Above, I think the white flowers are Calamintha nepeta, a plant the selfseeds overly enthusiastically in my garden. It does serve to help keep down other weeds, however.

Annabelle Hydrangea arborescens is still putting out fresh blooms, though most are turning green.

Rugoochi might be my longest blooming clematis, and it remains healthy looking all season. Some of my clematis I should cut back to remove dead vines, but it has been too hot and sticky to do more than the absolute minimum in the garden.

I planted a small 6 pack of cosmos last year where I had removed a quince since until I am sure it is dead, I don’t want to add permanent plantings. Seeds sprouted this year and I let them go since I am still needing to finish killing back the quince. They are cheerful but a bit tatty.

These Black-eyed Susans are biennials and seed themselves around. Last week the gold finches were feeding on the seed.

This combo of foliage is a favorite and is part of the view from my kitchen window, along with several clematis. Gold is Spiraea Ogon and the variegated foliage is an herbaceous Caryopteris, Snow Angel, which will have blue flowers in September.

Nice lush growth fitting the season!

NHBabs said: "Some of my clematis I should cut back to remove dead vines, but it has been too hot and sticky to do more than the absolute minimum in the garden."

All that heat and humidity really saps the energy. This summer I've been watching with trepidation as the sweet autumn clematis happily climbed over the roses and almost everything else in my alley, and the vines got heavier and heavier and pulled the roses over. It was too hot to do more than try to push them upright and I didn't want to cut them back yet because the bloom was still to come.

Well, the bloom came:

From a window:

The phlox are peeking out from the SAC.

This white phlox planted itself in the midst of the SAC.

One side of the Phlox Protection Zone managed to stay SAC-free.

White wood asters and yellow wildflowers, maybe hawkweed, are plants I allow to grow wherever they want unless I have other ideas for the area. This is a view from my deck where I had planted miscanthus but let the wildflowers fill in. And they did.

I figure native plants are good for native pollinators, and free flowers is fine with me.

Claire

This thread has been really quiet this month. I would love it if more folks posted, but perhaps the troubles with photo posting has been discouraging.

Last night the streaky clouds combined with mist rising off the field were lovely.

Here is the purple love grass in the back field one morning earlier in the month, turned pale pink by dew.

Hydrangea paniculata Quickfire

Hydrangea paniculata Pinky Winky

Can't see them, NHBabs.

My garden is decidedly unkempt now, not that it's ever been tidy.

I'm seeing a lot of green and yellow and white. This is another area in the deck view where goldenrod grows near some variegated miscanthus.

My alley that had been covered with clematis is now showing goldenrod and miscanthus flowers with some sedums for a shot of pink..

Miscanthus are beginning to bloom. I actually lost some miscanthus after last winter - I thought they were rock-hardy here but apparently not.

From my kitchen window: Miscanthus 'Malepartus' in the center with a lot more ornamental grasses not blooming yet or just barely starting. Malepartus is the first to bloom with pink flowers.

Sedums are thriving near some Gray Owl junipers.

I like sedums and goldenrod together too.

In the berry category, one of my kousa dogwoods is finally coloring its fruits - pretty deep pink with red spots.

And the Carolina rose has lots of red fruits.

I don't know if my osmanthus will flower this year. It took a beating in the late winter nor'easter and is showing new foliage now. The battered Goldie ilex opacas have a lot of new growth and some green berries too.

Claire

Your garden is starting to look autumnal, Claire. You appear to have a fair amount of flowers right now, but I always enjoy the foliage textures and fruit in your garden. I especially like the past photo.

I will give the missing photos above another try.

Thanks, NHBabs. It's beginning to feel autumnal. I still have a Knockout rose blooming:

I used to rely on Blushing Knockout for late summer bloom but my two main plants got shaded out by some wild cherries that snuck up on me.

There are phlox remnants around, happily visited by bees.

If you look closely, there's a bee in the upper left on the following pic. This may be a carpenter bee, not a bumble. It's much bigger and has a shiny abdomen.

and another bee.

Bees and other pollinators are all over the white wood asters and goldenrod and sedums. Surprisingly (to me anyway) the bees loved the flowers of the spider houseplants (Chlorophytum comosum 'Vittatum') that have been summering out on my deck. A hummingbird visited them a few times too but the flowers were probably too small for the hummer to waste energy on them.

As an aside - I wonder what possessed someone to name a self-respecting hydrangea 'Pinky Winky'.....

