September 2014: 3.More Garden and Meadow

Colchicum 'Jochem Hof' on a livingroom windowsill

Colchicum byzantinum with pink chair. (The broader-tepaled flowers may be C. 'Autumn Herald').

Dried, or drying, stems of flowers from Liatris pycnotstachya, Prairie Blazing Star, and a fine ornamental onion, Allium 'Millenium'

Colchicums with pink chair (and portrait)

One of our homegrown hybrid mulleins, waving a few late-summer flowers above the driveway bed and some asters. By this time of year it's all about the waving stems, more than the flowers.

The entry courtyard, with its heptacodium, sweet autumn clematis, and stone basin

That heroic hybrid mullein waving above Impatiens balfourii

Clematis ladakhiana: speckled brownish flowers and some of the best silvery seedheads of any clematis.

Heart-leaved aster, Symphyotrichum cordifolium 

The east garden steps, with asters and the silvery first year rosettes of mulleins

Symphyotrichum oblongifolium, Aromatic aster

Colchicum byzantinum with a low carpet of Sedum spurium 'John Creech'

Symphyotrichum cordifolius with a backdrop of russet Turkeyfoot grasses and goldenrods 

A first year mullein rosette luxuriating in the gravel path at the foot of the east garden steps. Worth stepping around.

Digitalis grandiflora, Yellow Foxglove, has its main flowering in early summer, but will often rebloom in late summer or fall, especially if deadheaded.

Deer resistant, drought tolerant and phenomenally long blooming, with a cream color that goes with everything, Scabiosa ochroleuca is a mainstay with us.

Iris laevigata 'Variegata', with clean white and green striped foliage, in a pot submerged (year round) in the circle terrace pool

Eupatorium aromaticum 'Jocius' Variegated' in full bloom at the edge of the driveway makes a big cloud of white.

Heath aster, Symphyotrichum ericoides

Origanum 'Rotkugel', an ornamental oregano, at the edge of the driveway bed

Bedroom window view of the circle terrace, east garden steps, and some of the tall grasses of the east meadow

New England Aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, with Wreath Goldenrod, Solidago caesia

Verbena bonariensis with Indigofera 'Little Pinkie'

Nicotianas from our resident hybrid strain in the fenced garden, this one showing changing white and pink coloring from  Nicotiana mutabilis ancestry

A white cloud against dark clouds: Eupatorium aromaticum 'Jocius' Variegated'

Early sunlight on Veronicastrum virginicum, Culver's Root, growing through the gravel on the edge of the circle terrace. The form of the plant contrasts horizontal whorls of foliage with strongly vertical flower or seed spikes.

More verticals from mullein seedheads. Clematis ladakhiana's silvery seedheads trail across the wall at the lower right.

Hydrangea paniculata 'Pink Diamond' at its dusty pink phase

Volunteer Impatiens balfourii emerges through a drainage grate to the side of the front deck.

Asters, Symphyotrichum oblongifolium 'October Skies' beginning to bloom along the path to the circle terrace.

Here they are joined by New England Asters, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, against the back wall of the circle terrace.

(Stitched) panorama

Heath aster, Symhyotrichum ericoides, with Little Bluestem, Schyzachyrium scoparium, in the west meadow. Two plants in genera that have recently suffered unmemorable and well-nigh unpronounceable renamings. I seem to be able to summon up one or the other, but not both, at any given moment.  

The east garden steps descend past Aromatic Aster, Symphyotrichum oblongifolium 'October Skies' and cream colored Scabiosa ochroleuca toward the tall grass plumes of Turkeyfoot, Andropogon gerardii, and a tall white pine.

Hydrangea paniculata 'Pink Diamond' backed by the brilliant fall foliage of a woodland-edge Amelanchier sp., Shadbush or Serviceberry.

The little cream foreground flowers are Scabiosa ochroleuca, in our big island bed

Mullein stems fronted by an herbaceous perennial with bright fall foliage, Flowering Spurge, Euphorbia corollata

Aconitum japonicum subsp. napiforme (syn. A. napiforme). Like other monkshoods, it's good for cutting.

A white Japanese Anemone, Anemone x hybrida 'Andrea Atkinson', in the fenced garden

Colchicum speciosum 'Album' (with a bit of Gentiana 'True Blue')

Colchicum 'Giant' in a little too much shade under the winterberry hollies. Those awkwardly long floral tubes (not really stems) help make this a great cut flower.

Clematis ladakhiana's flowers are brownish and inconspicuous (and we love them), but the fruits are among the best of clemais.

Clematis ladakhiana seedheads glistening with Aromatic Aster, Symphyotrichum oblongifolium. The clematis drapes across the low stone wall of the circle terrace.

New England Asters, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, with the bright berries of a Winterberry Holly, Ilex verticillata 'Winter Red', behind the circle terrace

Colchicum 'Giant'

Mixed colchicums

Colchicum speciosum 'Album'

Our young American Smoketree, Cotinus obovatus, among the tall grasses of the east meadow

One of the best trees for fall color

Goes well with mist in the valley, too

The heptacodium is still bright green against the bright colors of native woodland. It will eventually color mildly to peaches and purples.