Fall Colors

This was an especially gorgeous fall. The combination of reasonable moisture and moderate temperatures meant that the trees achieved their maximum color and it lasted a long time. My street, lined with sugar maples, was beautiful. My annuals and summer blubs didn't die until the end of October, a couple weeks after typical frost here in Madison.

I planted a new kind of bulb in our terrace this fall - Colchicum cilicicum, sometimes called (inaccurately) 'Fall crocus.' I planted them in September and within a few weeks they were blooming. It's pretty cool to see this pink, crocus-type plant in fall. Unexpected.

Peak of Summer

I realize it's no longer the peak of summer, but with all the craziness that is my job in September, I'm just now getting around to posting some September pictures. This is the sci-fi garden that I planted for Adam. The purple leafy plant is an elder, Sambucus nigra 'Black Lace', that died nearly to the ground last winter. While the plant survived just fine, it never flowered. I take that to mean it flowers on old wood? Either way, the foliage is lovely. I also have some dahlias, grasses, calamintha, and coneflowers.

This is my back bed. It's a mixture of perennials, woodies, and annuals. I get a lot of self-seeding coreopsis (the parent plants died a long time ago, but it makes plenty of babies), and I noticed that my smooth asters - the tiny blue flowers - made some babies as well this year. That's ok with me because it's a nice, native plant, attractive to bees, and the rabbits usually eat their share.The larger-leafed plant in front is Stachys byzantina) 'Helen Von Stein' and it's a really nice foliage plant. Other lamb's ears have unattractive flowers, but this cultivar hasn't bloomed yet.

Here's another picture of my favorite Benary's Giant zinnias, just because I can't get enough of them. They finally died last weekend (late October).

Here are some pictures of my tropical garden. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I finally cleared it out this past weekend, and it took a garden saw to cut down the castor bean plants. I'm planning to try to save the canna and dahlia tubers. They died this past weekend and I'm giving them a week to store up their energy for winter. I'll give an update in the spring as to how they fared.