Claire

The Hydrangea photos in the post above finally posted for me the third time I tried. I really love my Quickfire; it’s one of my favorite plants. I have to agree with you on Pinky Winky’s name, Claire. It’s right up there with Tuff Stuff as far as ridiculous plant names IMO.

Your hydrangea paniculatas are lovely, NHBabs. It's so nice to see them still blooming.

Even when long past bloom, hydrangeas can be beautiful. My Hydrangea serrata 'Blue Billow' turned its blue flowers red and the foliage is just beginning to turn burgundy.

Here with new red foliage from Rose 'Zephirine Drouhin' and a backdrop of Hosta 'Blue Angel':

On the other side of the hydrangea, Itea 'Henry's Garnet' is beginning to turn red.

These red and green pictures were all taken from my porch - a change from the yellow and green and white seen from my deck.

I have to admit there's some orange jewelweed lurking in there but not in this view. I left some for the hummingbirds, which appreciated it, but I may regret it next year when the jewelweed is everywhere.

Claire

Since I mentioned the jewelweed, I figured I should show it too - I had to get off the porch to see it though. A bee was visiting it too, but I didn't get a pic of the bee.

Jewelweed (orange flowers) with white wood aster and itea.

On the way down to the jewelweed I saw one Rosa rugosa 'Yankee Lady' bud.

Claire

These aren't my gardens, but wild asters are one reason I love this season. They light up the fields all over.

Gaillardia, Sedum Autumn Joy, and Little Bluestem. My first time with the Gaillardia, will definitely grow more if it.

This unknown Hydrangea has great color right through the fall. Wish I knew what it was, it was here when I moved in.

Saypoint, it looks like my Cityline Paris hydrangea. Cityline

Late one afternoon I noticed this combo of phlox, clematis Little Bas and Hydrangea paniculata White Diamond.

Pretty, NHBabs! The obelisk adds a nice touch.

Claire

I'm going to split this post into two sections, flowers and fruit.

I still have a few isolated roses blooming:

R. rugosa 'Yankee Lady'

R. 'Knockout'

Asters are coming into play:

Volunteer aster with variegated hydrangea:

Aster 'Harrington's Pink' with goldenrod:

Sedums and goldenrod and cotoneaster

I'll put fruit into a second post.

Claire

Two of my flowering crabapples (all volunteers) have fruits now:

Some aren't quite ripe yet:

Winterberry fruits are turning red. They'll be more dramatic when the leaves drop, before the robins decide they're ripe.

Pokeberry continues to ripen. You can sort of see miscanthus and panicum behind the poke.

Panicum 'Cloud Nine' next to a miscanthus, in front of the winterberry:

Cotoneaster fruit are turning red:

And Yucca 'Color Guard' always looks good with the cotoneaster:

All of the miscanthus seedheads are wet and stuck together so I haven't tried to photograph them.

Sitting here on the deck engrossed with the posting, I just noticed that Viburnum 'Summer Snowflake' still has a blossom.

My other doublefile viburnum is way gone by so there's nothing to pollinate the Summer Snowflake. I'd love to have more viburnum fruit now. I wonder if a second Summer Snowflake could pollinate the first one.

Claire

Absolutely lovely, Claire, both the fruits and the blooms! Does your Yankee Lady bloom all summer or will it take a midsummer break (and thereby avoid the Japanese beetles in my yard)?

I don’t think a second Summer Snowflake will pollinate anothe SS because they exact clones, genetically the exact same shrub. I have Dirr’s Viburnum book and will see what pollinators he suggests. I will also look for an old Viburnum thread that had a bunch of info on what pollinates what. There is also a Viburnum nursery somewhere in the Midwest with a very knowledgeable owner, and he might have suggestions. My memory (which is often wrong) is that you can call him to chat but he might not have the absolute most updated tech like online ordering though his catalog is online.

Thanks, NHBabs. Yankee Lady takes a rest during the hot time in midsummer and then starts up again in the fall.

That's pretty much what I thought about Summer Snowflake. I just hoped someone would know something else. i remember a few old Viburnum threads and the kicker was that the pollinator had to bloom at the same time as the hopeful one. No other viburnum that I know of blooms so late. My no-name, probably Mariesii, viburnum pollinates Snowflake fine for a while. I just ordered a Wabi-Sabi (great name) viburnum to plant near the two doublefiles and maybe it will hang around for a while longer (I bought it just because it will fill in a spot well and you can't have too many doublefile viburnums).

Claire