Tricyrtis formosana ‘Pink Freckles’
Toad Lily. Shot against a wave of Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’
It’s the turn of the late summer flowers now. It may be hurling it down with rain as I write. And blowing a hoolie. But it’s still late summer. Yes it is. I was always good at denial.
![Dahlia 'Karma Chocolate' 002 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Dahlia-Karma-Chocolate-002-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
Dahlia ‘Karma Chocolate’
The colours get ever deeper.
I lost this dahlia last year. I could say that I took the advice of the nurseryman (true) who said it would be fine to leave it in the ground over winter. We are in Devon after all. Or I could admit it was laziness that prevented me from digging it up and giving it safe refuge in the shed. Either way, it didn’t make it and this is the replacement. More appropriate seasonal accommodation is on stand by..
![Terraces 042 Wm[1]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Terraces-042-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
There is still colour in the terraces but it’s fading fast now. I do like the contrast (in the foreground) of Verbena rigida against the foliage of Saxifraga ‘Touran Lime Green’. The sharp eyed may have noticed that the back end of the terraces is more open than it was. We’ve been doing a lot more clearing in the wake of the big tree coming down. More on this in posts to come.
![Rose 'Boscobel' 006 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Rose-Boscobel-006-Wm1-752x1024.jpg?resize=588%2C800&ssl=1)
Rose ‘Boscobel’, enjoying a strong second flush
![Hydrangea 019 Wm[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Hydrangea-019-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
The inherited hydrangeas (NoID) have reached the stage at which I love them most. They are starting to fade and darken as they do. So much more refined than the shocking pink that this one started out. I’m torn between leaving the blooms exactly where they are or drying them in a vase. Or could it be that there are just enough of them now to give me the luxury of doing both?
![Hydrangea 020 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Hydrangea-020-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
A lace cap hydrangea that started life in shades of blue and has now faded to pink
![Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' 001 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Hydrangea-paniculata-Limelight-001-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’
An utterly irresistible new purchase.
![Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' 002 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Rudbeckia-Goldsturm-002-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
Up on the Precipitous Bank, Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’ seen through a froth of Anemanthele lessoniana
![Echinacea 'White Swan' 001 Wm[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Echinacea-White-Swan-001-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
Echinacea ‘White Swan’
Remember last month my uncontained excitement at the sight of three (THREE!!!) Echinacea blooms? Well it doesn’t stop there. Now I have these. All.. two of them. Whilst readers may be suitably underwhelmed I should point out that not only have they, by some miracle, evaded the attention of marauding molluscs but they were actually grown from seed. I shall enjoy them while I can.
I found the slug to outdo them all yesterday morning. It was six inches long and I’m not kidding. If it hadn’t been for the torrential rain I’d have taken a photo to prove it.
There are more whites too..
![Anemone x hybrida 'Honorine Jobert' 004 Wm[1]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Anemone-x-hybrida-Honorine-Jobert-004-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
Anemone x hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’
![Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Alba' 001 Wm[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Persicaria-amplexicaulis-Alba-001-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Alba’
And some that should have been white. But weren’t..
![Cosmos 001 Wm[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Cosmos-001-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
Cosmos. Impure. Not that I’m complaining.
![Cyclamen hederifolium 004 Wm[1]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Cyclamen-hederifolium-004-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
Cyclamen hederifolium
Harbingers of autumn.
![Sedum 006 Wm[1]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Sedum-006-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
Sedum
Next month even I may have to admit that the season has changed.
Linking to Carol and Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens (here), where you will find many other September bloomers from around the world.
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Thank you ……. your beautiful photos have really cheered me up!!
My pleasure. I hate the thought of a cold winter coming though.
That’s strange – for the first time ever, a pink ‘Purity’ arrived in my garden too! Hydrangea limelight is fast becoming my favourite Hydrangea. I have so loved watching the colour changes over the summer. I always leave heads on Hydrangea to give somewhere for minibeasts to hide. I shall be adding Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Alba’ to my wishlist – GBBD can be a costly enterprise. I love those terraces – happily terraces can’t be added to my wishlist (there is little need on our flat landscape!)
Oh for a flat landscape! I ‘discovered’ the paniculata hydrangeas a couple of years ago and can’t get enough of them now. It does seem to have been a mixed batch of Purity this year. The shade of pink is lovely though.
