Last of Summer: in bloom this week

Mexican sunflower, or Tithonia.

Two very different tall annuals are at their best now, the blazing orange Mexican sunflowers and the elegant, fragrant woodland tobacco.

Woodland Tobacco, Nicotiana sylvestris.

A native annual which volunteered in the rock garden, sweet everlasting, is now in bloom, when almost nothing else is: a few late harebells and some rebloom on the bird’s foot violets accompany the everlasting.

Sweet everlasting, Gnaphalium obtusifolium.

The bright yellow daisy of old fields and roadsides, black-eyed Susan, is either an annual, a biennial or a short-lived perennial. A few seedlings which volunteered in the gardens have now come into bloom.

Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia hirta.

Sweet black-eyed Susan is perennial and, in fact, rather slow to get going from seed. It is supposed to be fragrant but I cannot perceive any sweetness from mine.

Sweet Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia subtomentosa.

Tall Sunflower, Helianthus giganteus, blooming in front of prairie blazing star (Liatris pycnostachya) in the nursery.

One pot of tall sunflower was planted, not too long ago, in some rough grass, and it is blooming lustily. Not bad for a seedling!

Tall sunflower, Helianthus

Kankakee mallow, Illamna remota.

Royal catchfly, Silene regia.

Two species from further south which are new to me: Kankakee mallow and royal catchfly. Kankakee mallow has delicately pink hollyhock-like flowers, set off with a darker red centre, and maple-like leaves on a tall plant. It is indigenous to a single site in Illinois but seems to be easy to grow in gardens. We shall see how hardy it is in western Quebec.

Because the butterfly milkweed got off to such a late start this year, it is still in bloom in mid-September.

Butterfly milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa.

Great blue lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica.

Virginia mountain mint is finishing up, but the grey leaved short-toothed mountain mint is still in bloom and attracting lots and lots of large bumblebees. (As are the two blazing stars, spike and prairie, whose tall spires are turning brown at the top but still blazing at their bottoms.)

Short-toothed mountain mint, Pycnanthemum muticum.

Heart-.leaved aster.

 

Heart-leaved aster occurs naturally under shrubs and trees around the farmhouse. It makes a very pretty, billowy blue ruff at the base of shrubs and is also nice as a cut flower to lighten bouquets of yellow and orange daisies.

 

In bloom this week.

Harebells (Campanula rotundifolia) have been blooming continuously since the beginning of July in the rock garden.

Some of the plants of boreal Jacob’s ladder in the rock garden, which were cut back hard earlier in the summer when they were going to seed, have rebloomed. Not as showy as their first flush of flowers but still welcome colour in the rock garden, which is primarily a spring garden.

Boreal Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium boreale).

I cannot recommend showy tick-trefoil for borders or small gardens: it is too lanky and in bloom for too short a period to justify it, and its sticky seed pods are a nuisance if you or a pet comes too close. However, it is a lovely component of meadows and naturalization projects. It is a favoured host plant for the caterpillars of Eastern Tailed Blue butterflies.

Showy tick-trefoil (Desmodium canadense).

The first yellow daisies of late summer – sneezeweed and grey-headed coneflower – have been joined by cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum), a robust and quick-to-flower giant which can easily reach to the eaves of a single storey house. The seeds of cup plant are nutritious and sought out by goldfinches and other seed-eating birds over the winter, so the natural impulse is to let the plant go to seed. However, be warned. Cup plant seeds itself generously in gardens and, unless the seedling cup plants are recognized and removed, a natural garden can be replaced by a cup plant plantation. Cup plant’s close relatives from the tall grass prairie, prairie dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum) and compass plant (S. laciniatum) are both so slow to get going they need to be coddled by the gardener for their first couple of years.

Cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum)

Butterfly milkweed is finally in bloom. It has been very late to develop this year. Its bloom is overlapping with the first of the swamp asters, which is just weird.

Butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa): bright orange flowers and a medium height make it ideal for a sunny border.

Swamp aster or purple-stemmed aster (Symphyotrichum puniceum) in the swale garden.

