Looking out of the windows onto the garden, there didn’t seem to be many flowers to be seen. It wasn’t until I started wandering round the garden that I found flowers, one here, one there, some hiding in the decaying foliage of other plants and some just waiting to be photographed. I started by the front entrance, so do come for a walk with me.
Looking lovely at this time of year is Mahonia Charity
Brightening up the front border is an Evening Primrose, these flowers shine out among all the purples and mauves in this border. Later in the year, if I leave the seedheads, we will have plenty of Goldfinches visiting. I must sow a few of the seeds though as I would like to make more plants.
Geranium Ann Folkard weaves her way through the border and I have to stop her becoming a thug. I pull half of it out at the beginning of the year, but by this time of year, it is right through the border once more.
Verbena bonariensis seeds gently along the border.
The pink hydrangea by the front door is still putting out new flowers.
Seedling Aster making itself at home.
Rosa Ballerina, in the rose garden, looking very summery with its new flowers
Rosa Bonica also putting out new flowers, not many more to come though.
By the dead oak, Hydrangea Ayesha has some nice new flowers.
Ivy climbing up the dead oak has flowers and is also forming berries which the birds will enjoy after they have eaten all the red berries elsewhere. This is also where the Holly blue butterfly will lay her eggs, the caterpillars eat holly and ivy.
Moving round to the border by the field, Rosa Graham Thomas is still looking good.
The wildflower (weed) in the front is Hawkbit, favoured by the wildlife, it contrasts nicely with the dwarf Aster behind.
Sedum doing its bit for the butterflies still in the garden.
Rosa Evelyn, still with its beautiful perfume.
Viburnum Bodnantense Dawn has started to flower, this will continue all winter as long as the temperatures stay above freezing.
In the top corner at the end of the field border, the Pampas grass has benefitted from having neighbours drastically cut back, it likes having more room to spread.
Back in the border round the dead oak, Viburnum plicatum Maresii is having a second flowering showing off the flowers with leaves having now turned purple.
Clematis durandii clambers up a climbing rose
Moving round to the back garden, Rosa Iceberg continues to flower.
Rosa Charlotte never seems to stop flowering.
Little Claytonia forms nice groundcover, with flowers to be seen, on and off, all year.
Geranium Rozanne has flowered non stop since May, its time she had a rest.
This Hydrangea is taking its time deciding if it is going to be blue.
This one is definitely blue.
Cyclamen hederifolium in the woodland are nearly coming to an end of flowering.
When clearing the leaves away, I have noticed so many new cyclamen plants, thanks to the ants spreading the seed, soon I will have as many as the snowdrops!
Honesty seedcases brighten up a dark corner of the woodland.
Nerine bowdenii bring a shot of pink into the gravel garden at the back.
Campanula porscharskyana seems to flower all year, we never seem to be without it.
By the house, Fuchsia Delta Sarah has grown and flowered as never before, I think it must have been all the rain we had this summer!
Erigeron karvinskianus is another plant that never wants to stop flowering, the only way to stop it is to cut it back so that it can have a rest! It is making itself at home between the paving slabs by the back door.
Plans are afoot to make a late summer / autumn border, so that I can have part of the garden looking good at this time of year, instead of having to go searching for the flowers. I have areas for Winter, Spring and Summer so it is only right that autumn has its own space. Hopefully this will get done over the winter, weather and health permitting!
Thanks go to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting this GBBD meme once more, please pay her a visit to see flowers from around the world.
So many blooms – Wonderful!
I just bought a new rose (not blooming now). I think it is ‘Iceberg’ – yours is very pretty
Have a great week!
Iceberg is a lovely rose Lea, I hope you enjoy yours, it seems to keep blooming for such a long time.
Brilliant idea to make an autumn garden! Like you, I have to poke around to find blooms this time of year. You’ve got some beauties. Thank goodness for fall bloomers! (Not to be confused with falling bloomers which is a whole different issue.)
Peter, you are outrageous! I like the idea of a border which will be at its peak at this time of year, I’ve seen a few in other gardens and they really are magnificent, hope I can create something similar.
Hi Pauline.
There’s plenty of life still in your gardens. So many roses! I love Rosa Ballerina and am very surprised to see Evening Primrose in bloom. Does it always bloom at this time for you? Mine blooms late Spring. Hawkbit is an eyecatcher and a great mate to the Aster. It won’t be long before I’m garden dreaming!
