turtlehead Archives

Cooler days and nights in mid-September make for much easier gardening while prolonging the beauty of the gardening season. Some of my favourite mid-September blooms this time of year are the cool-season, perennial ornamental grasses. There are so many varieties to choose from these days, but my favourite is still what I call “fireworks,” for obvious reasons. Its real name is Maiden Grass Silberfeder or Miscanthus Sinensis. Whatever you call it, it is gorgeous!

Also included in my mid-September blooms are a repeat of the perennial geranium, the long-lasting roses, and the striking yellow cone flower, pictured below:

This beautiful red hibisus also puts on a show in mid-September….

as does this coleus. I love the way the colours appear to be splattered across the leaves, with no distinct pattern. Like the grasses mentioned above, there are tons of coleus varieties to choose from. I use them frequently in containers, for shady spots. Speaking of containers, all the ones I planted in May are still contributing to my mid-summer blooms in all of my gardens.

With frost in the forecast for a few nights this week, who knows what next week will bring. Hopefully, we have not seen the last of these gorgeous mid-September blooms…….stay tuned!

Although the calendar says early September, the summer weather (heat and humidity) is still going strong. That means many of the perennials blooming last month are still looking good…

Coming into their own this month are the seedheads of the fall grasses that look awesome in the garden or in containers on a deck or veranda…

…as well as another perennial called Turtlehead (I had never heard of it, but it looked promising at the nursery), and an annual vine called Cardinal Climber…

I have lots of roses thriving in Gardens4me, in many different varieties and colours. I love the roses because they bloom off and on all summer and well into the fall. They are also (believe it or not!) relatively low maintenance. Last month I posted a picture of one such rose just starting a second bloom. Here it is (first pic) this week with (just) a few more of its thorny cousins…

My two and a half year old granddaughter loves to play hide and seek in Gardens4me. Now that she has discovered the stepping stones leading into each corner and was taught how to gently move the plants out of the way, she runs from one corner to the next. She is still young enough to think that if she can’t see all of me I can’t see her. So precious!

One of my clients was disenchanted with the statues in his garden, (at least his wife was) so I brought them home and added them to mine knowing my grandkids would love them. The black bear is a favourite; this granddaughter likes to pet it and give it a bath with the hose while my three-and-a-half year old, bug-loving grandson searches for the bugs hiding underneath the bear!

The frog (a mothers day gift from my son years ago), the racoon family (from my father’s garden), and the heron are well loved too. The rabbit hiding in the hostas is pretty banged up now as this same granddaughter used to carry (and drop it) it around everywhere.

Coming into focus soon are the fall favourites such as sedum “Autumn Joy” and more grasses. Although this grass is an annual, I plant it in containers each year and am never disappointed with its pinky-purple plumes this time of year.