Here is a list in no particular order

Tall spikes of liatris dominate the back 40, butterflies are happy 🙂

.Day lilies are  a riot of color everywhere

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.The trumpet vines are drop dead gorgeous and covered in every pollinator imaginable(esp. hummingbirds)  from now until frost. They are a plant that requires ALOT of pruning and weeding out when they try to spread , but I love them so am willing to do what it takes to have them behave in the garden.

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Annuals steal the show in most areas of the garden, I was never a real fan before, but in the past few years have added more and more for sheer bloom power and continuity

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………………………………………..Bacopa, snapdragons and amaranth  (above)

One of my favorite containers, more petunias, and cosmos.

Some of the other annuals I have added to the gardens are;

nicotiana(flowering tobacco below), guara (not quite hardy here), nasturtiums, dahlias, sweet peas,and sunflowers.

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.The sunflower to the right was knocked over by a storm and the stem broke almost clean through. The

piece keeping it alive is about 1/8th of an inch thick, yet it is about to bloom. Tells you all you need to know about the willingness of plants to survive, even thrive in lass than optimal conditions, It also takes the fear out of gardening a little doesn’t it?   Check out how I match my container flowers to the patio chair cushions , nerdy, nerdy nerdy. Do you do that? admit it…we all can get a little weird out in the heat of summer gardening. The last picture is an adorable little fungus that sprung up in the side of a pot of sedum and sempervivum. It looks like those “living stone” plants. It was cool till it died.                                                                  .

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.At the end of the summer I will go out and collect seeds from the sunflowers(although I leave most for the birds), the sweet peas (wait until the pods are dry and brown), the snapdragons,  the amaranth and the cosmos. The petunias will self seed , just make sure not to weed them out in the spring.

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If you are interested in an easy way to spruce up the garden in late summer and early fall some annual vines that are fun to try and really easy to grow are the beautiful hyacinth bean with it’s gorgeous purple leaves and flowers and even more spectacular bright purple pods, bottle gourds that you can dry to make birdhouses, and black eyed susan vine, which here does not bloom until August when started from seed outdoors but is splendid for the two months of flowers in fall (in the picture of the red birdhouse it is growing up the pole and soon will bloom and I will take another pic, the hyacinth bean is VERY late this year due to rabbit damage but when it blooms I will post it as well). Once I get the garden going in the spring, I want constant interest and color until early November, then I will be deathly sick of it all and grateful for the frost and a nap, but until then I will tolerate no lapses in color and drama ….from the plants I mean, my drama extends year round 😉