September 2011 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Giles]

Cheilanthes sieberi:
(they had many other Cheilanthes on display, as well)

[Knud]

Nice to see all the beautiful and colourful plants still cheering us and the gardens up at the start of autumn. Here many plants are still in bloom, but have been so for a long period in this cold and wet summer.

The Alcea kurdica has had 4-5 stalks blooming for at least six weeks now. It is a wonderful plant, very pale yellow, robust, and reliable. Last year something ate its petals, I suspected snails until a large chunk of petal flew past my nose, in the firm grip of a wasp. A few minutes later the wasp was back, cut another piece and took off in the same direction. Stripped almost all the flowers, but haven't been seen this year. The very dark Hollyhock (Alcea sp 'Black Watchman'?) is included for contrast, flowers at the same time, but it struggles in our garden at only half the height of the A. kurdica.

The Amorpha nana is another reliable flowerer here for late August and September. I have it at the edge of the rock garden, freezing back in the winter keeps it compact. The individual flowers are very small, the spike about 10 cm (4") long. It took a few years before it started flowering, but that wasn't really a problem, as the foliage is very attractive.

The Clematis heracleifolia was very late to appear after the winter this year, I thought we had lost it. Its flowers also appeared very late, only a week or two ago. The flowers are small at less than 2 cm (3/4") across, but the colour is as beautiful as its smell.

The Fuchsia magellanica in the last picture froze right back to the ground last winter, and is only now coming into bloom. These buds opened just last week.

Knud

[Maggi Young]

Knud, the clematis is stunning... but you have lots of interesting plants there to cheer this season.
 I hope you have good enough weather for the Fuchsia to open lots of blooms after its late start. !

[Brian Ellis]

The Amorpha nana is another reliable flowerer here for late August and September. I have it at the edge of the rock garden, freezing back in the winter keeps it compact. The individual flowers are very small, the spike about 10 cm (4") long. It took a few years before it started flowering, but that wasn't really a problem, as the foliage is very attractive.

Some lovely things there Knud I hadn't heard of this one, the foliage reminds me of indigofera.

[Knud]

Thank you, Maggi and Brian. Yes, there is still a lot of flowers to brighten the garden, and in this dark and dreary weather we are having they appear brighter than normal. But only eight or so flowers on the fuchsia this year.

You are right Brian, it looks like indigofera.  Its various common names in North America, where it comes from, include at least two of the following words: dwarf, false, fragrant, wild, indigo, indigobush. Ours has a pleasant sweet, but faint smell. Amorpha is in the pea-family, and grows in various prairie-types in Canada and the US.  Its name apparently refers to its 'mis-shapen' flower, it has only one petal. If I remember correctly, we got seeds for this plant from Kristl's Gardens North about 10 years ago.

Knud

[Hoy]

Knud, your Clematis heracleifolia is better coloured than mine but my Fuchsias are more floriferous than yours (this year at least)
Although they often freeze down they always reappear.
Fuchsia magellanica riccartoni and F. m. molinae

I haven't tried any Amorpha yet.

[Paddy Tobin]

Believe it or not, it is a wet afternoon here in what is called the sunny south east (of Ireland) and time I posted a few photographs of things in flower at the moment.

Colchicum 'Waterlily'
Actaea rubra in fruit
Hydrangea 'Ayesha'
Hydrangea 'Vanille Fraise'
Kniphofia caulescens
Potentialla 'Arc en Ciel'
Viburnum setigerum in fruit

[David Nicholson]

Very nice Paddy. I especially liked the Potentilla, how tall is it please?

[Graham Catlow]

A lovely dark Alcea Knud, and a nice group of Colchicum Paddy.

A couple from me.

Anemone hupehensis
Allium senescens montanum ssp. glaucum

[Knud]

Knud, your Clematis heracleifolia is better coloured than mine but my Fuchsias are more floriferous than yours (this year at least)

I haven't tried any Amorpha yet.

Hei Trond,
I read somewhere that the colour of the C. heracleifolia varies from pale to quite deep blue; I guess we were lucky with ours. The Fuchsia had many more flowers last year, when it also started from "below ground". There has been less sun this summer, and it grows under a Hazel-tree, which has had a much denser canopy this year, so lack of light could possibly explain the few flowers? I really like your F. m. molinae, never heard of that one.

We had a few Amorpha nana's, and would have been happy to give you one, but alas, we gave away the last one last year. It thrives here, despite our un-prairielike conditions. It gets a little bigger each year, and is now about 40 cm (16") high and and about as wide. It is a very light and airy little bush.

Knud

[Knud]

I second David, Paddy, and also liked the Potentilla, and the colchicum, and the.... A large, 25 year old 'thicket' of Kniphofia in our garden was reduced by the frost last winter to 5 small flowers this summer.

Two very nice bunches, Graham, I particularly liked the Allium. Our A. huphensis are pink, I don't think I have seen such white ones before.

Knud

[Paddy Tobin]

Very nice Paddy. I especially liked the Potentilla, how tall is it please?

Hi David, the potentilla is just a foot tall and is a good one. We saw it in a garden last year and bought a plant this spring which, very obligingly, divided into five smaller plants immediately so we have a nice clump now. It is a good one. In the same garden, where we saw this one, we saw another potentilla which was very similar, a good big double flower, but I never got the name for it. I think you might find it and the one above listed in Cotswold Plants' (Bob Brown) catalogue. It might be 'Emily' - just had a look at the catalogue.

Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

A few more from the garden this week. Paddy

Hydrangea 'Quadricolur'
Eupatorium maculatum atropurpureum
Aconitum 'Royal Flush'
Actaea pachypoda
Sedum 'Matrona'
Roscoea cautleoides

[David Nicholson]

Very nice Paddy. I especially liked the Potentilla, how tall is it please?

Hi David, the potentilla is just a foot tall and is a good one. We saw it in a garden last year and bought a plant this spring which, very obligingly, divided into five smaller plants immediately so we have a nice clump now. It is a good one. In the same garden, where we saw this one, we saw another potentilla which was very similar, a good big double flower, but I never got the name for it. I think you might find it and the one above listed in Cotswold Plants' (Bob Brown) catalogue. It might be 'Emily' - just had a look at the catalogue.

Paddy

Many thanks Paddy.

[ashley]

Interesting to see Fuchsia magellanica looking so well in Norway    In my garden it suffered last winter, only recovering to the point of flowering by midsummer or later rather than early spring.

A fine selection Paddy.  Last night's wind and rain made it distinctly autumnal here.  I wonder what we'll have left after storm Katia has passed through.