Love that ‘Limelight’ too. Stunning shots this month….well, every month! X
Thanks Em. I bought a purple leaved hazel to go with it too, they look perfect together!
You know what Morecambe & Wise said about denial Jessica? It is a river in Egypt. We all wish to stall the end of summer as long as possible, your photos show how wonderful the garden can look this time of year. Kamar Choc is a favourite.
Ahhh Egypt. Hot and dry!
I would like to have hydrangeas here, there are a lot about so they must be heat tolerant providing they also have shade. The back of our cottage is in need of some prettiness. It faces north and is in shade for much of the year, just right for a few hydrangeas. I would let most of the flowers stay on the shrubs during winter, but would not be able to not ‘borrow’ a few heads for indoors. I love dried grasses and flowers which have been picked from our land, having them indoors during winter helps me keep in touch with the warmer weather. Lovely photos, as ever……..
I do think I need more dried flowers and foliage around the house, houseplants really don’t do well in cottages and I’d hate to be without anything floriferous. And of course, they wouldn’t need watering 🙂
We’re all jealous of your hydrangeas. I really should give up on mine. They are almost wilted to nothing by the time the flowers arrive and within a couple of days the petals are brown and ‘orrid. Not to mention the fact that my beautiful blue ones are a grotty pink. They are the hardest plant to resist, though.
Janna you have so many other things that I’d dearly love to be able to grow! I’ve moved a couple of the shocking pink hydrangeas closer to the woodland and they do seem to be gradually turning blue.. via a very muddy purple!
Oh wow! What absolutely fabulous photos. Love the dahlia, definitely one for the notebook.
Thanks Ronnie. That dahlia is a beauty, it has gorgeous dark foliage too. I just hope I can keep it alive this year.
Gorgeous! Really absolutely gorgeous!
Happy Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day!
Lea
Thanks Lea. You too! We are spoilt by the proliferation of gorgeous blooms on GBBD. Love your spider lily.
Hello again!
I just noticed the little bird in your Header photo. Is this a new Header photo, or the same one you’ve had and I just didn’t notice the cute bird?
Lea
It’s always been there but I agree, it isn’t very noticeable. I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to get a better picture. It’s a robin, Britain’s favourite bird and rightly so. They are very tame and follow me around the garden when I’m weeding, waiting for worms. This one sits on the ducks a lot.. but never when I’ve got my camera!!
Beautiful Jessica. Your battle to tame nature just a bit is paying off!
Thanks Gillian. It’s a battle I fear I’ll never entirely win. There were two deer in the garden yesterday evening, quite happily munching away. Lovely to see them, but at a price!
Wonderful photos as always. The Dahlia ‘Karma Chocolate’ is such a wonderful colour that I would have bought another one too! Hope it survives this winter for you.
I’ve learnt from last year’s lesson. Especially as they say it will be much colder this year. It will be safely wrapped up somewhere away from the ravages of the weather. More than that I cannot do.
Beautiful colours.
We had a giant of a slug in the downstairs bathroom last night … so glad I spotted it and didn’t tread on it!
I know we’ve got one somewhere in the house too, I’ve seen the trails. But I’m blowed if I can find it.. a similar fate may yet await! Yuk!
Everything looks beautiful but I really love that white Persicaria. Such a change from the brightly colored ones that I did not recognize it.
It would look good in your garden. The flowers seem to be more delicate than the more colourful varieties too.
You may bemoan the advance of autumn but your garden seems to be celebrating it. I’d celebrate it too if I had such a beautiful cast of characters. I SO envy the Japanese anemone – there’s no sign at all of mine here this year.
We’ve had such a lousy summer and now the forecast of a cold winter, that’s why I bemoan it. The garden is going for a last hurrah before the colder weather too I reckon. I shall enjoy it while it lasts.
The color of that dahlia is so rich. All of your blooms are lovely. I’m envious of your toad lilies. Mine have totally failed this year for reasons I can’t figure out.
The toad lilies get munched by slugs when they first come up and I always think I’ve lost them. But they seem to grow through it somehow. Gardening seems to be a challenge wherever we might live.
I hope the big slug met an untimely end. I like that Dahlia, definitely worth preserving over the winter by digging up. I leave mine in the ground. They get a late start, but they always return.
