It is cold, cloudy, and drizzling this September Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, but that didn’t stop me from snapping some photos to share. Here is what is blooming on the Lot right now.

Last Bloom Day I posted a photo of the plumbago beginning to bloom. It is still blooming this month, but some of the nights had been cool enough the foliage is beginning to change.

The mum is beginning to slowly open up. There is only this one hardy mum on the Lot so it has fallen victim to a mum-pruning experiment this season. On the left side of the plant, I pruned it back in late spring. This is supposed to cause the plant to be more compact and have fewer but larger flowers. On the right, I didn’t prune at all and let the plant do it’s natural thing. I’m anxious to see how it turns out when in full bloom.

Here is a set of raggedy-tag black-eyed susan underneath the backyard rose bush. The plant blooming last month in the main back bed is finished, but this one is still going. It’s a bit chewed up and fading, but it still adds a bright splash of color to the increasingly overcast days.

These coneflowers are still going strong in the front, south bed. I continue to deadhead, and they continue to send up new flower stalks.

Here is a foxglove new to the Lot this year. I’ve made an effort to move some of the more toxic flowers out of the back yard where the four-footed garden helpers work. Since we lost our foxglove from last year, this new one was planted outside the gate on the east side of the house. Foxglove usually blooms at the beginning of summer, so I’m hoping this plant is just slightly disoriented and not sick.

Having tended a garden for several years now, I’m beginning to get a feel as to which plants signal the changing of the seasons. When I think of our zone moving into fall, I think of blooming sedum and toad lilies. First here is a new toad lily, blooming it’s first time on the Lot. This plant is also very toxic to pets, so it’s a neighbor to the new foxglove. Isn’t it dainty?

And here comes the many varieties of sedum blooming right now. I love these plants because they are so hardy, don’t flinch at the scalding summer sun, can grow in poor soil with little water, are pollinator magnets, and offer almost cotton-candy like clouds of color when everything else seems to be winding down for the season.

Also blooming: many versions of coreopsis, gaura, tall garden phlox, rose campion, and blanket flowers. Be sure to check out May Dreams Gardens to see what is blooming in everyone else’s garden!