Catching up 2

A sunny border of Perovskia Russian sage, Sedum Autumn Joy, orange annual cosmos and yellow chrysanthemum just about to bloom.

The moon flower was worth the wait this year. Here it is trailing through a climbing rose around the paper lantern.

                                         Moon flower by moonlight in late September.

Catching Up

A short tour through the 2013 gardening season, beginning with the Jack-in-the pulpit, transplanted from New England, which took two years to bloom.

  

Then the mist of forget-me-nots which seeded themselves nicely, wrapping the little stone owl in blue.

Purple allium, yellow pansies in a pot, bleeding heart just blooming.

These bright tulips took advantage of the early spring sun in the back of the border which gets total shade in summer.

 The bronze cat guards a late May tangle of grape hyacinth, sweet woodruff, pulmonaria and ferns.

A tree peony flowering behind the bench.

Clematis

By June the forget-me-nots are still blooming. In back of them are two large-leaved wild mullein which seeded themselves nicely along the path from the arch.

In the shade garden the wonderful maidenhair fern, and to the right the dark, glossy leaves of European ginger which I am hoping will spread, forming a carpet (will take a few years probably).

 More shade garden views

 Late June purple Japanese iris, echinacea, phlox paniculata and geranium"Wargrave pink."

July sunny border

Late July explosion of Monarda,  Echinacea, and day lilies

The blue is agapanthus in big pots which live in the garage in the winter.

Cyclamen

 Last winter I received a lovely cyclamen, filled with blooms. It was happy in a North facing window, blooming for several months. I was determined to have it bloom another year so once the mild weather arrived I let it slowly dry out under a table in the garden. All the leaves fell off and the corm, the bulb-like structure that stores its food and produces the leaves and blooms, rested unwatered until early fall. I brought it into a cool dark place and watered just a bit - and waited. After several weeks a little curled up leaf emerged. I brought the plant into the house by a north facing window. Weeks went by and more leaves unfurled. Then in early December tiny buds emerged. I continued to water sparingly, careful not to let the soil get soggy which would rot the corms, putting stones on the bottom of the dish so extra water would drain out.

By the beginning of February the buds began to slowly open. Definitely worth the wait I think. I like how it looks in its second year. Fewer blooms giving the whole plant a more delicate, natural feeling. Cyclamen hederifolium can be grown as a perennial outdoors in warmer climates where it will spread under trees.

October gifts

 By September the front of the south facing border was taken over by zinnias, calendula and cosmos, the zinnias showing the light dusting of mildew they often get at the end of the season.

 After languishing for most of the summer the nasturtiums decided to take off, trailing through the garden, covering perennials which have stopped blooming. Also, making a nice color contrast, fluffy blue Ageratum which appeared in September, self-seeded from last summer's planting.

 I love the combination of this ornamental grass with huge red zinnias.

  Sedum 'Autumn Joy' with Helenium

and with the annual, amazingly prolific and long-blooming sulphur cosmos.

 I planted this Clematis 'Jackmanii' in June and it finally bloomed in October!

At the end of the path is a piece of Hudson River driftwood I found last winter. I stood it up on a post sunk into the soil in a bed of Hosta in dense shade at the back of the garden.

Bridges

 In his beautiful book about gardening and poetry, The Wild Braid, Stanley Kunitz said:

     The selection of plants in one tier conditions what will go into the others. The rhythm of the garden is a form of motion, actually. The connection between flowers at different levels of the garden makes a bridge between different parts of the garden and the eye, in motion, responds.

 The purple flower in these photos is Verbena bonariensis, a plant I saw first in the Nyack Butterfly Garden and then noticed in other places, sometimes obviously growing wild. I collected some seed from a plant last fall and scattered it in the garden, completely forgetting about it until I discovered one plant while weeding in late July. This plant grew quickly, sending out many thin, tough branches, filling the space in front of the bee balm and phlox and above the zinnias, cosmos and calendula. It does have a wild look and habit and its deep purple (hard to photograph) is a great contrast to the pinks, oranges, reds and yellows of the other flowers. Butterflies and humming birds are attracted to it.

 

 

In late June I saw this red-flowered plant with a similar habit (maybe a Gomphrena?) growing in a garden in East Cork, Ireland.

Seeds

The seed heads of flowering plants can rival the blossoms in delicacy and design, especially when viewed up close. Each plant has a distinctive way of forming and protecting the seeds so that they will disperse at the optimum time.

Above is Papaver somniferum, whose blooms last just a few days, already forming the pod which has to be among the most elegant of seed dispersal mechanisms.

The cap of the seed pod protects the little openings directly underneath, which transform the pod into a shaker for the thousands of tiny black seeds.

  

Allium, Mount Everest

Each floret forms a tiny case which opens in late summer to reveal the seeds.

Centaurea montana

Cosmos sulphureus

Monarda didyma                    

Echinacea purpurea

 

The seed heads of many plants, including Echinacea, can be left in the garden for birds to snack on during the winter.