I’m too squeamish Alison! I think it’s the winter wet that does it for the dahlias here, rather than the cold. Last winter was actually very mild. I gave them a thick covering of mulch but it still wasn’t enough.
The colors of the garden touch you in a special way that the rest of the world is so incapable of doing…Absolutely love your photos, they are quite spectacular, such a wonderful way for me to start the day.
Charlie, thank you. I’m not sure what I’d do without a garden. Pottering about out there puts me in a more positive frame of mind whenever the world is getting me down. Unless I spot something that’s been freshly nibbled of course. Then it’s different.
you have a nice lot of blooms Jessica, my echinacea are from seed I sowed 2 years ago so I understand how you feel, mine are still buds I have yet to wait the excitement of the first flower, as for the large slug, I get those big ones here, but I’ve never noticed any real damage from them, I read once (book/magazine) that it is not these large ones that do great damage, it’s those small ones, about a centimeter in size that live in the soil that do the most damage and I have found that to be true, how are the slug repellents going?
I think your terraces look lovely last years hard work has paid off, lots of variety of tones and textures,
I just read your previous post before this one, glad the drain was easier than expected, it’s nice when something good happens, however looking at that ditch especially that concrete block along the house wall, my god that it dangerous I’m glad Mike only broke ribs which is bad enough but he could have been knocked out or worse, you really need that rope anchored at the top when working on the bank, my house on Scalpay was on ground cut into the rock, from the top of the rock at the back you could actually step onto the roof, the rock went straight down so no gardening there, Frances
I think we sowed our echinacea at about the same time Frances, these are Year 2 as well.
The slug experiment is going well. At first I thought the sand wasn’t going to work, but after the first night’s failure the slugs don’t seem to have been back so obviously they didn’t like it at all! The Shocka Mat also appears to be working. The beer traps did well too but I’ve given them up.. too much work (and unpleasant work) to maintain.
Yes, the Precipitous Bank does present challenges. I need to find something ground covering to plant along the edge so we don’t need to go near it at all.
so pleased to read some of the slug repellents are finally working, I don’t like the unpleasant side of slug control either but do sometimes have a jar of salt water in the garden, where, if I find a slug I drop it in, I use coffee jars with a screw lid and eventual tip them wayout in distant corners of the garden, I suppose beer would work too, Frances
It’s the smell of the beer that puts me off. I’ve never liked it in the first place. A couple of days in the ground with added slug doesn’t improve the situation much!
yuuuuuuuk!!!!!!!!
🙂
All beautiful, I wish my ‘Boscobel’ was having a second flush. Such a glorious scent, I put it down to it being a new planting. I hope! x
I’ve had Boscobel just over a year and it came back well in its second season. It seems to be a very robust variety, I hope the same is true for yours. The scent is glorious, but I just love the colour too. A very refined pink I feel!
Oooh, yummy! I adore Dahlia ‘Karma Chocolate’. I thought I’d lost all my dahlias, having left them in the ground but forgotten to mulch them. I was so convinced that I had lost them that I allowed the feverfew full rein. Turns out they were all still there, just struggling rather under the thuggish cover of the feverfew! Pity I was so late in discovering this that only my ever faithful Bishop of Llandaff has flowered.
I remember you saying that you were growing ‘White Swan’ from seed. I did too. They didn’t come back in year 2, and were just as prolific *cough* as yours. I can’t decide whether to give bought plants a go or just plump for ‘Honorine Jobert’ instead as my source of white open flowers!
Your terraces are looking rather lovely, and I am envious of your white persicaria. But does it die well, or does it do that horrid “brown and white dirty flowers” thing that is depressing me about my white veronicastrum and white actaea?
I shall persist with White Swan for a while yet, I love the structure of it as well as the colours. But it’s going to be hard going, I can tell. It might also be worth trying the plain species E. purpurea, I gather it’s more reliable in the UK. Although obviously not white.
I can’t comment on the dying qualities of the persicaria as I’ve only planted it this year. What I have noticed is that it’s prone to fasciation, which I’ve noticed in veronicastrum too as it happens..
It’s so lovely to see these fantastic plants from your garden, including many of my favourites too! The colour of that dahlia is so lovely! Hurrah for your three Echinacea blooms! Sarah x
I am coming to treasure Echinacea blooms, they’re like gold dust round here! Thanks Sarah.
