Deanna, Do you know which panicled hydrangeas that is? Just filled with flowers!

Congratulations, Sue! You chose a really lovely set of photos. I always appreciate seeing what is looking particularly good in your garden at any given time.

Deanna, that photo above has done my heart good, better than any photo of any gorgeous bloom you may have in your garden. I have a spot just like that and I'm so happy to see I'm not the only one! Right at the end of my driveway too. All that stuff just saying, welcome to my home lol.

:)
Dee

Deanna, the whole west side of my house looks like that! hahaha

Thanks Babs. I went through a lot of pictures when deciding which ones to submit. I take pictures just about every day during garden season so there are many.

Hard to believe it's Labor Day weekend already. I drove up to Whately, MA today for one last visit to Baystate Perennial Farm, one of my favorite nurseries. Everything was 30% off for rewards card holders which I am. They close for the season next weekend. Boo hoo!

. Wood piles tend to breed their own variety of moving crap. First, when it is created, whether by the wood chopper or deliverer, the logs sit in a disorganized pile often for a long, long, long time. It never gets better looking unless an aggressive vine grows over it. When at long last the logs cut to length or split, there's the sawdust, bark and whatever gets on the log splitting person, who tracks it into the house., first into the bedroom and then the laundry room. After it has dried and is brought inside there's another trail of tree-debris to the wood box and around the stove. And when it is snowy, there's another incarnation of bark-in-muddy footprints. I really love sitting in an 80 degree room on a winter's evening but it requires a real tolerance for messes.

Back to the subject at hand, my not hidden messes are the slash piles of thinned and deadheaded branches & stems that decorate the edges of my driveway until I'm motivated to consolidate and move out of sight. That can take days or weeks, depending on the temperature and my motivation which may be very low at times.

It really is Labor Day weekend and we're in the Severe Drought category here in southeast MA. Being right next to the Bay it's a little more humid than inland and I'm amazed at how well the garden is holding up. Everything is looking a bit frazzled and unkempt but there are a few things i enjoy looking at.

Sedum Autumn Joy is coloring up and I really like this early stage where it's still green and pink and complementing other plants.

Here with variegated Miscanthus:

White Wood Asters are beginning to bloom now next to the sedums (and a lot of other places):

Sweet Autumn Clematis is beginning to bloom and swallow up other plants and structures. I had to cut them back from my Excelsa rose. There's a storage shelf under part of the vine. I leave them there so no one can fall over the retaining wall while exiting the tool shed. Much better to fall onto the vine/storage.

The native Carolina Rose which grows everywhere is fruiting now. I let it grow if it's in a good spot - the berries are eaten by the wildlife and it's easy enough to remove.

The pokeberry is fruiting next to the variegated hydrangea which loves being under a shade cloth during the drought. Until I put the shade cloth on I was watering the hydrangea every day.

And the Knockout rose is producing a nice punch of color:

Claire

NHBabs, I have no idea. I did prune it, but it was probably four or more years ago. It was here when we moved. I have always loved its size and floribundence (is that a word?), but hated its location. The cats used to climb on the roof from that tree and tear off the failing roof tiles. New roof, no more missing roof tiles, but I'm sure we get critters that use the tree as an escalator to the roof. It really is beautiful, but I've been more than redneck-y with that location. I have to either clean it up or embrace my Alabama roots and move a washer/dryer out there, too. Or a refrigerator. Or both.

Diggerdee and Sue, you have no idea. My whole philosophy about sharing my garden is "close-ups close-ups close-ups." Wide angles are not permitted. Maybe we should start an "I'm human" post and show all the areas of our gardens/yard that keep us humble! I could take that beautiful close-up, followed by the humbling wide-angle. I wouldn't mind that spot so much were it not right in front of you at the house entrance.

Claire, I love all of your natives. You inspire me to get more fruiting things in my hard for critters. My white wood aster has been blooming for a while now, but it is in a great deal of sun and seems happy. What do you think about Sweet Autumn Clematis being classified as a weed or invasive? I know it's popular, but then I also read discouraging things about it. What's your experience, beyond having to cut it back?

Thanks, deanna. I'm ambivalent about Sweet Autumn Clematis. It's certainly robust and can take over an area if you don't watch out, but I haven't had it spread beyond that one area. Of course that's one of the few sunny areas in my yard and the adjacent areas are all relatively shady so it probably can't easily get established there.

I've been able to control it by just cutting the vine at the base. The main problem is that it's just a big, long, vine that takes up a lot of room and climbs on anything in its way.

