Gardening: fall blooming flowers

Showing posts with label fall blooming flowers. Show all posts

'Winter Snowman' Camellia in Bloom

Last year I planted two 'Winter Snowman' camellias in the front garden. I was hopefully that they would bloom last year but alas it was not to be! But they have started blooming this year! The first of the white camellia blooms opened today. It wasn't fully open when I snapped the picture but I just couldn't wait to share it. There are quite a few other buds on the same plant that soon will turn the front garden into a feature garden! Well, it would if the weeds were gone, the mulching done, and the stars were aligned correctly but you know how that goes...there just isn't enough time in the day to get everything done.

'Winter Snowman' camellia is a hybrid of Camellia sasanqua and Camellia oleifera. It's hardy in zones 6-10 and gets about 12 feet tall. Because of where this camellia is planted it will definitely need periodic pruning. I planted two other camellias a couple weeks ago and I discovered yesterday that one of them had been nibbled on by a deer. That in itself isn't the end of the world but because it pulled the whole plant out of the soil it could be the end for one of those camellias. I hope not!

A Monarch Butterfly Visit

Yesterday we had the good fortune to witness a Monarch butterfly stopping by our 'Clara Curtis' mum for a fill-up. Monarchs are on their way south now to find their winter homes and have to stop for nourishment along the way. We usually see them a couple times a year passing through looking for places to lay their eggs or just stopping by for nectar from the flowers. They love to use Aclepias purpurascens as a host plant for the larvae which is also known as purple milkweed. It grows native near us but so far we don't have any in our garden. We do have Asclepias tuberosa or Butterfly weed which is also another viable food source for Monarch caterpillars.

Is it a Male or Female Monarch?

If you look carefully in the above picture you will notice two black dots or splotches near the back of the Monarch butterfly's body. Those spots mean that this is a male butterfly. I learned that yesterday in a conversation on The Home Garden Facebook Page. It's always great to get into interesting conversations!

The 'Clara Curtis' mums are a great last minute source of nectar for these butterflies. Gulf fritillaries and skippers have been feasting on it's nectar for a couple weeks before the Monarch butterfly visit. Bees of all kinds have been enjoying it too. I think it has an advantage over other mums in that it is easier to reach the pollen due to the daisy-like flowers. 'Clara Curtis' also blooms fairly late in the growing season when many other plants have already gone to seed.

Have you seen Monarchs on their migration this fall?

Flowering in Fall

Fall is well known for its colorful foliage that paints the country each year but there's still lots to appreciate among the flowering plants! Here's a few of our current blooming flowers from the garden. Some don't have much longer to go until the frost declares an end to the show.

The 'Clara Curtis' mums put on a spectacular show by our front walkway each year. They get a little large and spread via rhizomes so make sure you have space for them before you plant. These are one of the last blooms in our garden to show off every year. Sure makes for a good finish!

The 'Sheffield Pink' mums look so similar to the 'Clara Curtis' that the only reason I know the difference is because I know where I planted them!

Gaillardia or Blanket Flower is a great repeat bloomer that keeps going thorough out the summer and well into the fall. If I dead headed it there would be more blooms but I have some seed collecting plans ahead.

The reblooming white iris is putting on some more flowers. If you like irises you need a few reblooming irises to enjoy all summer!

'Green Envy' zinnias are in the front garden. I got the seed from Renee's Garden this spring. I think they could have used a location with a little more sun which may have brought out the green coloration better.

I planted these coleus plants from seed and now I'm letting it go to seed. Within a week I'll collect what I can from them to replant next year. The leaves on these plants were huge - 6"-8" in some cases - probably due to the compost rich soil I planted them in.

The Fall Colors beginning to turn along the back property line. It's mostly sassafras trees but the maples are also beginning their seasonal changes. I hope you'll join us for the Fall Color Project 2012 to share your best fall foliage!

For more October bloom go visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens for Bloomsday!

'Sheffield' vs. 'Clara Curtis'

No this isn't some heavy weight boxing fight over on pay-per-view. This is a garden blog after all! This is a comparison between two very similar fall flowering perennials that really are heavy weight garden stand outs! This battle is between 'Sheffield Pink' and 'Clara Curtis' - the pink mums!

In this corner we have 'Clara Curtis' sporting pink petals and yellow centers.

Her blooms rise on long stems high above her 4' wide mounding frame.

And in this corner her opponent, 'Sheffield Pink' is armed with tightly formed pink petals with yellow centers.

'Sheffield Pink' stands at 2 feet tall by 3 feet wide with clusters of long stemmed flowers tightly packed together.

What's the difference? Not much really! At first glance you would think they appear the same but look a little closer. 'Clara Curtis' has petals that have a little more space in between where the 'Sheffield Pink' flower petals are packed close together. 'Sheffield Pink' appears to have more abundant flowering than 'Clara Curtis' but both have flowered significantly. Neither plant receives supplemental watering and both perform very well with neglect in a sunny location. Those kind of plants are worth their weight!

