October Bloomers
Schizostylis ‘Fenland Daybreak’
I bought the Schizostylis at Lanhydrock last year. It’s one of the few plants to emerge this late in the season and I’m delighted to see it return. Not least because the mice, it seems, have chosen to leave it alone. And yes, I have seen the weeds.
Saxifraga fortunei Rubrifolia
Another recent bloomer. Bronze tinged leaves, bright red on the underside, the same colour as those stems. The flowers just leap out of this shady spot.
Sedum (inherited, variety unknown)
Aster (inherited)
The autumn stalwarts, providing colour reliably year after year.
Hydrangea (inherited)
Mop head Hydrangeas are not my favourite of the mid summer shrubs. This is how I love them though, when they start to fade.
Hydrangea (inherited)
Rosa Susan Williams-Ellis
Rosa Pat Austin
Some of the roses are putting up a second flush, but the flowers are smaller now.
Alstroemeria Princess Diana
Many of the summer perennials are still going strong.
Potentilla thurberi ‘Monarch’s Velvet’
Verbena rigida
Geum rivale ‘Leonard’s Variety’
Cosmos atrosanguineus ‘Chocamocha’
Salvia patens
Now, isn’t she a beauty?
Linking to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens, where you will find many other October bloomers from around the world.
Ooh, I do like the Schizostylis, really pretty. A great selection for the time of year.
Thanks Jenny. Plants that send up fresh new flower spikes at this time of year are oh so welcome!
Wow, you do have some amazing flowers still blooming. The white rose is stunning, and the schizostylis is really pretty too. And chocamocha is wonderful – I grew some of these once, I must see if I can grow them again next year because the colour is so beautiful.
And the scent! I end up treating them as annuals, I’ve rarely had one survive over the winter. I might try lifting the corm this year, as I shall have to do the same with the salvia.
Your garden is amazing, you still have so much colour. We have a lot of green still, but not so much colour. V jealous! Loving the roses especially.
The roses haven’t done anything at all for the last couple of months, and then all of a sudden there are new buds! The flowers are not lasting long though, the rain has seen to that.
You should open your garden to the public – so many beautiful plants. I love that Geum. I was thinking of doing a ‘what’s still flowering’ post but it’s just not worth doing!
They would want their money back when they saw the weeds! I wondered how many photos I would get and was surprised to come up with 14. It’s worth a try Em.
You put me to shame, I have a little fading sedum and a couple of second flush roses in the garden and that’s it! (and no time to do anything about it at the moment either!) Julie x
It’s been a busy time for you, you can’t be on top of everything x
Such a lovely selection of flowers. I have some cosmos & sweet peas still hanging on & it is making me reluctant to remove them, even though they are past their best.
I know exactly what you mean. It looks so bare when you do.
The salvia is gorgeous, such a beautiful colour, and doesn’t cosmos just keep on giving. I love that dark colour, though I usually grow Purity, a white one.
I will be growing the white ones next year. They’re beautiful too. I just ran out of space this time around.
I always enjoy your blue flowers and the dusky pink of that first shot is stunning (didn’t notice the weeds until you mentioned them!) 🙂
I’ve had a ‘blue’ year, horticulturally speaking, and probably overdone it now! 2014 will be the year of white. And no weeds 🙂
I’m so ignorant of anything plant related I feel an impostor just by being here. Lovely flowers…
I feel like that going around the other garden bloggers. There are some real experts out there. I’m just self taught through trial and (frequent) error! Thanks Monica.
I can almost smell those roses. Oh, and I do love your rusty ducks.
Hi Layanee, thanks and welcome to rusty duck.
Both of them have a wonderful scent, you have a good nose!
I too love hydrangeas as they start to fade. I love your first plant ‘Fenland Daybreak’ such a lovely colour. I asume the Susan Williams Ellis your rose is named after is the Portmeirion pottery designer? Lovely photos:)
It is! I’d not come across this rose before, only planted this year. Quite small flowers, but still lovely.
Beautiful Autumn colour Jessica …… Monty Don was saying on Gardeners World on friday about just how much colour there was in the garden in October. We tend to think that it’s all over by now but, not at all. We still have roses, loads of Japanese anenome, hydrangeas, cyclamen etc. etc….. a really pretty time of year. XXXX
I’ve been trying to put in more late season plants because last year the garden was all over at this point. This year it’s much better, the inherited plants as well. But then the weather has been a lot better too. I am becoming an autumn convert. Not winter yet though!!
Yes, a really good time of year for flowers, but I could do better! You have a lovely selection so your garden must be looking good.
Good in parts… or was that the parson’s egg? I’m hoping next year the garden will be advanced enough for me to take wider shots. Thanks Pauline.
You have lots of lovely flowers in bloom at the moment. I love the schizostylis ( I didn’t notice the weeds, either!) and the later flowering roses are beautiful. Love the asters and the cosmos, too. I’m completely converted to planting lots of asters for next autumn and once again I regret not getting round to planting cosmos of any type this year.
My asters haven’t lasted so long this year. I chopped them back by half in May to try and get them more compact, but then flowering got delayed until the rain came. Difficult call.
Oh, yummy, so many pretty things. Love the Schizostylis, very stylish. I’m with you on mopheads, I inherited a couple too and keep thinking about getting rid of them, but they make me smile because they are such a feature of seaside towns, so they remind me of childhood holidays. Still not sure I want them in my own garden though, however prettily they die.
My compromise was to move some of mine up on to the bank where they are seen from a distance. They are still settling after the upheaval so we’ll see how they do. So it’s put up or down to the dump.