I still love it.

Claire

Marie, your post that is dated 3 days ago just showed up for me today. I agree about the Trail of Trash. I'm thinking about moving the woodpile, but I seriously doubt I'll take the time to remove all the left-over debris that litters the ground. We had to remove lots of dangerous trees when we bought the house, so we've got two other true "piles" of wood, plus some random stockings around the yard. The wood may rot before we can use it, and we run our fireplace often in winter!

A "truth in gardening" post is what we need. Or maybe not...lol. I live with a hoarder and although he's nowhere near bad enough to have his own show, it's a constant battle.

Claire, I'm in a severe drought area as well. You still have some nice late summer interest. I'm beginning to think Sedum Autumn Joy should be the gold standard. Many of the newer cultivars that have come down the pike are just dogs, especially all the compelling dark foliage varieties that whisper my name from the nursery benches.

Marie, I agree wood burning can be a mess. Over the past few years we've been thinning overgrown trees. Lots of sawdust and brush here.

This patch of Opuntia is loving the conditions this year. Maybe I should plant a whole garden full of it :).

Blessed to be able to cut this today

Twyning's Smartie Dahlia

Blue Spike Lobelia

Honey Perfume rose

Winter Sun

Four o'clocks broken

Not sure which kind of

Clothilde Soupert

Queen Lime Zinnia

Beautiful flowers, Nancy! The colors are so vibrant. Right now my garden seems worn out and tired, but yours flowers look very lush and happy.

Hi Deanna, thank you for your very kind words. Most of summer was pretty dried out/ bad for me too - so I know how that feels. And the grass was a nice, crispy yellow - more like a tater tot than a lawn. I started the dahlias early May so I could get more bloomtime out of them - but the drought has meant they only started flowering last week and will be done in about 3 weeks possibly with the frost. Sad!

Thank you for the likes, Claire!:)

Gosh Nancy the foliage on that Winter Sun is so perfect it looks fake lol! How the heck can you keep your roses looking so good? My garden is a fried, tired, hot mess.

Yeah, my dahlias are just getting into high gear here too, and then suddenly the weather has cooled down quickly. Hoping they last a few more weeks!

:)
Dee

I will third the comments about my garden being a crispy mess with the exception of the panicled hydrangeas. Your flowers look lovely, Nancy!

Nancy your garden looks pristine! I'm so done battling the drought this year. I did water but not everything so there are bright spots and not so bright spots. I want to start cutting things back and moving plants around but would prefer to see some regular rain in the forecast first. It's not looking good. And now frost warnings are starting to pop up here and there...

Switching to phone to post a few pictures.

Caryopteris is one of the Winners this year and this variegated 'White Surprise' is one of my favorites.

Daphne caucasica 'Summer Ice' looks pristine and I didn't water it once.

This Cimicifuga surprised me. It was on my watering route but did not get water regularly. All my other ones are crispy.

Path from driveway to patio. Lots of self seeders here.

Variegated Physostegia has also fared well with minimal water. These plants were new this year.

Hi Dee,

That is such a sweet compliment - thanks so much. Winter Sun is right outside the kitchen, so gets an extra helping of crushed eggshells, which more than do their part in keeping slugs away. It's a nature vs (or should I say, in addition to) nurture question - the eggshells nurture (and Espoma's chicken manure helps too), but the plant itself is bulletproof, coming from the house of Kordes. A German breeder hybridizing roses for 4 generations now, their roses are ubiquitous in every rose catalog/ offering you can find. Get this, their seedlings are grown for 3 years in the worst possible environment - open fields bordering the North Sea in Germany, no windbreaks, cold, howling, salty wind gusts, and no winter protection. Only if a seedling makes it through SEAL team training like this, does it get introduced into the market. And it does break all manner of records - my plant is in shade 24/7 (roses are usually said to be finicky, needing 6+ hours of morning sun, afternoon shade etc etc). My plant should be dead by now, by that barometer. But, but...Kordes. Dumbing down rose-growing for folks like me and I am so grateful:)

Hi Babs,

Thanks so much for the compliment - and also thank you for starting the thread. Great way to share and learn!

Hi Sue,

Thank you for your kind words - the garden in a mess in quite a few spots to be honest. But I have a good photographer (a burgeoning artiste, I tell you, at the ripe old age of 11). Between her and my 6 y.o. son, the garden got watered three times a day - not much else to do during lockdown. They did this while taking a break from fighting, watching TV, and fighting, I'll have you know.

