September 26, 2017
Three perennials are blooming and the rest of the garden will be carried into frost by annuals. Two mounds of lavender Heart-leaved Asters (Symphyotrichum cordifolium), far left rear and middle, are peaking and buzzing with bees. Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and white Phlox paniculata are still blooming, but are about done.
Morning Glories on Sunflowers
Morning Glories (Ipomoea tricolor ‘Heavenly Blue’ & I. purpurea ‘Grandpa Ott’) clamber up the tall Sunflowers along the back, and to the left, Helianthus annuus ‘Italian White’ hide my only pink Cleome hassleriana to self-sow this year. Sweet Peas (Lathyrus odoratus) are still putting out scented heaven, despite being choked by Morning Glory vines.
Orange and yellow Calendula officinalis and white Nicotiana alata are scattered about, along with a clump of Zinnia elegans ‘Cactus’ and several ‘Sprite Mixed.’ All of which are being visited by many bees, migrating Monarchs, Painted Lady and other butterflies. A yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) has placed her egg sac on one of the Zinnia plants and I will have to be careful to set it aside after frost has finished the plants. As her web was lower in the foliage, I think she mostly ate Japanese beetles, which plagued the plants in August.
As seen in the first photo, in rows far left, Holy Basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum) is ready for its third harvest (it makes a healthful and refreshing tea). I picked the Orca beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) over the weekend, resulting in half a bushel of pods. Once they’re dry, they’ll have to be shelled, a task for mindful meditation.
Zinnia ‘Dbl. Cherry Profusion’
Along the front, Lamb’s Ears (Stachys byzantina), a few hot pink Zinnia angustifolia x elegans ‘Double Cherry Profusion,’ Japanese Blood Grass (Imperata cylindrica) surrounded by Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damascena) seed heads and a few more clumps of white Nicotiana at the end.
To the left of the main garden Dahlia ‘Voodoo’ and ‘Tiki Torch’ are blazing up a storm.
Thanks to Cathy at Words and Herbs for hosting The Tuesday View, a meme showing the view of one or more of our gardens over the course of a growing season. Visit to see links to other garden views from around the world.
Eliza Waters 
Really beautiful !
Love them all 🙂
Thank you!
What an incredible example of good garden planning for late summer/fall color & variety! Love that exuberant aster. Gorgeous, sister (you AND the garden! ) 😉
Hehe, thank you very much! 🙂
Lovely Tuesday views Eliza…
Thank you, Julie!
It all looks so lovely. Those asters are fabulous! (Did I say that last week too?!) I hadn’t really registered just how many of these plants are annuals Eliza. They really do fill out the bed well. I can see the colours changing in your garden too. So many zinnias! Wonderful. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Cathy. Except for zinnias and sunflowers, the rest self-sow every spring, so all I have to do is weed out the unwanted and leave the rest. I tried to be severe with the calendula and nicotiana this year, but as you can see, a lot got past me!
I love the little pink Zinnias & Dahlias. Last day of August, I bought a bright pink & yellow Dahlia: ‘XXL Veracruz’….it’s a wonderful flower to photograph.
Thank you, Alice. Your dahlia sounds pretty.
I’m building up a list of ‘must ‘ have Dahlias for next year. Voodoo is going on the list. Love all your different Zinnias too.
Thank you, Christina. I’ve been very pleased with ‘Voodoo’ – that deep, rich colour and a great performer, too!
I am jealous that you still have so much colour. It still looks fabulous.
Thank you very much, the annuals really are carrying the show.
You’ve had a frost, right? Our frosts are coming later every year (the climate really is changing), up to 4 wks later than 50 years ago.
So much colour! Beautiful!
Thank you, Pete!
Your garden/view is so beautiful this time of year. Reading about your garden spider, it occurs to me that I have not seen any garden spiders this year. That’s odd. On the other hand, the monarchs are quite plentiful. 🙂
Thank you, Robin. I sometimes wonder if I inadvertently cut things down that have these egg sacs in them. There is always something disrupted, it’s hard to know when to cut. Good news about the monarchs!
