I thought I was going to struggle to find much to include in this months Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post. The garden is quite colourful but the colour is generally coming from fading flowers and turning leaves. However, I was surprised at what I did find flowering away in the borders. Above is Aster St Michael, it is an aster from Pictons Nurseries which I bought last year and money from each one sold goes to a local hospice.
Japanese Anemone ‘Queen Charlotte’ which I bought at the Malvern Autumn Show having seen them on Laetitias blog. They are in the new cottagey border and are incredibly pretty. My white Japanese Anemones are long over now.
One of my many Bergenias I really should sort out which one is which. I know a lot of people aren’t fans of them but I love them. I like the architectural quality of the leaves especially in the winter when they change tone and the flowers are a nice bonus.
The above plant is a complete mystery to me. It’s in the daisy border which has been cleared and replanted over the last two years so I must have planted it. I thought it was a Eupatrorium but its in the wrong place in the border and the flowers don’t look quite right. Any ideas? It is about 5’6″ and has leaves at regular intervals up the stems. It has suggested it is an Aster so I will have a look back to see whether I bought more than I remember from Picton’s last year.
Now I do know what this plant is, its Saxifraga fortunei ‘Wada’s Form’. I have had it a couple of years now and it is thriving despite two extremely cold winters. I think I might have a go at dividing it next Spring.
My autumn flowering Ceanothus has really recovered from being cut right back by the cold. I thought I had lost it but I patiently waited and discovered new leaves appearing along the stems so I cut the stems back to these new shoots and it has thrived.
I even discovered some flowers just beginning to open on the Fatsia and I am sure this is the first year it has flowered. It really struggled through the winter and looked quite sorry for itself so it is good to see that it is making a recovery, hopefully I will have some lovely berries to follow the flowers.
Of course there are other kinds of flowers in the garden, namely grass flowers. This is Stipa gigantica which is very difficult to photograph and below is Calamgrostis overdam. I have a row of them planted along the top of the daisy border and they are proving to be a wonderful backdrop especially when the sun is going down and light up the flowers.
So that is my offering for this month. GBBD is hosted by Carol at May Dream Gardens and if you pop over there you will find lots of other GBBD posts.