Everything looks so lovely – the hydrangeas are superb. I may have to find some room for ‘limelight’!
It’s gorgeous Matt. The blooms have a green tinge before they start to take on the pink tones. I want to put it on the woodland edge, it should look more in keeping there than the more colourful varieties.
Your blooms look similar to what is blooming where I live in the United States, in upstate New York. I wouldn’t call the cosmos bloom “impure” – in another month it will be a treasure. My Japanese anemone just started to open in the last three days, a sure sign of fall on its way.
It was just a play on words as the white Cosmos I thought I was growing is ‘Purity’! On the contrary, it’s a lovely coloured bloom and a treasure already.. just somewhat unexpected! Luckily I didn’t plant it next to anything that would produce a colour clash.
[…] at Rusty Duck in southwest England, […]
What gorgeous blooms! I love fall and eagerly await signs of it. There is the goldenrod blooming and the asters just starting, but with all our warm weather, I feel like summer just wants to hang around!
Enjoy your good weather while it lasts Indie. I would love to visit the States in the Fall. It must be truly spectacular.
Lovely, lovely lovely, you’ve inspired me to get into the garden…it is spring for us, and I should see blooms everywhere…
Hi Gerrie and welcome.
Oh, how I envy you Spring! But at this time of year my thoughts turn to Spring even if the weather is getting colder. There is much to do to prepare the garden for the next season. And soon enough it will come round again.
the light in your photographs is amazing today; were you using a different camera or was the (dare I say it?) autumnal light the reason? You have many beautiful blooms this month and for sure you can forgive that gorgeous Cosmos for not being white.
No, same old camera. Therefore I fear it must be that the sun is getting lower in the sky! I did notice the light, on the anemone shot in particular. It’s nice to play with shadows, especially now they are so much softer. Thanks Christina.
I’m envious of you growing Tricyrtis. I’ve been wanting to grow them for ages but never have the right conditions. Will just have to enjoy yours in the meantime.
Certainly plenty of beautiful reminders of summer in your garden, make the most of them while you can.
I should have been out there today. The forecast was terrible so I opted for indoor chores and we had not a single drop of rain. I was done!
Enjoyed the “late summer” romp in your garden, there is obviously still much to enjoy. Love the noID hydrangea. I just returned home from the September tour last night and it was a great trip, though the gardens were a bit less florifious than usual because of August’s cool and wet weather.
Yes, this summer’s weather has certainly taken its toll. I’m so glad you had a good trip though, look forward to reading all about it and seeing the pictures. Hope Highgrove lived up to expectations, although I know you’re not allowed to take photos there.
So lovely Jessica! Your photos are great. Ever think of making a book with them? So easy nowadays.
Thanks Suzanne. I don’t know about the book.. might have to get me and Mike on a proper photography course first. But that would be fun too.
Oh it’s still most definitely summer Jessica for another few days and here in the north west we’ve had a beautiful sunny and still day. I’m glad to read that it’s not just me who sometimes leaves dahlias in the ground overwinter – you loose some, you win some. I like the spotty toad.
I was particularly sad to lose Karma Choc though. So this year it will be lifted and placed in intensive care over the winter. And then probably be killed with kindness.
You have a beautiful garden!
Thanks for sharing this post and giving me the idea to also participate!
I just started a new blog last week about gardening and crafting. You are always welcome visit if you want.
Greetings, Sofie
http://sofies-succulent-beads.blogspot.be/2015/09/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-september-2015.html
Hi Sofie, great to hear from you!
It’s a great meme to participate in, especially if you do it over a period of time. It’s lovely to look back and see how the garden compares to the same time in the previous year.
Japanese Anemones, Cyclamen, Autumn Sedums, Asters, all make me think of fall approaching. It’s nice to have so many flowers to enjoy in the cool fall. Your flowers look lovely. I’m not looking forward to fall and winter either, but it is easier this year after so much heat and drought this last summer. I carry a knife in the garden and slice the slugs up when I find them. Another thing I do is create traps, several thicknesses of folded newspaper on the ground, near the plants they like to eat, then I check the trap daily and usually find a good crop of slugs to slice up. It has really helped reduce the populations. I have a very large striped slug here called a leopard slug, which I read eats other slugs, so when I find them I leave them alone.