Which one is better? Take your pick! Both are great additions to any garden that has the space. These mums spread very quickly and by the third year you will have quite a specimen! Mums can be propagated very easily with a cutting taken anytime during the growing season. I took stem tip cuttings of several 'Clara Curtis' mums over the summer which are now flowering in 4 inch pots. They will also divide well so if you only want one or two extra plants give division a try.

Which do you like better, 'Clara Curtis' or 'Sheffield Pink'?

Join the 2011 Fall Color Project and share the brilliance of Autumn!

More Mums and the $50 Lowe's Giveaway Ends Today!

Today I'll show you a few more pictures of the mums but I also wanted to remind you that today is the last day to enter the $50 Gift Card Contest to Lowe's! The folks at Lowe's Creative Ideas are providing anyone who comments on the mums project posts this week an opportunity to win that $50 gift card. All you have to do is comment on this post, or my wheelbarrow planter mum post, or my October 1st mum post! Share an idea about using mums in the garden in the comments and you are entered to win!

Here's another look at the mums in the wheelbarrow planter.

Some red mums from the garden up close. These are in the birdbath garden.

I actually like the daisy flowered mums more than regular mums. Here's a lavender colored one:

This one is called Jessica Louise. I don't know who Jessica Louse is but somebody must have liked her enough to name this mum after her! The flowers are very large over 2 inches in diameter.

The last two mums were mail ordered in the spring. I ordered several others but so far the flowers haven't emerged yet. Rampaging rabbits nibbled the mums down too much right after planting.

I'm still waiting for the 'Sheffield Pink' and 'Clara Curtis' mums to flower - they will be breathtaking once they do!

Don't forget to comment!

Mums and a Mailbox Garden Meet a Wheelbarrow

Is there a flower more typical of fall than mums? Probably not! There are definitely some flowers worthy of autumnal appreciation but the mum is the most common one you'll find this time of year. I put together a little project for Lowe's Creative Ideas that uses mums and reuses my dad's old wheelbarrow. The project was easy and I'm very pleased with how it's turned out.

The wheelbarrow already had some drainage holes in it courtesy of some natural iron oxide action around the bolt holes. I filled the wheelbarrow with compost and some soil conditioner then I added several similarly tinted shades of mums together inside. This time of year I'm very partial to the fiery fall colors. The reds, reddish-browns, oranges, and yellows just scream fall to me. So that's what I picked!

To blend the wheelbarrow with the rest of the mailbox garden I put a couple mums in the ground near the wheelbarrow along with a few small purple colors asters right next to the mailbox. All these plants will do fine planted in the ground and come back next year. In a few weeks I'll transplant the mums in the wheelbarrow into other areas of the garden and replace them with some nice winter tolerant plants. Perhaps violas and pansies with a side order of ornamental kale or cabbage. The wheelbarrow has a bit of height to it that I think will discourage the bunnies from making a meal of my mailbox garden!

Visit the first post about this project.

Thanks for visiting Growing The Home Garden! There's more photos to look at over on our Facebook page. Come on over and visit!

Reusing an Old Wheelbarrow and a $50 Gift Card Giveaway to Lowe's!

A couple weeks ago I saw a picture posted on Facebook with a display of sedums all planted in an old wheelbarrow. It was a pretty creative idea to re-use a wheelbarrow that may have just been discarded and turn it into something of interest. This gave me an idea for my latest project for Lowe's Creative Ideas. The theme is mums! As I'm sure you're aware chrysanthemums are one of the most popular plant purchases this time of year. The look great and offer a bushy burst of color which blends well with the Autumn season. Today I'll show you a few of the items I'm using for the project. The mum planting has all been completed but I'm waiting for a couple of the mums to break from their buds.

Before I show you what I'm using for this project here are a couple tips for buying mums:
When buying mums buy them while still in bud (before flowering) so that you can enjoy the blooms longer.
Perennial mums come back each year so don't throw them away, plant them in a holding area or in your garden for next year!

Here's the old wheelbarrow. It was my dad's wheelbarrow for a long time until we bought him a wheelbarrow for father's day. His old wheelbarrow was rusting out at the bolt holes and was just getting old from frequent use. A good sturdy wheelbarrow is a necessity for any gardener.

I bought several different colors of mums from Lowe's but also wanted to add some asters. Asters are another great fall blooming option if you don't want to go with the mums.

I'll show you how I put all these together soon in our mailbox garden for our fall mum display. As soon as they are all in peek bloom I'll be out there with my camera!

If you would like a $50 gift card to Lowe's to do a similar project all you have to do is comment below on this post or my next post for Lowe's Creative Ideas before the end of Saturday October 6th, 2012 and tell me what is your favorite way to use mums in the garden? We'll have a drawing this weekend and one lucky person will be shopping at Lowe's very soon! Don't forget to follow The Home Garden on Facebook!

