I’ve drafted a couple of posts in my head which didn’t make it into written action and now their time has passed, the season has moved on from summer most definitely into autumn. As Google has reminded us, today is the Autumn Equinox. A misty start to an otherwise (I hope) slow, gentle sunny autumn day.
The Actaea came from Crug Farm Plants I think it’s A japonica as I also bought A dahurica but appear to have lost one or the other! There is a slight brown tinge to the opening buds, the individual flowers are much tighter than A simplex Brunette which is also in flower now (scented) and more fluffily showy, but both work for me. Some of the newly planted grasses are also just coming into full plume and look lovely bedecked with spangles of mist.
More mole woes
After little rain for weeks we got back from Devon last Thursday and I watered (typical, hadn’t factored in the imminent thunderstorms), not a sign of a mole. That night thunderstorms rumbled and crashed around and after the downpours the very next morning mole damage in the new raised beds. The earth moved in front of my eyes around a Kniphofia and then one lunchtime when there wasn’t a whisker of wind,
me Snapdragons started waving and lifting. Unfortunately I’m not adept enough to flick the culprit out of the ground. It’s still happily whizzing around in the nice mixed soil / compost uprooting plug plants – if I lose the dianthus recently bought from Allwoods I will be cross, they were settling in fine, not now!
Out with the old in with the new
We’ve gone over the tipping point, summer’s stars are waning or gone. Bye, bye summer.
All is not lost, we still have Asters waiting in the wings, various recently planted Colchicum from Broadleigh Bulbs are showing their colours, fat white fingers poking up through the soil. The silken dark coral petals of Schizostylis coccinea Major are making a big statement at the moment although the stems are flopping all over the place.
I’ve just realised that most plants I’ve mentioned so far have all had their names changed, Cimicifuga=Actaea, Schizostylis=Hesperantha, Polygonum=Persicaria and some Asters= Symphyotrichum – oh well. See RHS article
Some of the Kniphofia such a K rooperi from Trecanna Nursery and John Benary have kicked in with much needed flower power. The K rooperi seems more subtly coloured (which I like) than some images suggest on the web. Sadly the huge torches of K Painted Lady which stood so proud on Thursday evening were felled by the torrential rain overnight. K Grimshaw is malingering or will he be part of the late, late show? Dahlias are picking up the baton too, Le Vonne Splinter is now a mass of huge great sunny blooms, smaller flowered dark red-purple Chee has flowered for ages in a pot, and bright lemon pom pommed Sisa is smaller in stature than expected but cheerful nonetheless. The two Japanese dahlias Tohsouikyou and Zakuro Fubiki are a little wan and unforthcoming so far.
A bit of a cutie, Ringdove, sprays of small palest lilac flowers just coming into full flower now.
At least this early foraging bee was happy this misty morning on a shrub I love to malign, Symphoricarpos orbiculatus.
The sun has broken through at nearly midday and I must get on with and finish my article for LandScape magazine.