September in the Northern Hemisphere

[Gerdk]

To my surprise Asarum maximum 'Silver Panda' made another flower:

Sorry, but Asarum belongs to Aristolochiaceae.
Gerd

edit  by  maggi :  Oops, sorry, I had  missed that Bart's  post  was  in the  Aroid  section. now  moved  here .

[ArnoldT]

Here's the fruit of Cydonia sinensis, formerly Pseudocydonia sinensis.

About 6-8 inches long. Turns yellow as it ripens with a pleasant fragrance

[Robert]

We have finally gone a week without dense smoke. What a relief! The garden is responding to the cooler autumn like weather, more like “Indian Summer”, with high temperatures in the mid 80 F range (29 C). Low temperatures in the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada are approaching freezing (0 C).

We are so thankful we reduced the size of our home and now have a beautiful garden where there was once a large room that we never used. The tall single flowered Dahlias are very heat tolerant and bloom more or less constantly all summer. They also attract many butterflies. Yesterday, a Western Monarch Butterfly showed up, feeding on the Dahlia flowers. The Western Monarchs are near extinction, so we were very pleased that they found a refuge in our garden.



Many species of Colchicum are now blooming in many parts of our garden. Colchicum corsicum ? thrives in our garden in many different locations. They also consistently set seed for us.



Colchicum cupanii ? is another species that does well for us. We have many blooming plants but they have yet to set seed.



Eriogonum wrightii var. subscaposum is very happy in our garden. Our plants behave much differently here in our low elevation garden. The inflorescences tend to flop. Since they will grow in ordinary garden soil without any summer irrigation and bloom for many weeks (well over a month) the flopping inflorescences are easily tolerated.



Eriogonum grande var. rubescens is another Buckwheat species that grows in ordinary garden soil and requires no summertime irrigation. They too bloom for many weeks during the summer into the autumn.

[Leena]

Robert, I love your picture of dahlias. I can feel the warmth from that picture.

Here it is more autumn, but not yet frost. Mushrooms have popped up in my woodland beds, but I haven't found that they do any harm to plants. These Cyclamen purpurascens were planted last autumn, they were a gift from a kind forumist and they seem to do very well here (so far). Paxillus involutus is a common mushroom here.
In the second picture there is some Clitocybe growing in the path on wood chippings.
Third picture is a Colchicum in sun spot and in the last picture a tall Aster novae-angliae 'Herbstschnee' and Helenium in the background.

[Robert]

Hi Leena,

Your garden looks so lush and “spring-like”.

Our garden looks tired from the relentless heat and the month long, plus, siege of dense smoke and ash from the wildfires. Now the heat is on again. High temperatures over the next 5 days will range from 95 to 97 F (35 to 36.1 C). It has been worse! Record high temperatures during this time period range from 100 to 103 F (37.8 to 39.4 C) through 5 October. Despite the less than ideal conditions, some plants are holding up well. Autumn weather will be welcome! Rain too, however our rainy season traditionally does not start until mid-October. Due to the strong La Niña and interactions with the MJO, I am not forecasting a wet autumn season this year; above average temperatures factor into this forecast too. Climate change and other environmental changes are having a very pronounced impact in our part of California.



Epilobium ‘Wayne’s Silver’ has been blooming now for several months. It performs well despite the dry conditions, heat, and smoke.



These are, somewhat (2 years ago), newly planted Colchicums out in the garden. The heat will end sooner or later and autumn-like weather will prevail.



The cactus-flowered Zinnias also thrive despite the heat and smoke. I bag and hand-pollinate to improve my selected strains.



Erythranthe cardinalis

Erythranthe cardinalis x E. lewisii hybrids are nothing new. However, I am using both the red and golden-yellow forms of Erythranthe cardinalis in my breeding work with Erythranthe lewisii. The golden-yellow form of E. cardinalis lacks anthocyanin pigmentation in their outer petals. Erythranthe lewisii possesses the dominant light area allele, LAR1, which also encodes the transcription factor R2R3 – MYB that regulates the expression of flavonol synthase. F₂ hybrids (and beyond), as well as hybrids with other Erythranthe species, could produce very interesting results.

>>> One last note…

Today, 28 September, I logged a low temperature of 67 F (19.4 C) at the Placerville farm. This is a new record high temperature for the morning low temperature for this date. The old record was 66 F (18.9 C) set in 2010. In addition, I logged a low temperature of 71 F (21.7 C), elevation 3,500 feet (1,067 meters), in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This too is a new record high temperature for the morning low. These record-breaking temperatures are very indicative of the increasing emissiivity of the earth’s atmosphere and climate change. These are very worrisome trends, especially for this time of the year

[cohan]

A most beautiful month featuring flowers AND fruits, so I'll give it a start with Clematis heracleifolia 'China Purple' at its best (the huge leaf behind belongs to Arisaema fargesii)
Aconitum alboviolaceum
and Arisaema triphyllum fruit among Brunnera leaves

nice ones!-- yes, a lovely month, with such dramatic changes so quickly!