Your plants are ah-mazing! If they look like that without too much watering, then you have really gotten the soil to the point where it is deeply nourishing the plants. I am intrigued by the Cimicifuga and will look it up.

I'm admiring all the beautiful gardens that still look good in spite of this summer of drought and stress.

I keep watering and watering and watering. I don't remember ever seeing forsythias wilt like they're wilting down by the road. I dragged out a hose extension and watered down there but it may be too late for this year's leaves.

It's such a joy to see plants that laugh at the drought. I showed pictures of my sedums and the white wood asters a few weeks ago when they were still just beginning to bloom. Today they seem perfectly happy (although I have watered them too). They're on the main path from my door to every thing else so it's a daily pleasure to see them.

Claire

Claire that's a really pretty combination! I'm not a big fan of the wood asters. I have them all over my yard and woods, not in big clumps but one or two here and there and over there. But seeing them with the sedum, in bigger clumps so the blooms make more of an impact, it's quite pretty. I'm assuming due to the sedum that this is a fairly sunny spot, but funny, all my wood asters are in the woods. Haha now that I actually typed that I'm just thinking, uh, yeah, duh... But I guess what I mean is that I think of them as shade plants. Or at least needing more shade than sedum.

Maybe I'll try digging some out and doing a planting with sedum. I have a bunch of sedum Autumn Joy cuttings from when I cut back a clump earlier in the season. Because God forbid I toss one seedling, one cutting, one root. Gotta save every little plant I come across. LOL. It's a curse... I was wondering what to do with this sedum now that I've saved and rooted the darn things, so maybe I'll try a planting with the asters.

:)
Dee

P.S. Sue your garden's looking fabulous!

Claire,

I agree with Dee - that looks wonderful and is a welcome respite for someone walking by after seeing pots after pots of yellow mums in front of homes in a couple weeks.:)

Dee,

I suffer from the same disease as you have - but have been able to give many plants away (the Spike Lobelia has been prolific this year, and folks want wintercreeper/ spirea too, along with a ton of my roadside (orange) daylilies) to good homes nearby, and feel happy when I see some thriving in their new locations. The only "folks" I can mercilessly chop/ crush/ cut down are weeds, and that I got aplenty.

Also ladies, I managed to overwinter a mum from last year's Home Depot $1 bunch - out of 10 I started with. Waiting to see what color it will be.

Nancy

Thanks, Dee and Nancy! The white wood asters actually planted themselves by the sedums and I left them there because I liked the combination. The asters seem fine in full sun and part shade and I let them grow wherever they're not in the way. The bees/pollinators like them too (and the sedums, of course) and the flowers are welcome now.

Luckily, I'm not one who insists on controlling my garden - I start out with a design but I enjoy seeing what volunteers walk in and modify my design. I guess I'm more of an editor than a designer.

Claire

Claire,

That is a very next-level way of thinking about planning your yard, and the great benefit is to the bees. Nice work!

Thank you, Nancy!

Claire

Blacked eyed Susan’s, morning glories (including this one I noticed late and let it go in a new spot). And sweet autumn clematis on pergola. I did pull 2 of those from the lawn when I was mowing last week so it can be a problem. This I cut all the way off the top before winter and it comes back bigger each year. My gorgeous blue hydrangeas are now a dusty mauve. I must not have watered hostas enough they look so bad I didn’t take pic. Stratford CT zone 7b. A very dry summer for us... even Isaias didn’t bring much rain to this part of state.

I have a few late season plants in bloom (at least the ones the groundhogs didn’t get):

Anemone “September Charm”

Snaps are one of few things that did well for me from seed this year:

And some uneaten groundhog candy, aka Zinnias:

This year is my first to have Alma Potzchke but I have wanted her for years. I mean YEARS. Why did it take me so long to get such a common plant?! I just love her color. Also my first year for cosmos. This is Apricot Lemonade. Nice flower, but I’m still on the fence about it.

And Hercules phlox, supposedly named for its flower size.

Alma is a great plant. Mine is planted in a section of the garden I don't photograph much so I'm not sure how well she's held up this season. I love Cosmos but I don't care for the thick stems that develop and they get horrible powdery mildew here so I guess I'll just enjoy them in other people's gardens :).

I have native wood asters that pop up along the edges of our wooded areas. I used to try and pull them all out but now I just edit them as needed. They look great with the Sedum, Claire.

