Asters, Salvias, and Amsonia, Oh, my!

Melanie RuckleUncategorized

So really, I have been struggling to find something to write about. The change in weather results in a change in the garden and my first reaction has been to hang my head and say, ‘it’s all over.’ I know this is false but still there it is. It’s all over. So what’s over? The bling of summer is over. Where is the eye popping color, the song of the frogs, the flit of mama birds gathering food for their young, the hot days, the seemingly endless growth of everything? So I sigh and start to look around. Then I go in the garden and start to poke around. Well, if I cut this spent perennial down and clear a little of these leaves that piled up over here and, ‘oh my gosh!, where did those weeds come from, have they been there all along?’ And before I know it, after making a clean sweep through the garden what emerges is yet another newer, fresher garden, this one welcoming the change. It is a bit more subdued than the summer garden but it feels good. There is a calmness and ease with it. I give it a little drink and the evergreen groundcovers start to shine, the fall blooming salvias, asters, coreopsis and grasses now stand out and sway, the winterberries are putting on color, the colorful stems of Salix ‘Flame’ are starting to show, the amsonia, oh my, now they make ME sway! The crickets are singing and the birds are busy eating seeds and insects fattening up for winter. Well, it seems there is a lot going on! It’s just changing and isn’t it beautiful?

Plants available at Putnam Hill Nursery for fall flower and/or foliage color.
Ajuga Black Scallop, Chocolate Chip, genevienses and Metallica – foliage
Amsonia hubrichtii – foliage
Asters ageratoides Ezo Murasaki and Ashvi, Raydon’s Favorite and divaricata – flower
Helleborus x hybridus – foliage
Ilex verticillata Red Sprite – berries
Lavendula – foliage
Leonotis – Lion’s Ear- flower
Ophiopogons Black Mundo Grass and Dwarf Mundo Grass – foliage
Otterbossie – flower and foliage
Rabdosia – flower
Salvias reptans, Red Patio, Hot Lips, azurea, leucantha, Black and Blue, Blue Ensign, glabrescens – flower
Sedums Coral Reef, Lime Zinger, orizifolium, acre – foliage
Teucriums Summer Sunshine and chamaedrys prostratum – foliage
Toadlilies – Tricyrtis hirtum varieagata, lasiocarpa and Tojen -flower
And more!

Plants available at Putnam Hill Nursery for winter flower and/or foliage color.
Ajuga Black Scallop, Chocolate Chip, genevienses and Metallica – foliage
Hedera Fluffy Ruffles and Sulphur Heart – foliage
Helleborus x hybridus – foliage and flower
Ilex verticillata ‘Red Sprite’ – berries
Liriope Purple Robe – foliage
Microbiota decussata – foliage
Ophiopogons, Black Mundo Grass and Dwarf Mundo Grass -foliage
Pachysandra procumbens Variegata – foliage
Salix ‘Flame’ – bright orange branches
Teucrium chamaedrys prostratum – foliage
And more!