August 2021 in the Northern Hemisphere

[cohan]

Nice to see lots of flowers still for everyone. With our warmer and drier than usual mid-summer, it feels like many things are finishing early this year-though some things that struggle to make seed will be happy! Late season natives  are still coming on, but I have fewer garden plants that begin late in the season- by fall I'm mostly captivated by the colour of the native plants and trees, and not focussed on the garden.. still lots of flowers, though..

Here is Cyclamen  purpurascens which flowers from mid-summer until covered in snow. The patch of plants was set back somehow, several plants defoliated- the winter? or from removal of Diervilla suckers last fall? I replanted the affected bulbs, did a couple of layers of natural mulching/amending, and watered a few times during the drier weather.. they all seem to be coming back nicely. This larger plant is not one of the ones that was mostly defoliated. With Cirsium acaule, a native self sown sedge etc.



A partial view of a semi out of control section of the Eurasian/Mesic Beds- Oxyria digyna starring in this view, Cyclamen in front.

[ruweiss]

This Monkey Puzzle is about 25 years out and developed unusual many
cones this year. It is a pity, that no male plants are nearby and the resulting
seeds are all empty.

[ruweiss]

The Clematis Express is on the way (Clematis mandshurica)

[shelagh]

On one of our regular trips we go through a Council estate called Breightmet, (meaning Bright Meadow). Brian kept asking me to slow down so he could see this wonderful display so we went and took a good look. Just outside a block of about six houses where it would normally be just grass this flower meadow has been planted. Isn't it wonderful.

[Giles]

Local Gentiana pneumonanthe

[Yann]

Local Gentiana pneumonanthe

Nice colors, all the spots i know are with very dark and deep blue

[cohan]

This Monkey Puzzle is about 25 years out and developed unusual many
cones this year. It is a pity, that no male plants are nearby and the resulting
seeds are all empty.

Fun! How tall is it? is 25 years from seed?
Giles-- that's nice to see wild
Shelagh - better than lawn!

[Robert]

Recently temperatures have cooled. Until a few days ago high summer temperatures prevailed and it appeared that this summer would be the hottest on record. The cool temperature would be pleasant; however dense smoke from the Caldor and Dixie Fires have blanketed our area for over a week now. In our region, enormous and extreme wildfires are now a yearly occurrence with dense smoke that we frequently endure for weeks or months. It is not pleasant to garden with choking smoke and ash falling from the sky. The plants and garden suffer too.

The seasons are shifting. Cyclamen hederifolium is blooming throughout our garden.



The emerging small white flowers of Acis autumnalis are another harbinger of the end of summer. The species seeds around our garden in locations that are relatively dry during the summer.



The first of the Colchicum are emerging from the soil.



This specimen of Aquilegia formosa is sending up some late season flowers.



I hope to find a good home for Scutellaria baicalensis in our garden. The flowers are very attractive and it is also a very strong medicinal herb.

[Robert]

With the dense smoke it is much easier to get somewhat satisfactory photographs of white Nicotiana species and varieties. This is Nicotiana ‘Priscilla’. This variety enjoys shaded locations in our climate, produces large white flowers all summer into the autumn, and the flowers are nicely fragrant at night.



Woodland Tabaco, Nicotiana sylvestris, has long-tubed white flowers that are also fragrant at night. The leaves are huge and very bold.

[shelagh]

Certainly is Cohan.

[ruweiss]

Cohan, we bought this tree about 25 years ago as a pot plant. It was about 60 cm (2 feet) in height
and maybe 5 years from seed.

[Mariette]

Beautiful pictures from everyone - Shelagh, such flowering meadows are shere delight, especially when met with so utterly unexpected!
Robert, colchicums and cyclamen start very early in Your garden, here is no colchicum in flower yet. Nicotiana sylvestris self-seeded, but will not be of flowering-size in time, I´m afraid.

This is Lythrum salicaria ´Zigeunerblut´with phloxes.



Begonia sutherlandii adorning a tub with a brugmansia - unfortunately this lovely species will not survive in my borders.



Echinops banaticus and Phytolacca americana ´Silberstein´- the leaves being more showy than the flowers.



Trautvetteria caroliniensis



Scutellaria incana and Thalictrum ´Splendide White´

[shelagh]

Some late colour in our garden.

1.Anaphalis margaritacea with Heuchera Marmalade.
2.Asarina procumbens, very pleased with this as it was one of my choices from the last limited Seed Exchange. We have 3 in the garden now all flowering.
3.How about this Dianthus, no flowers but what a perfect circle.
4. A late flowering little Dianthus.
5. What we think is the original Heuchera Palace Purple.

[shelagh]

Just a few more.
6. Rudbeckia Goldstrum.
7. A very dainty Stachys niveum.
8. This one is a little taller Stachys officionalis Candy Floss.

[cohan]

Robert- nice to see the autumn flowers coming along, I guess they make a lot of sense in your climate! sorry to hear about the smoke! Since our weather has turned cooler with a decent amount of rain (then a *lot* of rain last night and all day today, still coming down to some extent now, near midnight-- such lengthy rains are rare here) over the last week or two, we have not had smoke.. we'll likely have some warm and drier weather yet to come, but feeling very autumnal here currently- only reached a high of 8 C for a short time this afternoon.

Mariette-- lovely Begonia, and fly, too!

Rudi- Araucarias are strictly houseplants here, but an interesting genus! It's suggested that the super long necked herbivourous dinosaurs evolved to feed on the tops of Araucarias, which were widespread and dominant forest trees in those days!

Shelagh- always interesting to see Anaphalis margaritacea in gardens-- it appeared on its own in mine, not sure from where-- maybea bit from something I planted as a teenager (theoretically native, but I've never seen a wild one). I was very happy until it seemed too happy-- I thought it was set on taking over the entire  area. I did chop and pull some, but for whatever reason it occupied a little zone and seemed to stop with that!