Category Archives: perennials

First Freeze and Snowfall

annuals, backyard bed, fence bed, gate bed, house bed, loki bed, perennials, the Lot

Brr. That cold snap is turning into a day of snow. This morning I looked out the back window into the garden and noticed what looked like white blooms on the anemone.

111916_anenome

Upon closer inspection, the white “blooms” were the seedheads of the plant. This is the first year the anemone has been on the Lot, so I didn’t know that about this plant.

111916_anenomeseedhead

The first hard freeze has come and gone. The random volunteer gourd plant growing from the house bed has been zapped.

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As well as the handful of begonias I was gifted this spring.

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And the hostas in both Loki’s bed and the gate bed.

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The maiden hair fern and Japanese painted fern both were bitten by the frost as well.

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We feel the Lot is ready for the weather cooling and the plants (at least above ground) shutting down. Everything is put to bed for winter to arrive.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – November 2016

annuals, backyard bed, bloom day, front bed, perennials, southwest bed, the Lot

November on the Lot is always rather quiet so there is not much to post for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. Today was quite cold and soggy while earlier this week it was warmer. It will be a matter of days before we get our first hard frost which will finish off the dwindling annuals.

This first set of blooms is the alyssum planted from seed between the two vegetable beds. Mom G. has this annual in her garden and it has resown itself every year.

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The next bloom is from an ice plant just obtained from an end-of-summer sale and placed in the main backyard bed.

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Most of the purple coneflowers have gone black and died, which was perfect decor for Halloween! However, this last bloom is hanging on.

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The jupiters beard begins blooming in spring and keeps at it until the snow covers it, as evidence by the bloom below.

111916_jupitersbeard

Also still  blooming are the lamium and lavender. More blooms can be spotted over at May Dreams Gardens, the wonderful hostess of Bloom Day.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – October 2016

backyard bed, bloom day, fence bed, front bed, loki bed, native plants, perennials, sidewalk bed, southwest bed

October Bloom Day is here! By this time each season the garden seems to have gone wild and the amount of daylight required to maintain control is dwindling . (The gardener is also tired and beginning to eye her knitting needles.) Looking back last year, we had some warmer-than-normal weather in October. So far this year we’ve had a ton of rain in September after a hot, dry August. The lankier plants have been beat down by the heavy rains. The days are cooler and rainy, but there are still some “blooms” to be enjoyed on the Lot.

We can always count on the toad lily (Trycyrtis hirta) to bring some delicate speckles of color to the Lot in the Autumn. I’d like to find another fall-blooming plant to accompany this shade-loving perennial in the east bed near the foundation of the house.

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In the expanded bit of Loki’s bed, the swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) is becoming streaked with color because of the cooler nights. The lavender it shares its bed with is still blooming and is way larger than the gardener had planned. Rats.

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The new anemone is still carrying on its show from last month. I like the backdrop of the blue blooms of the plumbago. The silver foliage of the sage is pretty as well.

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This joe pye weed (Eupatorium rugosum) is in its second year on the Lot. The white blooms look great with the darker stems of the plant. Apparently this cultivar grows to a max of 4 feet tall. I found this out just now as I looked up the latin name to post here. This must be why the plant is not  growing to the 6 feet I expected. Oy with reading the plant tags! You’d think I’ve learned to do so by now!

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This is more than likely the last, frazzled bloom of Echinacea purpurea ‘Butterfly Kisses,’ a dwarf coneflower.

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Here’s a droopy aster I rescued from beneath the mum when we expanded the backyard bed this past Spring. I’m looking forward to seeing how it likes the new digs next season.

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And here is another batch of aster currently peeking from beneath the foliage of a false indigo.

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Here is the monster mum in the backyard bed. It has not been divided since it was planted. I was going to do so this Fall, but read the Spring is the best time to do so. Therefore, the task has been shifted to the Spring list.

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The next few shots aren’t necessarily blooms, but still some fun colors in the garden. The yew in the front South bed is covered in small red berries.

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This year the rose at the southwest corner of the Lot was not pruned back, but allowed to form rose hips.

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There are some other perennials still blooming on the Lot, including the various sedum and some coreopsis. Just fading are the snakeroot, heuchera, and the tall phlox.

Be sure to visit May Dreams Gardens to view all the other lovely blooms for this month!