Perennial Late Summer, Fall Blooms

With September around the corner I have started to sell mums and asters.  Otherwise the greenhouses are pretty much empty.  It's Aug. 30 and here is what is blooming now.

Helianthus 'Happy Days' - Shorter than most helianthus and rated zone 5, 

but it made it here in zone 4.  It reminds me of a dahlia.

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Lobelia Siphilitica ('Blue Cardinal Flower')

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Sanguisorbia Canidensis  - Always welcome in the late summer as an addition 

to bouquets.  It's a spreader, is about 4' tall and has nice scalloped foliage.

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Silphium perfoliatum (Cup flower) in the back ground is 8' tall this year. 

 In the foreground is a dark-leaved cimicifugia (now renamed actea.)

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One of my favorite summer phlox varieties, 'Laura', is a heavy bloomer this time of year.

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Artemesia Lactiflora is one of the few artemesias that prefer moist soil.  It's like a very tall (4-5') delicate astilbe covered with plumes of creamy white flowers.

Fall Photographs

I officially closed my business for the season Oct. 1. All but one of the mums sold at farmers' market (some seen here before loading)



I stopped on my way home to take some of the same photos that I'm sure "leaf peepers" take.



We had a lot of rain last week, flooding the fields across the road to the point that three people got in a canoe and paddled around in a pond that covered a hay field.



One of my very favorite plants for winter interest is miscanthus ‘siberfeder’. It stands up to all kids of weather, is lovely in every light, and is still upright and proud in the spring.




I also sell Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foester" which was named the 2001 perennial plant of the year, but I only do that because people ask for that one. It grows too fast for my taste and quickly becomes just grass in the garden. I prefer a stand of grass that adds vertical structure my plantings. I haven't had much luck with other grasses, but will keep trying.

When I left the Department of Agriculture 20+ years ago my staff gave me a small weeping crab apple tree which I popped in the lawn by the driveway. It has grown well every year and always provides food for the birds that stick around late into the fall. This year the fruit yield is unbelievable.











The robins will think they have landed in heaven.

Houston - We have had Frosts - What is Blooming Now

Above is "iron weed" or veronia noveboracensis. I don't remember where I got this plant and I always forget about it until the fall when I am desperate for cut flowers and this one is perfect. The dark blue/violet goes nicely with mums and it is long lasting in bouquets.


Summer phlox can be problematic. Deer find it tasty and some years powdery mildew takes it down. This particular phlox is 'Laura' and it seems to be both disease resistant and long lasting in bouquets - and ... very fragrant.




Cimicifuga (white plumed flowers above in foreground) provide a dramatic fall statement. The common name is 'bugbane'. The horticultural folks have decided to reclassify the plant and now it is 'Actaea racemosa', but I finally got comfortable pronouncing cimicifuga - and so it will remain at Amanda's Greenhouse and Perennials. I don't care for the species as it spreads and becomes rather sparse, but cimicifuga ramosa atropurpurea forms a huge vase-shaped specimen plant that always delivers in September and October.


Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpreum) is another guaranteed fall bloomer. It's a "weed" only in the sense that it is a wild plant in north America. It's an OK cut flower and I'm told it can be dried. 'Little Joe' is a new shorter introduction, and I'll be able to report next year on how well it does, as the native Joe Pye can easily be 6 feet tall.




Step away very slowly from this plant, (macleaya cordata or 'plume poppy'.) It is mightily invasive. I might recommend it for the edge of a pond or background in a very wild setting, as it really is lovely in its own overbearing way. I unknowingly planted it among other perennials in a row and have been fighting it back the last ten years. Right now a woodchuck has a happy home in its center. (Plant seen above and below).











I love artemesia lactiflora (white mugwort) for its late blooms and the fact that it is non-invasive, unlike many other artemesias.


Above is sanguisorba canadensis, another very late bloomer that I use extensively in my fall bouquets. The common name is 'Canadian burnet' and when not blooming it has pretty serrated foliage. This one is vigorous, but controllable.

Now I have to figure out how to make my photographs larger for this blog. And I am already ordering for next year!

MUM's the Word ....

September is peeking around the corner and we are overwhelmed with mums.



I must have had a few senior moments when I was ordering the cuttings last spring, because we have about 500 more than usual ... AND it is a bad year for mums. The early cold weather made them set their buds early. We are selling many of them for $3.50 each or 5/$15. The darned pots cost us 50 cents each!

Four greenhouses are filled, as well as any available landscape fabric on the ground.



We buy rooted mum cuttings in late May and into June. They get planted and established in 4 inch pots and then as the greenhouses clear out of annuals we start bumping the mums up into larger pots.

There’s constant watering, pinching and shaping, and fertilizing involved, so it’s probably not worth the effort. But it also seems a shame to have those greenhouses empty when they could be working.



The only true perennial mum around here is Chrysanthemum rubellum ‘Clara Curtis’.



It’s pleasant enough and does provide late summer flowers, but it spreads a bit too fast and tends to bloom unevenly for me.

Blooms of Bressingham have introduced the Igloo series of mums, with a hardiness rating of 5. I chose “Rosy Igloo” because the photo looked like a reddish rust orange, a color which has been popular with our customers in the fall.


The actual bloom here is more of a washed out copper from my perspective and they have disappointed me..



If this mum does overwinter, the trick is to pinch it back right up to July 4 for a bushier fall bloom. We have some in the ground so they will be tested here. It’s possible that they will pick up more color from being planted in “real” soil. If they survive the winter I may try the yello Igloo next year.