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august color

	We've have some pretty strange weather in east central Illinois
this year, and it seems as though many of the border perennials have
responded by growing wildly lanky even though they're healthy and
blooming well.  (Or maybe I should have used plant supports at the base
of just about every plant in early spring...)
	But despite the floppiness, there is definitely still some
strong color.  Like Gene says, there's yellow from the Rudbeckia, and my
coreopsis are still showing lots of yellow blooms, and Achillea
moonlight?  moonglow?  is still glowing.
	For blue, the Caryopteris (blue mist shrub or something like
that is the common name) is a light to medium soft blue, the Veronica
are a darker blue and still going, the Buddleia Black Knight is the
deepest blue-purple (and fragrant!).  A few small Campanula carpatica
with their light blue bells are still showing underneath the Daphne
Somerset (talk about fragrant!), and the Ceratostigma plumbagnoides
(leadwort) is showing its strikingly blue flowers in the raised beds.
Most of the dwarf Anchusa with its brilliant forget-me-not type blue
flowers has finished, replaced by tiny burrs that stick to my clothes
when I brush past.
	For pinks to reds, there's still that deep wine-marroon of the
Knautia macedonia that keeps throwing some reblooms all summer long, a
few blooms on the red climbing rose (it's not a "blaze" right now, but
that's its name), some rosy flowers on the Centranthus (valerian), a few
dianthus reblooming, a couple of mini-roses, the new David Austin L.D.
Braithwaite, Europeana (a floribunda), the heirloom sweet peas from
Sicily and the California poppy with red on the outside of the yellow
petals and the Cardinal Climber (oops! annuals slipped into the
perennials list), and the big dinner plate blooms on the dwarf mallows.
	The Rose of Sharon is purple, as are the Clematis, and one small
Lisianthus is still surviving the humidity and blooming a bit of purple
in a lean-soil raised bed among alpines.  Some tender bulbs of
Acidantherus (Abyssinian gladiolus, very fragrant) have purple centers
in white flowers with pointy petals--very striking. For pale lavender,
of course, there are the hostas, not all of which have finished.
	Does white count?  I always think it brings out the other colors
more.  The tall phlox paniculata are sure white on a sunny day or
moonlight night, along with Achillea the Pearl.
	Maybe orange should have gone with the yellow, but the
Bloodflower asclepias seems to be orange and red and yellow all at once
and is attracting Monarch butterflys like crazy.  There's probably more
in color that I'll be embarassed, for their sake (plants know when
you're praising them, like cats), to have skipped; maybe they'll tell me
about it when I get home from the office and check the garden...

Susan Campanini
in east central Illinois
zone 5b, min temp -15F?
e-mail:  campanin@uiuc.edu


    
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