Ah, fall! So lovely.
Thank you, Laurie!
A great Tuesday view to revitalize the mind!
Thank you, glad you liked it. 🙂
FabUlous, spell check did not like that. I am prepping beds for Zinnias like yours and cannot imagine Sweet Peas in Summer! Or winter – here! Looks like England!
!
🙂 Thank you, Amelia. I am astounded that I still have sweet peas, but it was a cooler than normal summer here and these might be resistant to heat, too. I kept them picked, which helps. What kind of zinnias?
Cactus!
Yes!
Great blooms. And I always like the light blue morning glories.
Thank you, Cynthia. That blue really is something!
Thank you so much for keeping this series going all year. 😀 I really get a kick out of seeing the slow , and sometimes not-so-slow, change of seasons. 🙂
Thanks, glad you’ve been enjoying it. It is good to share it with others, doesn’t seem right to keep it all to myself. 🙂
I used to plant morning glories with Russian sunflowers back when I had a tiny patch garden and small boys… must try that again next year!
Hi Eliza, Your gardens are still lovely! I really must grow Zinnia and Dahlia…..they just keep going and going! Sweet Peas are wonderful…..only the annual has a wonderful scent. I have a perennial which is new to the garden….I’m hoping it’s strikingly beautiful to make up for not being perfumed.
Re: not being able to sign-up for my blog postings….I have no idea why it’s not working but, I’ve had problems signing up for some blogs so now I copy and paste blog addresses to my blog list which appears on the right side of my post. When a new post is written that blog goes to the top of the list and I see it. I hope this helps.
It may have something to do with different hosts, who knows? I’ve never had this problem before. A puzzle!
Shelling peas and mindful meditation – I’d have never put those 2 things together (but then I admit that I’ve never shelled peas!). Your Tuesday view is lovely. I’m always surprised at how much the colors change over the course of your garden season. In contrast, even the month-to-month changes in my borders seem less dramatic.
That wide view in the first photo is beautiful. Anemonies would look great!
Thank you, Linda. Probably too much sun there, but out front in my shade garden, they’d do well, I think. I almost went to the nursery today, but decided to pick a cooler day after the heat breaks.
Truly lovely !
Cherish them all 🙂
Thank you!
You have a wonderful gift Eliza 🌻🌸🌻
🙂 Aw, how kind, thanks so much, Karen.
What an amazing finale!!!
Thank you kindly, Kathy! 🙂
Oh these blooms are fantastic!! 🙂
Thank you, Christy!
This post brought big smiles to my face, Eliza. The golden tones mixed with purples (and dashes of sweet pea and Voodoo) proclaim autumn in a lovely way. The Stachys couldn’t be more faithful, right? I’m sure you’re soaking up each day.
Absolutely, love that Stachys!
We’re easing into fall slowly… 🙂
That looks amazing! I love the asters on top of all the annuals, and may even consider growing a morning glory next year. It does look awfully autumnal though, but I guess there’s no avoiding that any more.
Here the leaves browned and dried up in the heat, we’ll see if anything is left to color up with the cooler weather…
Thanks, Frank. I cling to my last flowers. It was low 40s last night, so frost is a-coming. We’ve lost a lot of leaves (mostly sugar maple and ash) to brown spot, which is a shame. Just dry crispy leaves that fall all at once, no color. The red maples seem resistant to the blight and birch might give us yellow, but those splendid orange maples, nada. Yeah, climate change, most likely. 😦
Looking good.
Thank you, Brian.
So many flowers despite it being nearly October! It looks lovely x
Thank you, Rebecca. It was very cool last night, so frost will come eventually. Until then, I’ll enjoy the flowers while I can.
Wow! Nice post of garden photography!!
Thank you, Jahid!
You are welcome!