September Bloom Day '14 - Digby, Nova Scotia

Crocosmia 'Lucifer'?

One of the best things about "Garden Bloggers Bloom Day" is the way it prompts a person like me to get out with the camera, post on my blog, and then surf the net to enjoy the blooms from around the world.  Thanks to May Dreams Gardens for hosting this monthly extravaganza!  

Above - Coreopsis, Sedum & Corcosmia
Below - Iceberg and Campfire Roses

 

An Aster (I won't attempt the new genus name yet)

So, here at my new home, in my new town, I have ready-made perennial borders all around.  We have started to make them our own... ripping out many hostas and bringing in some of our own things.  The blossoms this summer - on what was already here - have been quite good.  

Another Aster

Above - a little Echinacea
Below - a little Buddleja and a little Eupatorium
Yes, these three are all shorter cultivars.

 

It so happens that quite of few of these species in bloom today are new plants we have introduced.  The renovations will continue into the fall, I'm sure, including the planting of a few spring bulbs.  I've not seen any sign of a spring bulb anywhere in these beds.

Above - Achillea
Below - Hemerocallis and a late Lupinus

 

A vibrantly-blooming Strawberry, Fragaria

A Begonia that will soon need to be rescued from frosty weather

The last of the Phlox that have been blooming - lots of these in the beds on this property

Enjoy your bloom day!

Plant Profile: Golden Lace

It's time to start featuring a few favourite plants once in a while, so I choose "Golden Lace" first, Patrinia scabiosifolia.  The species name indicates the foliage is like unto Scabiosa, a plant that is planted regularly 'round here, but I have never grown myself.  I see the resemblance in the foliage, and even the long stems.  I'd not heard of Golden Lace until a couple years ago, when I saw seeds for sale at Gardens North.  Then I found it on a few blogs, and had to have it.  

It is in full bloom right now here in Nova Scotia, Canada, and not only pleases the eye, but the pollinators.  

I obtained a little packet of seeds early in 2012, and they came up well.  I planted them out later in the summer, and they all came back in 2013.  Some of them bloomed, some stayed leafy and reserved their blooms for this year.  
   I also discovered this spring that it spreads viable seeds quite well. I had many seedlings come up this spring, 'volunteers' as we sometimes say.  Fine with me.  It's a lovely plant, with very strong stems, and great colour at this time of year.   I recently dug a few out to take from the cottage garden to the new home I  moved to this summer.  
     Here are some images of the plant from early to latter stages.  You can see how the more mature leaves, and 'higher-up' leaves, are more 'scabiosa-like.'

It seems a very happy perennial here in my cottage garden.  Some are being feasted upon by an army of black aphids, but the plants are none the worse for wear. My Golden Lace plants are growing in pretty good soil, with afternoon and evening sunshine.  As others have found, the plant can vary a lot in height.  Below see three clumps - all grown from the same seed pack - of three distinct heights, from two feet to about six feet.  The tallest on the left are in the foreground - don't be distracted by the vibrant yellow of the Cup Plant behind.  

According to the Missouri Botanical Garden website, this plant is a host to a Daylily rust, and also listed as invasive down there.  So, one may be taking chances. 

As you can see, I took the plunge, and hope to have Golden Lace growing for years to come.  

Eaten but not Beaten!

By the latter days of summer, not only are the plants prolific, so are the "pests."  Back in July, the hops were being eaten, as usual, but not by the usual Red Admiral caterpillars.  The critter above looks like a White Marked Tussock Moth caterpillar.  Now, as you compare the photos below, you can see there has been a real feast of late.  The photo on the left was July 19, on the right is September 3.

 

But I think the recent denuding of the vines is from another insect.  Check out the green caterpillar in the shot on the right.  Might be the Hop Looper.  

(In my brain I keep wanting to say Loop Hopper, or Hoop Lopper.)  Oh well, I think the Hop vine will survive.  In other news... a few of my little ones in pots are getting nibbled, here in Digby.  I'm guessing this was the work of some leaf-cutter bees.  

Wisteria macrostachya - Kentucky Wisteria

Amorpha fruticosa - Indigobush

What truly prompted this post today was the saga of the aroid seedlings.  I'll try to keep this short and to the point.  Yeah, much like these seedlings.

Above, you can see some happy little seedlings.  Trouble is, I don't know exactly what they are. Two packs of seeds I managed to forget to plant, this spring, so they went into the earth in pots just a month ago.  Another complication was that I lost track of which was which.  I planted two species of the Aroid family: Pinellia pedatisecta & Arisaema flavum.  They are both similar to the familiar Jack-in-the-Pulpit, A. triphyllum.  They are even more similar when they are but seeds, and when they arise from the earth with one tiny leaf. 
     As I got the seeds planted about a month ago - and lost track of which was Pinellia and which was Arisaema - I sat the two pots in a shady spot outside.  
     Recently, one pot of sprouting seeds started to arise with their tiny green shoots.  I was very happy. 
   So were the earwigs, I'm guessing... 

Every new leaf, but one, was munched off.  Gone.  Nothing but the bare baby petiole reaching up.  And these are tiny. Oh dear.  This is not going to go well, I thought.  That's the end of those seedlings.
    With the other pot - not yet sprouting, I moved this bunch to higher ground (a table in the yard by the garage).  The second pot has sprouted, as you can see in the second photo up.  But that first pot of seedlings is not beaten!  Look... the lonely petioles are starting to sprout a second leaf from below.  

Ain't it great when "the will to live" in a plant, and it's capabilities, outdo your expectations?  Maybe in no time these unnamed, decapitated little aroids will look like this:

Arisaema draconitum

Blooming the Second Mile

We have just turned the calendar over to September, and summer soldiers on.  At the cottage, it's great to have some repeat bloomers.  And some plants that come into flower are a surprise.  I did expect the Crocus Rose to keep on producing its wonderfully scented blooms, and it has.  Ivory, turning yellower, and then a bit pink-speckled by the time the petals fall, these blossoms are great.  

I may need to plant one here in the town where I now live, 150 kms away from the Cottage.  Another rose that is just starting another flush of flowers is The Fairy.  Here it is this first week of September (in the foreground)...

This 'little' rose is getting bigger than I had planned.  I should have known better. Here it is back on July 19th.  

 Another white blossom that is 'going the second mile' is very white indeed: Wild Quinine, Parthenium integrifolium.  This single plant was blooming back in July...  

 ...and has not stopped. I cut off the first flower stalk this week - old and brown - and later stems keep presenting those pure white blossoms.

This is a perennial I grew from seed.  Sprouted in the spring of 2012, I had only two that arose last spring, and but one of them survived.  Here it is back in May of 2013...

It grew up and actually bloomed last year.  This season, it keeps sending up new flowering stalks.  Hopefully I can propagate this.  
     One other plant started from seed surprised me by blooming this month.  A shrub called Shrubby Bushclover, Lespedeza bicolor.  Things like this keep catching my attention, when seeds are offered or other bloggers present them.  I have never seen this... until I grew my own. 
     A couple of the tiny plants I started from seed last spring are blooming now.  

These are not very big.  They should, as the years go by, mound up and become great shrubs, blooming with this vibrant colour in September each year.  I must choose their permanent locations carefully.  
     Here is what they looked like in June of last year.  How could I be anything but very happy with the progress of the Shrubby Bushclover? 

Not sure why I labelled it Lespedeza c.  I'm pretty sure it is L. bicolor. :)

Here it is this week, already blooming.  I don't usually think of shrubs starting to bloom in their second year from seed, but three of my seedlings are mature enough to do this:

May these final weeks of summer bring you a great show of flowers and foliage, and a few surprises.