[cohan]

A few ones from the dunes, after a busy end of week i needed to walk a lot.

Gentianella uliginosa, Eryngium maritimum, Hippophae rhamnoides, Cakile maritima and others knickknacks.

Lots of beauties, nice place to walk! That Eryngium

[Yann]

a lot of colors after a dry summer, it's great for the eyes. We finally had rain (36mm) and the garden is preparing a second spring with bulbs, aster and late species.  Hope to post end of week.

[cohan]

EEps-- thought I could catch up, but too many beauties to comment on! Robert-- you exemplify what I always tell people here when they complain about 'heat' :the temperatures you are happy to cool down to are near to our highest (we only hit or exceed 30C  a few times a year ).. currently bouncing back and forth from days in the low teens C to mid 20's, some near frosts, but no signs in the yard yet ( though I have almost nothing truly tender).
1-A view from in front of the house, yesterday.



2-3 Nice find on AutumnEquinox -this is a spot unmowed this year, was a dog run for aunt/mom's dogs years back, but small dogs, large space, was never unvegetated. It is just another mowed area now, but due to  time and equipment issues this year, had not been done yet (still catching up!). I went in at first to get a shot of Dasiphora growing along the fence and found 4 flowering plants, more plants were just leaves (not seen in past due to mowing) that seem to be Eryngium planum, must be  something my  mom/aunt/ planted many years ago, or one of the 'wildflower' mixes (certainly not native here) my sister sowed years back! I'm hoping they'll make it to seed so I can scatter some in a non-mowed area! Meantime, I cut the poplar suckers around them, and won't mow that specific spot for now..

[johnw]

xGordlinia grandiflora is certainly enjoying the warm weather of late. Hard to estimate the number of buds still to burst forth.

john

[cohan]

A few more from Sept 22
1-Dianthus nardiformis-- this has proven a real late season show-- flowering for weeks now, and will only stop when the weather forces it, it seems! It does seem to prefer a bit deeper soil (still with rocks and gravel)-- plants in some tougher spots are a fraction of the size of this one..



2- Geranium swatense one of the sort of sprawly types, but I don't have it in an exposed site.. one of those bright pinks that the camera insists on reading as blue, this is the best I can adjust it..



3- Parthenocissus in full colour



4- Prenanthes purpurea exquisite and brightly coloured flowers-- but they are tiny! it's slowly making a nice stand in half sun; the leaves go some nice brown/dark/gold shades, a bit later..



5-Sedum Lime Zinger and Cymbalaria pallida.. the latter is doing just fine, flowering for months, bit of a lull in later summer, but lots of flowers again now; this sort of Sedum is not growing that much for me, not sure what they'd like-- richer soil? looser soil?

[cohan]

Robert, I love your picture of dahlias. I can feel the warmth from that picture.

Here it is more autumn, but not yet frost. Mushrooms have popped up in my woodland beds, but I haven't found that they do any harm to plants. These Cyclamen purpurascens were planted last autumn, they were a gift from a kind forumist and they seem to do very well here (so far). Paxillus involutus is a common mushroom here.
In the second picture there is some Clitocybe growing in the path on wood chippings.
Third picture is a Colchicum in sun spot and in the last picture a tall Aster novae-angliae 'Herbstschnee' and Helenium in the background.

Lots of fungi and mushrooms all over here, too-- I am happy to see them as it indicates the soil is alive

[Leena]

Lots of fungi and mushrooms all over here, too-- I am happy to see them as it indicates the soil is alive

I haven't thought it like that, but you are right:).

Couple of pictures of my asters. In the second one is Aster divaricatus (maybe it has another name now), it is very good, and always flowers for a month or so in early autumn.
Chloranthus japonicus has a nice autumn colour as does Mukdenia rossii.

[Gabriela]

Nice pictures from all. Colors, flowers, mushrooms, fruits - autumn seems like a second spring.
Even the poison ivy draws admiration

Acer rubrum, Cinnamon fern, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, poison ivy and acorn for the end of September.

[cohan]

Fun to see everyone's asters-- aster season here starts in July (natives), but still a few in flower while many are long since gone to seed-- S ciliolatuum is most common on the acreage, so many plants that they are in flower ( as a whole, not individuals) for months...

Nice shots, Gabriela! I'm happy to have no poison ivy, even though the colour is nice!