September in De Nile...

I've tried to ignore the changing of the months by not changing my office calendar, but to no avail. Denial isn't working, as a quick stroll around the overgrown, overwhelmed garden will attest. It's definitely September.
The plants tell me even without a glance at the calendar. This willow gentian doesn't put in an appearance until September has broken over the horizon.

Ligularia 'Desdemona' is at her peak right now. I love the structure of her flowers although not so much the colour. This time of year brings a great deal of this shade of orange-yellow and also of magenta, which are both colours that seem to polarize people into the love/hate camp. Which do you belong to?

I've mentioned already that this is quite a year for hydrangeas, and Limelight is especially amazing right now. We cut this shrub back to about 3 feet tall in the spring, and it went nuts.

Some of these bloom clusters are almost the size of basketballs. They're a fabulous greenish yellow colour that pleases me to no end.

Herbstsonne rudbeckia is another late-season performer, and perform it does, shooting way into the air before putting on these marvelous shining flowers. My favourite of the rudbeckias, partly because of its dramatic height and partly for the striking green cones on the flowers.

We had a week or more of serious heat several weeks back, followed by Hurricane Bill, which wasn't so much of a garden terror, followed by Not-really-tropical-storm Danny, which was a huge pain in the asters to the garden. Hence the yard overall looks like chaos, with overgrown plants, way too many weeds, and a somewhat overwhelmed gardener. However, there are also delights among the chaos, like this Tradescantia 'Osprey.'

The Veronica-that-wants-to-eat-Scotts-Bay, (one of the creeping veronicas) has decided to celebrate the coming of September by putting up a few more flower spikes. And a lot more growth. Must. Thin. Out.

Echinacea 'Tiki Torch' isn't so much a torch as a matchhead this year, with one spleeny, but very orange, flower. I'm hoping it will come back next year, and the crown IS putting on new growth, but I'm not going to let it flower again this year.

One of a few new plants I'm testing out courtesy of GardenImport, this is Solidago 'Little Lemon'. I love its soft yellow colour, much less strident than most goldenrods. Don't be rollin' your eyes about goldenrod, by the way; its pollen is NOT airborne, so it's not responsible for your hay fever. It gets a bad rap because it does bloom at the same time as ragweed, asters, and other sneeze-makers.


Another one from GardenImport, this is 'Goldcrest' foxglove. I adore foxgloves of all kinds and could seriously become a collector of them. I'm hoping this one will return like my yellow and chocolate species do.


I should have that Goldcrest foxglove planted near 'Goldflame' Honeysuckle, as they make a nice colour echo. Oh, and the hummingbirds are STILL here, to my delight; they're busy with the bee balm, honeysuckles, roses and other plants that they favour.


Another definite harbinger of late summer in our garden is chelone, or Turtlehead. You can't see them, but many of the flowers on this clump of chelone were occupied by bumblebees, busily buzzing and looking for nice tasty nectar treats.


On the other hand, you can see a couple of bees making out with the blue lobelia (L. siphilitica). A good bit of my blue lobelia has white blossoms, which are very cooling and pleasant at this time of year, but I love the blue best. Even if it is more purple than blue.

This annual sage has been a great bloomer, much like the agastache at the beginning of this post, and as you can see, the bees are very fond of it too.

Here's someone I don't particularly like: a baldfaced wasp, hanging out in Actaea 'Black Negligee'. Whereas the bumblebees, honeybees, and I all get along very peacefully and I scarcely give them a thought except to admire and rejoice in them, I give wasps the wary eye. I don't remember the last time I was stung, but see no need to annoy them as long as they don't build a nest under the deck.

Okay, September denial is over. It's here, it's happening. Messy-garden denial has to end next. Extra strength ibuprofen, check. Work gloves, check. Wheelbarrow, check. Time to go out and start cleaning up the chaos a little bit. But at least there's still lots to enjoy, too.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.