Our oldest plant of Culver’s root flowered in July and has now gone to seed. Two-year old plants of this slow-to-mature prairie species are flowering for their first time and are in bloom now. They are shorter than they will be when fully mature; their elegant white candelabra are tucked in among their neighbours. When happily settled in, the tips of the long spires of this lovely plant can reach six feet high or even more.

Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum).

Cardinal flower. What else can I say. Except they are hard to get a good photo of. Intense reds and oranges are not handled well by my digital camera – the intense orange of Mexican sunflower also comes out as a fluorescent blob of colour.

Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis).

Cardinal flower’s close relative, great blue lobelia, is also in bloom right now.

Great blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica).

I don’t fuss with annuals too much but I like my Mexican sunflowers and I also sowed some seeds of love-in-a-mist. (Nigella). They are an amazing true blue and their seed pods are silly – a combination of striped balloon and jester’s hat.).

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella).

The Allegheny fringe is still extending its delicate tendril and blooming. It has reached the eaves of the studio, climbing some jute twine I provided for it, and has now started to drape downwards rather elegantly. I do love this native biennial.

Allegheny fringe or climbing bleeding heart (Adlumia fungosa).

Summer Flowers: Blooming in our garden this week

I have been away from my computer for over a week – first I had a power cord issue, then our service provider wasn’t – so I have been unable to post pictures of some very nice flowers blooming in our garden. I will make up for it by posting a whole bunch of Plants of the Week at once.

Starting with a sundrop trailing over the rock wall:

Oenothera fremontii

 

Sunset anise-hyssop (Agastache rupestris) isn’t native to eastern North American, but it has proven to be hardy in western Quebec through at least one vicious winter. I put a mass of seedlings in front of a few plants of wild lupin to hide them from a foraging groundhog with a taste for my best plants. I thought the strong odour of the Agastache would mask the lupins and it seems to be working. I have come to appreciate the massed planting of the Agastache for their strong summer colour and tolerance for very dry soil.

Sunset anise-hyssop (Agastache rupestris) in the rock garden.

The pale buds of Virginia mountain mint are present for a long time before the flowers open. Perhaps because of the mass of unopened buds, I always think of these flowers as white. Looking more closely, I can see that the opened flowers are actually covered with small purple spots. This is quite an aggressive spreader and I can already see where I will have to intervene where I have placed Virginia mountain mint too close to mid-sized neighbours. The minty smell is lovely where the plant has been placed next to rough country lawn – makes mowing a pleasure.

Virginia mountain mint (Pycnanthemum virginiensis).

The crescendo of tall late-summer yellow daisies is building with the jaunty flowers of sneezeweed. I have put rather too many sneezeweeds into the swale garden – just rammed a bunch of left-overs in late last year and they all survived. I plan to transplant several of them to locations uphill as I develop the swale garden. I like sneezeweed (it doesn’t deserve its dreadful common name) but there are more tall yellow daisies to come in that part of the garden and I do not want it to be all yellow.

Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale)

No monarch caterpillars on our swamp milkweeds yet this year. Two of the many plants of swamp milkweed which I planted last year have white flowers. They are not a cultivar, as I sowed all the plants from wild-collected seeds. White flowers just happen from time to time in many species where the flowers are usually coloured. Seems unusual to get two white-flowered plants in one batch, but randomness is random. Both pink and white swamp milkweeds have been attracting great spangled fritillaries.

A white-flowered swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata).

A vibrantly coloured clustered poppy mallow (Callirhoe triangulata) was very slow to get going but worth the wait. We lost all the winecups, the trailing species, Callirhoe involucrata, that were growing on top of the rock wall. They didn’t survive last winter. I suspect they aren’t a long-lived plant. Plants which flower non-stop all summer are seldom long-lived. I am hoping this shier, more upright cousin will bloom for many summers. It is growing up beside, and being supported by, a clump of little bluestem grass.

Clustered poppy mallow (Callirhoe triangulata).

The great star of the summer in the swale garden is cardinal flower. It deserves a post of its own….