Blooming September

I have forgotten in so many months of late to do any kind of overview of what is blooming in the garden, always an interesting exercise to enable comparisons from year to year. Only just over halfway through September, I whizzed round the garden today to check out what was still in flower. Much of the colour is concentrated at the ‘bottom end’, in the cutting beds, where the dahlias continue to strut their stuff (above) and many annuals are still holding forth (below), especially the zinnias which are still getting better and better:

The annual ‘rainbow border’ has been a moderate success, providing colour since June:

Many of the roses haven’t had much of a second flush this year, but ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’ and ‘Munstead Woood’ buck that trend:

Likewise, most of the clematis have exhausted themselves, but there are still blooms (clockwise from top left) on C viticella ‘Alba Luxurians’, ‘Arabella’, ‘Pernille’ and ‘Gypsy Queen’ and odd blooms on others:

Persicarias are probably amongst the best of my late summer bloomers, and I must have well over a dozen different varieties (plus a new shorter white variety, ‘Alba Junior’, purchased on our recent travels). The three below are, I think, ‘High Society’, Blackfield’ and ‘Jo & Guido’ (clockwise from top left):

Other plants flowering now include the following: Origanum ‘Rosenkuppel’, Helenium ‘Lemon Queen’, Japanese anemone, succisella, various sedum, Salvia ‘Neon’, reflowering astrantia, Verbena bonariensis, Cyclamen hederifolium and Caryopteris ‘Heavenly Blue’:

Despite a distinct lack of attention, some of the pots and baskets are still doing well, especially Busy Lizzies, petunias and nemesia: I am confident that a generous quantity of water retaining granules and slow release fertiliser has helped in this respect.

Concentrating these colourful splashes into one post is a little deceptive as there is definitely an air of shabbiness about the garden, adding perhaps a different sort of seasonal charm, clothed as the garden is in spiders’ webs, and hinting (not inaccurately) at a degree of neglect as the gardener, busy elsewhere, allows it free rein for a little while.