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Re: Fall Blooms

At 11:24 AM 9/4/97 -0400, lowery@teamzeon.com wrote:
>what's blooming now in everyone's garden?  What are some good
>combinations?  My garden is becoming more and more desolate with every
>passing fall day.  I'd love to see more color this time of year.

Here are some late-season favorites of mine in USDA Zone 3 Winnipeg:

Astilbe pumila, a low, ground-cover type of astilbe with 12" fluffy mauve
spikes. It seems to do well in sun or shade with adequate moisture. In a
sunny spot it's blooming here together with some dark purple/yellow-faced
Helen Mount viola and 'Lemon Gem' tagetes. In another, shady corner, the
astilbe is a pretty spot of cool colour with lamium and iris foliage and
white annual lobelia.

Also in shade: hosta plantaginea with its fragrant, pure white blooms.
Right now it's a nice contrast with the saturated red of a lobelia
cardinalis. It turns out that the 'Non-stop' tuberous begonias that I
planted in front of the lobelia are the identical shade of red.

Two other white-flowered plants are blooming now in semi-shade with some
white fibrous begonias: an obedience plant (physostegia) that's still going
strong, and a lovely clump of garlic chives (allium ..?) that my neighbour
gave me, with bursts of small starry blooms like sparklers on two-foot
stalks. 

My favorite fall flowers are the perennial mums (now renamed Dendranthema,
I think). Here in the north I've learned you have to choose ones that are
early (blooming by late August) and hardy. I have a cream 'Baby Tears' and
a deep brick-red 'Bravo' that have done well. They look good right now with
a red, cream-centred yarrow (achillea) 'Paprika' that's still blooming. One
of the best things about the mums is that they are such long-lasting
cutflowers. I've had them on my table in the house as late as mid-November,
when the garden is already under snow.

Linda

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