We just got back from a few days of camping in North Truro and I had to start my rotating watering schedule again. In my area of CT we have a rain deficit of 11 and a half inches and nothing but a promise of scattered showers early next week. In some of the naturally drier garden areas I think I'm just going to cut all the herbaceous plants down to the ground and concentrate the watering efforts on shrubs and small trees.

Addison, I think it is your landscape if you view it, even if you don’t own it. And lovely it is!

My wild plants are currently looking better than my gardens.

Little blue stem (the taller reddish grass) and purple love grass grow in the field behind the house. This was early morning when the dew makes the purple love grass silvery instead of reddish purple.

Goldenrod and asters in another part of the field which I haven’t mowed yet this year because it is so dry.

Closed Gentians down the road along the river.

Fall color is looking good right now with the red maples just glowing as a backdrop to everything.

The low bush blueberries are picking up color.

and the colchicum looks lovely, almost like giant crocus.

I haven't been able to post comments on photos above because of the computer I have been using. Now that I have some time, I have some long-awaited comments!

Sue, I LOVE the white self-seeders long your pathway from your post on 9/18? What is it? Looks like annual alyssum, but mine rarely self-seeds. My brunnera are also blooming, but two are crispy (with blooms) and two are fine. they are all in the same clump. Go figure.

Claire, I thought I had posted earlier about your sedum combo, but I must have been interrupted before I posted it. I LOVE that combination. I am the opposite of Dee--I love wood aster, but do not like sedum. With that combination, though, I'd gladly have sedum in the garden. Nature created a perfect pairing!

Nancy, thank you for the information on Kordes. I have not jumped into the rose game mainly because of the maintenance and my lack of experience. They sound like the best place to start!

brdrl, that Sweet Autumn clematis is FANTASTIC. Wow. I would love to have your pruning skills. I can imagine how wonderful it smells on that back deck. The deck itself and house are beautiful (love the yellow door!), but that clematis makes the whole thing look like a magazine shoot. You'd never know you all were bone dry in those photos!

Sue, the thick cosmos stems are now blocking the entire view of phlox Hercules. I may grow them again, perhaps, but I sure need better placement!

Addison, sometimes the world around us is too breathtaking not to sure. I'm sure guilty of it! I've posted many photos not from my yard just to share the glory.

NHBabs, as usual, your area looks lovely. It's so nice that you have such wonderful surroundings. Your garden beauty certainly extends beyond your garden! I hope you have the same when you are closer to family. I have never heard of colchicum, that I remember. What a fantastic delicate fall plant!

I still have a few new flowers on a white rhododendron and have learned it is due to drought. Flowers are very few, so there should still be a nice bloom in spring.

Looks like some of you still have some garden photos looking good. I see it's the end of September and not much in the garden is motivating me to take photos. [g] The dry hot summer has taken it's toll. I noticed I have a dead Epimedium. That's a first. Usually they always make it through. And they are only forecasting a 1/4 of an inch of rain while the Western part of the state may get 2 inches. Back to using the sprinkler.

Still no blooms on the chrysanthemums but the bees have been covering this Aster. No Monarchs like I had last year though. It's a bit of a jumble out there. I've already started pulling things and getting ready for next spring.

PM2 that Aster does look good. Do you know the variety?

I've got a bunch of pictures but they are all on my phone so not easy to post here.

We're supposed to get some actual rain tonight. I'll believe it when I see it. Last night we got an eighth of an inch which represents the average amount we've been getting per "storm" for months. Time to cut it all down...lol.

Pictures...

Caryopteris White Surprise has shrugged off this drought ridden summer with ease.

Variegated Ilex Verticillata

Some fall color and a couple of lazy flea bags on the patio.

A favorite container combo

Another favorite container combo. I love these Canary Wing Begonias but they seem to prefer less sun than I can offer until later in the season.

Eupatorium coelestinum and friends.

Sue, that's 'Alma Potschke'. I expected it to be more pink than purple, but still puts on a show. I didn't pay attention to the size of it when I bought it, but it reaches 5ft. I had some wind that knocked down some stems and I had to stake it with string. Last season it stayed up unassisted all season. It's very sturdy.

We're supposed to get that 1/4 inch of rain tonight too. I moved a couple of Phlox subulata on the weekend and wow, the soil was so dry. It's at that stage where watering is just not getting down into the soil far enough.

I'm looking forward to an early freeze to be done with it. [g] Now I'm just taking care of houseplants that need repotting and trying to keep up with fertilizing them for the next month before they get a rest for the winter. I didn't shop for one plant this fall. Just doesn't seem like a good year to do a lot of renovating of beds and trying to keep things healthy with all that dry soil.