The Ultimate Fall Flower

Is this the ultimate fall flower?

Yellow Mums

According to Robert Bornstein via Twitter and Stephanie via Facebook

Or is this it?

Goldenrod (Solidago)

According to Suzy via Twitter

Or is this it?

Shasta Daisy

According to Joyce via Facebook

Or is it something else?

What is the ultimate fall flower?

Bloggers please remember the
Fall Color Project!!!

Surprised By the Red Spider

Red Spider Lily that is! This Saturday I was mowing and passed by one of the garden beds on my riding mower when this bright red flower jumped out at me. Did it really jump? Nope but one day it wasn't there and now here it is. Spider lilies (Lycoris radiata) are also called a variety of names like Naked Ladies (which are actually Lycoris squamagira), hurricane lilies, and surprise lilies. You can see why the last name fits but the other names have their logic too. If you examine the picture you will note that there are no leaves. Those come later on after blooming but for now this lily does look rather naked! These lilies also appear during hurricane season which is why the hurricane lily name has become attached to this beautiful flower.

I don't know how this spider lily came to grow in my garden. There is only one so far and more would be welcome to my garden. I suspect the bulb for this flower tagged along with another plant from a past plant swap. Soon my surprise spider lily will fade from view and send up foliage to gather energy to produce next year's bloom (and hopefully more bulbs).

For more great information on Spider Lilies check out this webpage at the University of Mississippi!

The Salvias of Fall

I have repeatedly written about how awesome salvias are. I hope you're not tired of that kind of talk because your about to get another dose! Salvias are one of the easiest to care for perennials around. During fall they bloom profusely. They aren't bothered terribly by heat and in many cases thrive in dry environments where other perennials may falter. This year, if any, can attest to that. We received a decent amount of rain before July then completely dried up. Here in Tennessee we went for weeks without a significant rainfall then finally the rains returned in September. That's when the salvias began to burst forth with blooms.

Let's start by examining the salvia that is just beginning to bloom. The other day I mentioned that my pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) was not yet blooming, well it's almost there as you can see in the photo. The recent rain has left the stems weak at the moment but with another day of sunshine this large 3-4 foot perennial I bought in a tiny 3" pot in spring will be covered in red blooms! No doubt there will be another post to come for my pineapple sage.

Back by my shed is a stand of Salvia farinacea. This salvia was at one time a single plant I grew from a cutting. The original parent was a seed grown start that I planted in the self-sowing garden. This salvia is easy to grow from seed or from cuttings and self sows very easily. Just ask its 3-4 offspring which have completely grown over one pathway to my shed!

My 'Black and Blue' Salvia gauranitica hasn't stopped blooming this year. It grows fast, it grows strong, and it grows big! The single plant I added to our birdbath garden (which incidentally no longer has the birdbath) is now a five foot wide by five foot tall mass of hummingbird heaven! Hummingbirds love the tubular flowers of salvia. I don't use hummingbird feeders anymore since they have all they need from the garden, and the real thing is almost always better isn't it?

I've often considered trying my hand at hybridizing plants and thought that maybe salvias might be an interesting plant to try. The larger flowers of 'Black and Blue' could easily lend themselves to hybridizing.

But some flowers can also be quite small and tricky to work with like the flowers of Salvia farinacea.

My Autumn sage (Salvia greggii) has been blooming off and on this summer, but normally flushes out with flowers once in the spring then has an big show in the fall.

My 'Indigo Spires' salvia (Salvia longispicata x S. farinacea) is located right next to the 'Black and Blue' and has a tendency to get overtaken by the larger cousin. I always get confused as to whether this is 'Indigo Spires' or 'Mystic Spires'. I've planted both in the same location, but I have forgot which one died and which one was the replacement. It could be either since both come from the same parentage.

'Hot Lips' salvia (Salvia microphylla) is my newest salvia. The flower is supposed to be white with the lower lobe red giving it the appearance of lips. Apparently my salvia didn't get the memo. Its still a beautiful flower even if it has reverted to red.

The salvias in my garden that area not pictured in this post include salvia 'Caradonna', salvia 'May Night', and salvia 'East Friesland' but can be seen in this post on salvias.

What's your favorite variety of salvia?

Red Mums (Photo Post!)

Here's just a quick post to share a few photos! Enjoy the red mums of fall!

From bud...

To blossoming...

...to flower!

Don't forget to join in the 2011 Fall Color Project when your fall colors are at their peak!

September Colors in Bloom

It's been a couple months since I've participated in Garden Blogger's Bloom Day so I figured I was due for a post! Amazingly despite a summer of neglect the garden has quite a few reliable blooms to share. If you like to think on the positive side you could consider the neglect as a test of what thrives with or without the gardener in less than ideal growing conditions!

Here's what's blooming this September in my garden:

Orange Cosmos - Self-sown