My gardening view this month is of a plot balanced between two seasons. There’s an odd mix of summer flowers that seem to be ignoring the change of season and autumn colour.
The forecast was for much colder nights this week though so far there’s been only a light frost but things could change any day.
Some plants just seem to have got their timings wrong. I’ve been waiting all summer for this ginger lily to flower and it’s started now just as the weather is changing.
It usually lives in the conservatory – where it’s done very little in the past – but this year got moved outside in its pot. Given the forecast, it’s now come back indoors.
I’ve also been waiting for these amarines to flower. They were bought last year during lockdown from Hoyland Plant Centre and did very little beyond produce leaves. This year, I have flowers and they are beautiful – definitely worth the wait.
The autumn colour seems to be slow to get going and a bit patchy this year. Some trees and shrubs have barely altered – something I’m hoping will change with the colder nights.
The Parrotia persica has been its usual flaboyant self with a really good show of colour although the weekend’s high winds mean a lot of the display is now on the ground.
Somehow his geranium seems to have missed the memo that summer is over and it’s flowering happily despite the frost.
The dahlias are also sporting more buds though I fear they are doomed to failure. I’ve been picking the dahlias almost daily to get as many blooms as possible before a hard frost finishes them off.
Lifting them and mulching the bed are two of the last big jobs of the autumn – apart from planting tulips in the borders, of course.
I won’t cut back the perennials until spring, unless winter wet turns the top growth to mush. I think it helps to protect the plants over winter and it provides a good habitat for wildlife.
The greenhouse has been cleared and the insulation put up but I’ve left this cucumber. It has a couple of small fruit that I’m hoping will get big enough to pick. It really has been a star plant this season.
Elsewhere, the summer annuals are still showing colour even if they’re looking a little bedraggled. The first sharp frost will finish these off and I will then clear them away. Until then, it’s a question of enjoying the last remnants of summer.
Has anyone else got summer flowers still? Do leave me a comment below.
Enjoyed this? Why not sign up to follow my blog and get an email alert about future posts.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2021 Mandy Bradshaw
Interesting photos Mandy! Yes my Cheltenham garden has Rosa Flower carpet pink blooming abundantly, Rosa Malvern Hills still flowering too, deep pink nerines sparkling, Japanese anemones pink and white, gaillardia and coreopsis! Still eating the tomatoes taken down from the greenhouse as they ripen in our kitchen! Utter failure of outside cucumbers, so admiring of your remaining specimen! Dahlias clinging on like yours! I enjoy your posts, thanks!
Lots of people seem to have roses still flowering – some are on their third flush! The seasons are definitely shifting. I tried one outdoor cucumber but had absolute failure. The plant in the photo has been in the greenhouse and produced more cucumbers than we could eat – a first!
How lovely! Yes lots still flowering here. Salvias, Geranium, Cosmos, Nerines, Cannas, a strange mix. In fact in some places its a bit garish and I think I might move some things around so that those things that seem to ignore the seasons, are next to those that normally flower now as I am not convinced by the combinations. Do you know which bright pink geranium that is, its great.
The strange weather is making it difficult to plan borders – I’ve had all sorts of odd things flowering together. Sorry, not sure what the geranium is – one I bought about 20 years ago that self-seeds everywhere.