I am not in New England, but since I have a good internet connection right now and a lovely garden to look at, even if it is in Cleveland, I hope that you will forgive me for adding a photo of the cooperatively managed garden at my mom’s apartment. She isn’t a gardener, but this what her apartment looks out on, with pots of flowers, herbs, and tomatoes in the sunny areas, and a wide range of hydrangeas (arborescens/smooth, quercifolia/Oakleaf, and paniculata) and shade loving perennials in the shadier spots.

Pretty garden in Cleveland for your mother to enjoy, NHBabs!

Back here in New England, the Sweet Autumn Clematis is going berserk.

View from my window:

The clematis climbed over a shelf structure I have outside. OK with me because it's sited to keep someone from falling over the retaining wall if they slip while leaving the tool shed. The clematis is also trying to smother a rose. I'll cut it back when it finishes blooming.

The bees are all over the clematis flowers.

Someone last month mentioned daylilies that bloom in September - I have two:

Hemerocallis Challenger

and Hemerocallis Autumn Minaret

Autumn Minaret is nearing the end of bloom but Challenger should continue for a while. Both of these daylilies are getting crowded out by hollies and I plan to divide and move both of them when they finish blooming.

I like the sedums with gray owl juniper like a wave crashing over them.

The bees like the sedums too.

White wood aster goes well with sedums beginning to turn pink.

And the beach plums are ripening!

The Blushing Knockout rose is blooming next to some phlox remnants.

Goldenrod will be blooming soon and berries/fruits are ripening. The season is changing fast and the Eating-on-the-Deck season will be over soon.

I'm keeping a beady eye on the Hurricane Dorian forecasts. Looks OK so far; just some rain and wind.

Claire

I hope that Dorian stay off the coast a ways!

I love the comboof the blue-gray of the juniper with the pink flowers. There is quite a bit of sweet autumn clematis here in Cleveland as well, though I don’t think that I caught any of it in my photos.

I'll have to look for some of that Autumn Minaret. Another former GW contributor, David from MI, just gave it and Challenger high praise.

Be aware that sweet autumn seeds around invasively in zone 6, though it typically doesn’t have time to ripen here, so don’t plant it unless you are going to whack back the whole plant right after bloom before the seeds ripen.

I love the orange toned Echinaceas!

I've been trying to upload pictures from both my laptop and phone but every single one comes out sideways even though none look sideways in my files. Does anyone know how to fix this?

No. This started happening about a week ago. I guess we all need to use the contact Houzz button. I have never, ever run across a website with such incompetent techies. I realize that his is an old website that merged with a different website, but it seems like they make random changes without figuring out the possible issues or doing testing before going live.

So I think I figured out the photo glitch here. For pictures I take with the camera horizontal, they upload fine. I take most of my pictures vertical though. I tried to fool the system and rotate pictures sideways before uploading but that didn't work. Anyway...with some nights dipping below 55F now, containers are peaking. This shot is of my front garden which as somewhat neglected this year.

I just added a level to the garden off the back of the deck using more of the seemingly unlimited stone supply on this property :). The Verbascums seeded here and I left them so I can hear Dave ask why I am growing weeds.

Back border under development. The tree in the upper left corner is Aralia elata Silver Umbrella planted as a one foot sprig last spring. There is a Sourwood (Oxydendron arboreum) in front of it that sort of fades into the background. To the right of the Aralia is Cryptomeria Yoshino which is slightly borderline here but made it through last winter and grew a few feet so I'm hopeful.

Sue

Nice progress, Sue. Starting from a totally new property is always a fun challenge.

Photos taken with other configurations used to correctly post, so there is something that the techies have done that messed things up. At their request, I sent Houzz several samples of places where photos posted with the wrong orientation, so hopefully they can figure out the problem.

I am once again not home, but before I left I made sure to grab at least a few garden photos.

Pinky Winky Hydrangea paniculata always looks better up close at this time of year since from a distance the color tends to fade somewhat to a rusty, less intense pink. Sorry the first and third photos are turned sideways. Tablet and cell phone photos used to right themselves on Houzz but no longer do.

H.p. Quickfire will keep this intense pink until frost.

Kirengeshoma palmata Is in a bed where the voles have eaten everything not protected by buried protective cages, so the whole bed looks fairly sparse right now.

My favorite plant this Fall.... Aster 'Alma Potschke'

Pretty, PM2! Aster season just seems like a gift to make up for the loss of summer. A gift to us humans and to the pollinators who really appreciate the food.

Claire

When I see Alma P aster, I think of Norm, a long dead neighbor who lived in a tiny two room house but whose little gardens always had something blooming or of interest. One of his fall flowers looked just like Alma P and may have in fact been that, but I never asked him.

Yes, feeding pollinators is a big factor in plant choice. I especially love to feed them going into winter, to make sure they have as much as they need to get through to spring. I seem to be seeing a higher population of bees than previous seasons. I still remember a season when we lost a lot of bees, there were dead bumble bees all over the yard. This year we seem to have an abundance.

PM2: I'm not seeing as many bees as I used to, but still a respectable number feeding on whatever they like that's in bloom (itea, hydrangea, sedums, sweet autumn clematis, goldenrod, asters....).

I wanted to give an update on the September-blooming daylilies I mentioned earlier.

Challenger almost made it to October! It opened its last bud this morning.

H. Challenger September 28, 2019

Autumn Minaret opened its last bud on September 13. I forgot to photograph it during the daytime so this is a picture I took from the kitchen window as it started to get dark.

H. Autumn Minaret September 13, 2019

I'm planning to move Autumn Minaret away from the holly today. Depending on how the rootball looks I may divide it. I may leave Challenger in place and decide in the spring whether it needs to be moved. It's just so nice to look out the window and see it blooming right where it is now.

Claire

I would love a late season yellow daylily, but it looks like both of those have some orange tones. I am always amazed at how long the day lily season can be.

Claire, I'd imagine that Sweet Autumn Clematis really gets covered with bees. I still have one Clethra that blooms late, 'Sherry Sue' that is usually covered with bumble bees. Not much blooming on it this year, because I pruned it a lot in the spring.

I have a spider daylily I bought last year, NOID at a plant sale. This was the first year it bloomed and it was sparse, but it might turn into one I enjoy. Otherwise, I only have one other daylily - 'Hyperion' that is very large and fragrant yellow.

I do enjoy an orange/blue color scheme, but, I have found that too limiting and I don't enjoy orange mixed in with other colors, like pinks and yellows. I think I'm not a big fan of plants whose flowers only open for a day. Except maybe a Morning Glory. I don't like the look of the dead scapes and then feel the need to deadhead them all the time. Hibiscus flowers only last a day too, and I do have two of those, but, sometimes I feel I could do without them. Yet, I've seen some very attractive public plantings of grasses and daylilies when they are fresh. Not so much when the bloom has past.