Evening Primrose flowers all year here Sally, it starts in late spring/early summer and just carries on until the frost. I’m trying to get more late flowers in the garden to help the bees and butterflies so that they can overwinter.
That’s my goal, too, Pauline…..feed the pollinators and have more blooms this time of year……I ordered seeds for strawflowers and a few others for dried arrangements. They’ve gone out of style here but I love them.
I love ‘Graham Thomas’ – such rich color. And ‘Ann Folkard’ may be a thug, but she is a charming one.
At this time of year Jason, I’m so glad I didn’t pull all Ann Folkard out in the spring, as she looks so lovely now, weaving through the border.
I love thugs like ‘Ann Folkard’, not difficult to keep in bounds and such a delight. You still have masses of flowers even if they are only in ones and twos as you say. An autumn border sounds a lovely idea. I wonder which kind you will choose – a full on Pete Ouldolf perennial planting or shrubs and trees with wonderful autumn colour. You have lots of coloured foliage already, I know. I’m so pleased that you are feeling that you can tackle a new border.
I’m wonddering Christina, if Ann Folkard might me G. procurrens which is one of her parents, each time she arches over, she roots and before you know it, she is right through the border! The new border is in front of the greenhouse, so no shrubs or trees, they will cast too much shade, something similar to Pete Oudolf, but not a slavish copy. It will be poor Neil, the gardener, who will do all the heavy work, he has already made a start!
That’s a stunning collection of flowers for so late in the year Pauline. Coincidentally I recently also found myself going round the garden to find the last remaining flowers and since I have a new area, Molly’s Garden, waiting to be planted up so have also decided it will be an autumn garden. It needs to be robust enough to pretty well take care of itself so on my list so far I have Eupatorium, Rudbeckia, Echinacea, Aster, Solidago and Sedum plus some grasses!
Great minds Denise, and your list contains some of my favourites. I’m hoping that this area will be the spot where I can grow salvias at last, if I add a lot of drainage. I agree, they will all have to be able to look after themselves, no prima donnas here thank you!
My autumn flowers are scattered all over the garden too. What a great idea to make a border that focuses on autumn color. I have patches of Cyclamen that are spreading nicely as well, thanks to the ants.
Cyclamen have done so well this year Alison and now that I have started clearing the weeds from the woodland so that the snowdrops will show up in a few weeks!,I am finding lots of new little plants everywhere, it will be so lovely when they are all old enough to flower.
I’m looking forward to seeing the new border come together. I know it will be wonderful!
You already have a great start, it’s just a matter of choosing a few favorites and putting them together. I’ve been enjoying the fall flowers here as well. No fall border, but it wouldn’t hurt to put a few more bloomers in!
I will be sowing lots of seeds over the winter Frank, so that I can have a few drifts of my favourites. It will take a while for the border to look as I see it in my mind, but hopefully I will get there eventually.
I’ll be interested to hear more about your autumn garden. When I had plenty of sun, some of my best fall plants were late-blooming salvias, like Salvia madrensis. Recently, I saw a Japanese forest peony, Paeonia obovata, which makes a wonderful seedhead.
Some Salvias might not be hardy here Marian, but they can easily be kept going by taking cuttings which root easily. I already have some coming on in the greenhouse and will be sowing seeds soon to be able to have drifts of some plants. Your Peony sounds delightful.
Hi Pauline, you’re doing what we’re supposed to do, place plants that flower at the same time together. Planning, imagining is as much part of gardening as the physical tasks. I look forward to seeing how your autumn garden progresses and develops.
I do like planning a border Catmint, it is a good excuse to be surrounded on a cold winters day by gardening books and catalogues! It will probably be a couple of years before it looks as it does in my head, but then, gardening teaches us patience does’t it!
I love to walk in the garden and find those treasures I don’t immediately see. You still have some beautiful roses and other blooms I adore, such as your Fuchsia Delta Sarah! I also love your cyclamen for its great foliage as well as its blooms. Happy fall!
The cyclamen foliage is making lovely groundcover in the woodland Debs, I love all the different patterns on the leaves, no 2 plants are the same. Delta Sarah has been amazing this year, she is a lot taller than me and I’m not small! Sp many plants have done so much better with all our summer rain, it also means that there are so many flower buds waiting on the shrubs for next spring, they usually get aborted if we have a dry summer.