Hi Hannah and welcome to rusty duck.
I can quite understand that Fall must come as a relief after such a hot summer. We rarely experience temperatures as high as you and this year has been especially cool. So I’m feeling a bit cheated by the lack of a summer and now we have a forecast of a cold winter too. Send some of the heat this way please.
Also, you are a lot less squeamish than me!
Gorgeous! Gorgeous! I do love that stone wall. And the Tricyrtis–lovely. I had a couple of Tricyrtis plants for a couple of years but they didn’t persist. Perhaps I picked the wrong location for them … or the rabbits ate them. They are fascinating plants, and I love the fact that they bloom this time of year!
They do get eaten. Im my case by slugs. But if they get through Spring with enough foliage remaining they seem to be able to regrow and make it through to flowering unscathed.
Terrific pictures rd, my Tricyrtis are not out yet but should be soon. The very tips of my Hydrangea aspera were badly frosted this year so it has looked most odd because some of the lower branches have flowered whilst the bulk of the new growth, which resulted from the area of the frost damage, has remained without.
That would look odd! I hope it sorts itself out for next year. Although if the forecast is correct we might all be looking at frost damage next Spring.
Stunning photos. Picking the toad lily as my favorite.
Amalia
xo
Thanks Amalia. It’s a lovely bloom, but quite small. One to admire close up!
should but weren’t – I bought a Clear Yellow Gazania which has opened to stop the traffic tangerine. Grumbles off …
Your pair of white swans are a delight!
I only wish I had more than a pair!
Your gazania reminds me of an Iris that I purchased from a very reputable institution (RHS no less) which I thought was red and turned out to be blue. But as is the way of many an iris around here it became slug fodder so I didn’t have long to bemoan it.
Your Dahlia Karma Chocolate is a beauty, I do love the really dark varieties. I think that’ll be mollycoddled this winter.
I’m not a great dahlia fan if I’m honest, but this one I really do love. It is the dark foliage and rich blooms that do it for me.
I understand your excitement , we can’t grow echinaceas nun our garden.
I was at RHS Rosemoor today and only spotted E. purpurea. The newer hybrids they don’t seem to be growing, unless they were in a completely different part of the garden where I did not go (we were short on time so that is entirely possible). Plenty of heleniums and rudbeckia in the hot garden though. Perhaps it is not just us?
Your garden still looks like summer with so many gorgeous blooms…here it is more like autumn. My Tricyrtis are not flowering yet nor are the dahlias…sadly I am not sure I can even overwinter the dahlias.
There is a definite nip in the air here too. We are still sitting out for lunch given a window of opportunity between the showers. But when the sun goes down it does indeed feel like autumn.
Just stunning, Jessica, so many fabulous combinations and so much colour and interest for the time of year. Did the tree work necessitate the replanting or has it offered new possibilities? It will be interesting to see what the results are.
Thanks Kate. The immediate work following the tree felling has been the removal of bucket loads of sawdust! But it’s also given me access to the back of the terraces in a way I’ve never had before. There are definitely new possibilities, not least because the border has proper light and moisture from the rain for the first time in decades. There is a very scrappy hedge alongside it, mostly brambles, which will come out over the next few weeks giving me an opportunity to replant.
That dahlia is gorgeous, and so is rose Boscabel. I bet they’d look gorgeous together. One of my favourite colour combinations. That slug sounds a horror. I see ones slithering across the grass here the size of sausages sometimes. Well done on the white echinacea, that’s a lot better than I’ve ever managed. CJ xx
The echinacea probably won’t last the winter and as they take two years to bloom it’s a lot of work for a couple of flowers. I doubt I’ll try again, just enjoy it while I’ve got it.
Is it just me or are the slugs even bigger this year? There really have been some whoppers about.
Wonderful photos Jessica. I love hydrangeas when they get the late season antiquey shades. I love that persicaria, very striking. I always leave my dahlias in the ground covered with newspaper and mulch. I am convinced that it is winter wet rather than frost that kills them.
You’re right, it definitely is the wet. I lost two last year, despite mulching. We only had a couple of frosty nights the whole winter and then not really serious frost. But it was wet, much more so than the east of the country possibly. This year I’m going to lift them. The forecast is for a colder winter so I’m not going to risk it.