End of September Flowers- What's Still Looking Good

What's Still Looking Good this Late in the Season:

Lavatara still looking good!

After the middle of September the weather can get pretty 'iffy' here in central Alberta. We often have frost at night, which really does a number on most flowers and especially the tomato plants. This year we had a few nights with frost warnings and on a couple of them, there actually was a bit of frost. Luckily we had covered most of the sensitive plants, namely the tomatoes, the dahlias, cosmos and roses. I dragged a few of my nicer deck pots up close to the house. Nothing was too severely affected there except for my tall Morning Glory vine which turned black at the top.

Even my roses continued to bloom and they still have a lot of buds today (October 1st)!
 I cut a few of the prettiest stems off and brought them into the house to enjoy, (Morden Centennials and Pink Turbos).  This is the first time ever that I have had roses blooming on the first of October!  My Morden Ruby rose had a huge cluster of red blossoms at the top, but I forgot to cover them a few nights ago and they took a hit.  Thanks, Jack Frost! :(

The cosmos continue to look great and the bees are still visiting the flowers, believe it or not!

Flower Bed Clean up-
I started my flower bed clean up last week and have all of the long perennial bed done as well as most of the big round Angel Bed.

Cosmos started from seed

The tall Carl Forrester grass there is still in need of trimming, but most of the rest of that bed has been clipped back now. I removed most of the bachelor buttons, spread some of their seeds around the angel bed, and left a few seed stems for next spring as well.

There are a couple of small lupins that have self seeded in odd places, so those will have to be moved next spring, if possible.

yellow rudbeckias and pink lavatara

The Black Eyed Susans are a late bloomer, but they have survived the frost quite well so far, as have the yellow rudbeckias (which may or may not be annuals?)

Perennial Black Eyed Susans

The Long bed:  I planted two authentic Shasta Daisy plants at the far end and dug out some of the white ox eye daisies that like to take over. Also dug up 3 clumps of Maltese Cross which are too big;  the stems just flop over and take up so much room.  I dug out one old original Columbine (the pretty pink one) which was so full of quack grass and I replaced it with a small, self seeded one (hopefully also pink!)

Lilies:
I dug out my lily bulbs on the east side of the Long bed and moved them over about 18 inches towards the middle in the vacant Maltese Cross spot. They were being crowded by the shrub growing next to them.

I also planted a young columbine (that had self seeded in another bed) across from the first one to create a bit of balance.  I wonder what colour it will bloom?

Mystery Day dahlia

Note To Self:
Next spring divide the rest of the Maltese Crosses in the long bed and dig out 2 more white daisies that are crowding the delphiniums.
Dig up lily bulbs from east/shade side of stack stone bed where they are dying for lack of sun…
Dig out the orange day lily in the round Angel bed before it takes over. Where to put it???

Pretty sweet peas. 

I started clipping and cleaning up the triangle bed as well, but still need to clip off the day lilies there. It is always so much work, but I want to use those leaves as mulch around my rose bushes before I wrap them for winter. (I did that about a week later.)

Today I worked three quarters of the way around my big stack stone bed. I cut down holly hocks, pulled out spend lavatara and cosmos, and yanked out tons of long quack grass roots!

I cut off and culled most of the False Dragon Heads as well. Some of the stems were so tall they completely hid my ligularia- Little rRcket. I left a few cosmos plants there, too. They are still too pretty to get rid of. The hard frost will be here soon enough to do in all the rest of the plants.

The sweet peas in the Rock Garden bed (which I grew from seed) are looking really pretty right now. They took a long time to get going this year. I was hoping to get a few seeds from these, as I love the mauve and pink colure but the frost may get them first…

Calendulas

The calendulas are just really looking great now, too thanks to the mild October weather! I had also started these from seed. In Thompson I had calendulas growing for many years in my front (east facing) flower bed. I just shook off the seeds in the fall and they lay on the ground under the snow all winter, then started growing again in the spring. In fact the calendulas were already there when I moved into that house and I had them for 19 years after that!  Here, it seems, the deer and rodents like to eat the new seedlings, so I usually have to start some in the greenhouse.

Mandeville vine and white bacopa

Geraniums, blue regatta lobelia, white bacopa

Many of my deck pots still look good. I have been protecting them, but I'm almost ready to let them go now…

Pink Zonal geraniums, blue lobelia and purple pansies

I must try and harvest some seeds from my purple pansies. They can't be that hard to grow from seed. I randomly threw a few on the soil of a stray pot on our deck and there are some small plants growing there now! Guess I should bring the pot inside and I might get some pansies blooming in the early winter. :)

I am still debating about what to do with my tall Hibiscus tree. It's in a pot on the deck and has a lot of fresh looking leaves and some buds, but do I want to bring it back into the house this year? It's so huge and messy with its dropped leaves, although the flowers are very pretty when it does bloom….

My geraniums bloomed so well this summer and continue to do so. I have cut a few slips off them to try and over winter a few. The zonal geraniums slips look fine but the regal geranium slips don't look great so we'll see what happens... I may have to just get new ones next spring.

Regal geraniums and pink diamond frost (euphorbia)

(I forgot to bring my big Hibiscus Tree inside and the hard frost did it it one night, so that pretty much looked after that decision.)  

What a wonderful long almost perfect growing season it was in 2015!