There are some very lovely blooms here. Blessings, Natalie
Thanks Natalie. It’s getting harder to find bloomers now.. not sure what will happen next month!
Same here. We just never know the when of a seasons start up or shut down for sure. So all we can do is enjoy what we’ve got while we can. Thanks for sharing your lovelness with your readers. Blessings, Natalie
Very cold here tonight… it may not last long!
Beautiful photos, and I love the one of the verbena with the butterfly and the spider’s web in the background.
Thanks Anne. The verbena is putting out sideshoots like crazy, but worth dividing or taking cuttings as the insects really love it.
Fenland Daybreak is absolutely gorgeous. You do have such naughty mice don’t you….xxxx
Naughty is not the word I use..
The hydrangeas are my favorite too when they begin to fade. I’m grateful for any flowers that change color as they begin to fade, or when the weather becomes cooler. It adds a certain softness to them I think.~~Dee
Hi Dee and welcome to rusty duck.
It certainly does. The hydrangeas are a bit brash for me when they first come out. Right now they are perfect!
You still have a lovely display. I have little flowering interest in the garden now. I do have loads of bracket fungus accross the lawn though! x
Yes, fungi here too. I seem to have grown a mammoth mushroom outside the greenhouse but the mice have eaten it. Why am I not surprised. Hope it was not poisonous. Or magic.
My blue Salvia is rampent – I keep expecting it won’t last the winter but it always seems to survive. Love your pictures and I have little weed seedlings springing up just the same!
I think it is too wet here. Cold they can often survive, cold and wet not.
ooops meant rampant!!
Lovely photos! What nice color you have going on there.
Thanks Suzanne.
I forget my schizostylus every year until I see someone else’s pictures! (They are in a tucked away place – will go and look tomorrow..thanks for the reminder)
Don’t leave it too long. Torrential rain here, coming your way!
That’s an impressive selection of late-blooming plants. Thanks for identifying the Schizostylis – my neighbour has some and I’ve been casting a covetous eye over the fence.
They really shine out too. I only have one and it’s still enough to make an impact.
So many pretty flowers! The first two are new to me, but the others I know. I really like the colors, especially the cosmos. Happy Gardening!
Thanks Dorothy. You may know the Schizostylis better as Hesperantha. According to Wiki the former name is more common in Britain.
My schizostylus only lasted a couple of years then disappeared as is the way of things in my garden. You certainly still have plenty in flower, it is truly disbolical here at the moment which should put paid to the last of the flowers that have been hanging on.
We had the same weather overnight and the garden looked a real state this morning. Leaves everywhere and flowers somewhat the worse for wear.
Oh your GBBD post is a most timely reminder for me Jessica to seek out schizostylis – have had red, pink and white varieties in the past but they have all eventually withered. As I was born in Cambridgeshire ‘ Fenland Daybreak’ might be most apt. That beautiful white rose looks almost luminous – is she scented?
She is, gorgeously scented. It’s a David Austin rose.
Thanks for the feedback on the scent Jessica. Never know whether to completely believe the catalogues 🙂
Love the Verbena with delicate cobweb & butterfly.
It’s beautiful isn’t it. Glad you had a good holiday Penny x
The Schizostylis is new to me. Impressed.
It seems to be a tough cookie too (fingers crossed). I lost a lot of plants last winter, either because they got eaten or through the wet conditions.
I honestly believe that hydrangeas as they fade are among the most beautiful things in any garden.
I think you’re right. I should bring some indoors before the weather destroys them.
you have such a beautiful array of Autumn colour 🙂
Thanks Cherie. The leaves on the acers are just beginning to turn, that’s a wonderful sight too.
I do like your Pat Austin rose. It’s not a colour I would think of choosing, but it’s a stunner!
Orange is probably one of the most difficult colours to place, so this rose sits in a bed on its own. I just fell for it in a nursery and had to have it!
I really loved the photo of Rosa Pat Austin, but all of your fall blooms are really beautiful…Really enjoyable post.
Thanks Charlie. It’s one of my favourites. The blooms may not last so long at this time of year, but I’ve had buds opening on that one in December before now!
We get so much colour so late in the year, it’s wonderful. Gorgeous photos as usual, you really are one talented lady.
We have the same Sedum as you, I would tell you the variety but a certain little Pug de-labelled all my plants when she was a puppy, I have a feeling they could all be lying somewhere in the woods 🙂
Aww thanks Sue, credit must go to my co-photographer too though.
Beautiful article and photos! Thank you!
If you have tome for some advice, I have a steep garden, north facing, with some sun and some shade and moist soil. I need to put in some ground cover, but something that won’t take over (currently fighting bind weed!). Any recommendations, helpful. 🙂
My first thought would be geraniums, which thrive in sun or shade and are pretty well indestructible. They provide excellent and colourful ground cover, they do spread a bit but look lovely twining through other plants. If you hack them back they will stay more compact and often give you another flush of blooms. Pulmonaria has done well here too, also a shade lover. Spreads to form ground cover but is easy to pull out and loves moist soil. Something more exotic that works well here is Saxifraga stolonifera. Covers the ground with baby plantlets which grow wherever the stolons touch the ground. Again easy to pull out if you have too many. Beautiful white flowers (grows about 8 inches high) most of the summer. Alchemilla mollis? Ferns? Bergenia? On a steep slope go for things that will form thick mats of foliage to keep weeds down, the less you have to climb up the slope to maintain it the better! It’s what I’m trying to achieve on the steepest parts of the Precipitous Bank. This used to be in shade until we felled an 80′ conifer. Now they are all having to cope with a bit more sun! There must be loads of others. I’ll keep thinking..