These cool nights and mild sunny days make everything in the garden thrive. How about some photos showing how the approach of Autumn is affecting your garden? Here's a start - my border garden with the first blush of sedum bloom, sun coleus and lavender.
Another area of the border. The annuals help fill the gaps when the perennials are done for the season.
Alot more seed pods on the sweet peas and snap dragons...but I can count on these gauras to bloom right up to frost.
Well, this looks more like Spring than Autumn. Here in mid-September, I know I'm looking at one of not too many more pictures like this.
I have a row of Canada Red Cherry trees that were glowing in the horizontal sunlight as I was watering this morning. I could not resist a photo.
Beautiful! Glad you didn't resist!
After having an old dying pear tree taken down, I had a really big blank spot in my yard. Here's a little bed I had lots of help putting in. The old watering can holds Angelonia while Turtleheads and Montauk Daisies fill in the back and Stella D'Oros, a few purple Irises and some Balloon Flowers anchor the front. There's a sprig of Fountain Gaura and a little Baby's Breath near the side. In the background, you can see my Rose garden (Knockouts, Painter's Palettes and a Lantana) and another little bed beyond that, which holds a Lilac, a Weigela and some Zinnias at present.
This fall the leaves have been spectacular in our area. Even though there was a soft rain yesterday, the maples, ginkgo and burning bushes were glowing. Here is a Japanese maple at the back of my garden.
Very nice everyone,here a little from me
i have spots of pretty left
I love the look of the flowering kale. Congratulations!
noid grass
Thank you I have 8-10 stuck here and there,they are very Interesting,some were bug food and others were not bothered much,I love them.
I'm going to have to try them, they're great looking.
Is your white flower in the last pic an aster?
mums and petunias,This area is well protcted,lasts a long time
Pagancat,Those are just white mums,and purple on the left and malva zebrina in the middle,and there are 4 flowering kale on the backside of the bath,well on either side of it.i liked how the kale filled in the gaps with the mums and malva .
Really nice, huggergirl.
Ready or not, Fall is here! I love the yellow of the Katsura tree in front of the green junipers. Still... can't wait for Spring!
Here's a striking example of the role sunshine plays in the fall color of burning bush. Part of this hedge gets sun, part is in the shade - look at the difference!
My neighbor across the creek gets lots of sun on his burning bush - what glorious color!
This year we've had the most colorful fall in my memory. Even though today is cold and gray, with rain off and on, my neighbor's maple tree is glowing!
Even the hedge apple trees in my yard are brilliant yellow this year.
What great color in those trees. Thanks for the example about the burning bush -- kind of like a tan line you get after wearing t-shirts all Summer!
Exactly like a tan line! Years ago I had a pair of burning bushes beside my front door, on the north side of the house. They never got red in the fall and I kept thinking I was doing something wrong - too much water, not enough fertilizer, etc. - it was just a matter of the wrong plant in the wrong spot!
I love those bushes - a lot of people have them here and they're incredible. But they showed up on my invasives list, wah! Know of any good substitutes?
Hmmm. I'm not sure why they would be considered invasive, since I've never seen them send out runners and the bush stays fairly compact if you prune it once or twice a year (mine are a 'dwarf' variety I planted two years ago and have not yet been trimmed - I'll probably prune them back this fall, after all the leaves are gone). To the best of my knowledge, they don't put out seeds to cause multiple plants. Here a lot of people use them as hedges (as I have along the wall beside the creek behind my house) or have a single bush to shine as a spot of red in the autumn garden.
If I were you, I'd ask one of your neighbors who has one in their garden. Or, you can try one and see if you have a problem - worst case scenario, you'll need to eliminate it from your garden if it gets out of control.
Beautiful color and photos everyone ,it has been a beautiful color year here too,although fast,we had such cold weather early.
The blue spruce looks great with all the fall colors! Have you had a problem with the burning bush being invasive HuggerGirl? It sure looks wonderful in this photo!
Lovely, huggergirl! Doesn't it show up nice? Wow.
Lovely, huggergirl! Doesn't it show up nice? Wow.
Yeah, that's one of the problems with those lists - they don't (often) tell you *how* it has become a problem. With some, it's obvious, like the privet that chokes everything here - it's the small black berries that the birds love.
Huggergirl, that is one magnificent show you've got going there!
Golly thanks everyone =},I have burning bush sprouts or root suckers,and they are on the do not plant list in Indiana,I can see why they list it.ive had it for 15 or more yrs,i just pull the sprouts
This is a planter with two plants (draecena, lamium) and one invasive (mint) that is in my front yard that I'm hoping will survive our cold damp winters. The blooming CA fuchsia behind it has just been ripped out - it got very sprawling and unattractive, although in bloom the flowers are pretty.
This is a brilliant scarlet iresine that managed to survive last winter, along with spikey bearded iris foliage and a blooming variegated plectranthus groundcover.
BTW, forgot to say - although I love living in the temperate SF Bay Area, I am always so envious at this time of year of all the beautiful autumn foliage you guys show! We have so little of that here, I'm afraid. This photo is a variegated CA fuchsia 'Firecracker', with one of the last blooms of a 'Sun Goddess' hydrangea.
I really love foliage contrasts, and this north-facing bed is one of the most complex and pleasing to me. Here my first fall calla lily lies over a 'Jack Frost' brunnera. Left to right, you can see the starburst-shaped leaf cluster of a variegated alstroemeria, a yellow plectranthus groundcover, glossy calla lily leaves, an "Endless Summer" hydrangea, ending with some bearded iris and calla foliage.
An osteopermum 'Autumn Sunset', one of the new bronze-tinted osteos coming out, showcased against a silvery Artemisia 'Powis Castle'.
This plectranthus is 'Zulu Wonder', grown for its beautiful purple flower spikes. The stems and underside of the leaves are a beautiful dark burgundy color.
Roses are still blooming - in fact, last year I never got to prune them because the winter was so warm! This year, though, I'm determined to cut them back in January, no matter what the temps are. Otherwise, the branches start crossing, and they get too unruly. This is 'Double Delight', which has a marvelous scent.
This rose standard is 'Intrigue', always a little straggly because there's a little too much shade from an oleander standard across the pathway. But the blooms are citrus-scented, and such a pretty reddish-purple. At its feet is J&P's 'Ladies in Waiting', a scented shrub rose that buds pink and slowly fades to cream.
Here's a shot at the front sidewalk looking towards the house (well, and our neighbor's too, to the left). Lots are small here, about 1/6 acre, but that's about as much as I can handle, gardening-wise! Our property slopes downwards towards the back, so these front plants, including the spectacular shrub lantana 'Peaches and Cream', are in a planter atop the concrete-block wall that marks the descent into our driveway.