Sue, I LOVE that Caryopteris! The flowers with the variegated foliage appeals to me. And it really does look very good despite the dry weather. Although your garden looks like you've managed to keep things going very well. Your containers look very well cared for too. You have actual green leaves on Hydrangea and mine are pretty crispy. Great fall color in your back too! You don't even have to drive north to get it. [g]

I’ve been immersed in tech support calls for my laptop for about 10 days and haven’t been paying attention to much else. So a quick catch up…

Babs, as usual, love to see all the long views around your property. Lots of color there. We are usually pretty late here. Love that Little Blue Stem.

Sue’s white edges on her path, reminded me I had one patch of Alyssum that volunteered this season, that was outstanding. It has bloomed all summer and by now it should be spent with a lot of seedheads but it still looks great.

I have to agree with Deanna about the Clematis that is pruned to perfection in brdrl’s photo.

I also like that Obedient plant that you have Sue. Very pretty, does that stay put?

Nancy’s ‘Clothilde Soupert’ is such a pretty romantic rose. And Broken Colors Four OClocks I love. I’ve had trouble growing them the past 3 years. I’m going to have to try harder next year.

Sue, it's so kind of you to have chairs on the patio just for your cats. ;)

Dee

Well, good grief. Tbese later photos are fantastic. Prairiemoon, I just planted my Alma Potschke last fall, and it is more pink, but it they eventaully get that big I will be TICKLED PINK, for sure! Yours looks just wonderful. The whole composition of that shot is magazine worthy. Really lovely photos, PM. Once again I find myself thinking I should learn to like sedum based on your garden. And the alyssum is fantastic. I have only used it in a pot, but I am a lover of self-seeders. I'll plant some next year in the ground and hopefully have seedlings in future years.

Sue, inspiring photos, as well. Your pots are my favorite. I love the blue color. I purchased some multi-colored mexican-ish pots, many of them, in recent years, and I find the business of the design detracts from the beauty of the plants. Would much rather have your nice bold blue pots.

Keep the photos coming. You would never know you two were in a drought!

Looks like it's time to start October. :-)

Deanna - I love 'Alma Potschke' and wish I had planted it sooner. I'm trying to figure a way to add more. I did frame them with a 'Little Lime' Hydrangea and a Hardy Hibiscus which hide the 'bare knees', trying to blend it into the rest of the bed. It is taller than everything else there at this time. I expect both shrubs to grow taller and I have roses that should be taller in later seasons. The larger grass looks great with it and I'm wondering if I should have planted that closer. Any way you use it, it is an enjoyable plant. Vigorous, needs little attention beyond cutting back in spring. Very sturdy. I may try to buy another one looking for a more pink version.

As for sedum, I've always grown it. If you are trying to have a low maintenance garden, it's hard to beat sedum. They bloom late, but they look fresh and clean all season and provide a large flower head even when they are green. They stay in one place and gradually spread. Mine will split and flop if they get too large. I've tried putting a peony ring on them to prevent that and it works. But at that point I will usually divide them.

This year I experimented. Someone suggested deadheading the sedum to prevent the flopping. So I did that to just one plant. I also was hoping by doing that, to extend the bloom to give the bees a longer time to harvest them. It was a smaller plant anyway and I wasn't expecting it to flop, which it didn't. But I won't deadhead them again. It produces smaller flower heads and I really like the large heads that contrast with so many smaller flowers in my bed. And actually it barely extended the bloom. It bloomed less than a week after those I didn't deadhead.

I love the rosy color when they are at their peak, but I don't really enjoy the rusty color they turn after that. But the plant has so many great attributes, that I can live with that, especially at a time of year when the season is winding down.

As for the alyssum, in areas where I want to have a lot of alyssum, I don't mulch. And I used about 4 packets of seed about four years ago and I got a LOT of reseeding every year until this spring. I think the dry winter with no snow cover may have been the reason. But I'm planning on getting some packets of seed now and just scatter them where I want them this fall. I think I will wait until it is too cold for them to sprout. Another experiment. I don't see why they shouldn't sprout next spring, since they naturally drop seed that sprouts for me in the spring any way.

Great observation about the pots. I love solid color pots too because as you said they are a better complement to the plants. Sometimes a little texture. Sue's blue pots are great. Love the very saturated blue colors. Since they are ceramic I imagine they all have to be brought inside for the winter? I would have a ton more pots like that if they could stay in place all year. I have a few, but I've also been buying more weather resistant that can stay out all season.