Love the yellow salvia, Katy, and the angelica gigas is wonderful; mine's mostly gone by.

I can't decide between tender salvias, coreopsis Sweet Dreams that's still pumping out the bicolor pink flowers, a lurid pink Crape Myrtle, or my invasive Sweet Autumn clematis, which is taking over the world and really should be executed. (But, it's stunning). I'll have to get out there with my camera and see what actually looks good in real life.

Rose the Fairy is also looking very nice right now, and it's been months since it started flowering.

Boltonia snow bank and Japanese anenome Honerine Jobert get the prize in my garden this week

I've got to say the goldenrod is stealing the show, but I can't take credit for it. I never planted it, and it's not even in the perennial beds, but it is all over the yard and is just gorgeous.

I cut a ton of it and put it in my bouquets at the market today. One woman insisted I was selling ragweed, and I had to insist right back that they were two different plants altogether.

:)
Dee

Its funny I might have said the same about my golden rod but because it is not in the "gardens" but just all over I dont water it and it has suffered in this drought. Alot of it has died although I suspect it will be back next year. It is odd how persistent the idea is that goldenrod is the source of alergens in early fall.

From wikipedia:

"Probably due to their bright, golden yellow flower heads blooming in late summer, the goldenrod is often unfairly blamed for causing hay fever in humans. The pollen causing these allergy problems is mainly produced by Ragweed (Ambrosia sp.), blooming at the same time as the goldenrod, but is wind-pollinated. Goldenrod pollen is too heavy and sticky to be blown far from the flowers, and it is thus mainly pollinated by insects."

I have 2 varieties of goldenrod, and one of them is a real pest in my gardens. The other's well behaved and has nice smooth foliage.

DTD, while it says basically the same thing, I loved the way this one from About.com was worded:

"Common ragweed is a rather unremarkable plant. That's why the lovely goldenrod is commonly blamed for causing "hay fever," when common ragweed is the real culprit. Goldenrod and common ragweed both bloom in late summer-early fall. Being by far the more conspicuous of the two, goldenrod has become the scapegoat for hay fever, while the true villain goes unnoticed, lurking in the grass."

I actually bought and planted Fireworks this spring, and while in bloom, it is still small and new. But I have to say, I don't see much difference at all between it and the native stuff I've got in the yard. Maybe I should have saved my money!

About a half mile down the road is a house in what used to be a field. In the autumn, this field turned to one huge sea of goldenrod. Absolutely spectacular. I took a photo when I discovered a house was to be built there. I can't drive by that house this time of year without remembering how beautiful it used to be.

And surprisingly, there is not one, single, solitary stem of goldenrod in this yard! Still trying to figure that one out!

For me it's tricyrtis hirta - this year I have a white one (I forget the name of it), as well as the Miyazecki. They are so exotic looking, I just love it when they're in bloom.

Katy, do you overwinter your tender Salvia? I got Salvia leucanthemum 'Santa Barbara' this year and it didn't do anything (yet?), but I would like to overwinter it and try it next year. Maybe maturity and a sunnier spot will get it going.

My best blooming plants this week (besides ho-hum mums and asters) is the knockout roses. They are on a big up cycle.

William Baffin just put out a single unexpected bloom. To me that's outstanding because it gives me flashbacks of its spring glory.

My Vernonia just recently finished. That was awesome!

Wendy,
I have not overwintered my tender Salvia's as they are sooo large...but maybe if I cut them back. Dtd posted a great link last year on wintering over tender perennials but I can't for the life of me remember where it was from. I am pleasantly surprised by my knockout roses as well they made it through the drought without irrigation and look terrific.

Right now the impressive plants out there are the ornamental grasses. There are a couple of big, established miscanthus with their plumes waving in the breeze, and the pennisetum with their fluffy foxtails.

When goldenrod first showed up in the young shrub beds I thought it looked good. A couple of years later, it had eaten the beds whole, and it took me two weeks this summer to get rid of it all. It's pretty, but so unmanageably aggressive that I've been frightened of the named varieties. Everybody is so eager to say it doesn't cause hay fever that they forget to say anything about it's ability to eat small borders alive.

I've just wintered over salvias in pots in the dining room window. The variegated greiggii has gotten large enough that I'll probably have to make some sort of decision about it this year. I should try taking cuttings now and starting all over again. It's got a shoot that has reverted, and I wouldn't mind trying that one also.

My young Franklinea altamaha are just starting to flower:

but Fairy Rose has been looking good for months:

(it would probably look better if I bothered to dead-head it)

So, I can't decide.

Lespedeza Pink Fountains looks great this week. It makes me want to get another one, and to plant this where it can be seen more clearly. It is blooming for the first time. It got set back last year when I had to quickly transplant it when the tree-cutting crew had to back a truck over the site.

Ornamental grasses! Wheee!

madgal, I am looking for a perennial grass no taller than 3 1/2' for a more formal setting...anything come to mind?
dtd, I can't believe how much further along your young Franklinia is than mine I must be a good two weeks away from bloom. Your Fairies look great mine have yet to recover from a transplant two years ago.
asarum, I have recently become a big fan of Lespedeza and have started growing six different varieties. Mine are still young but I am so far impressed with the performance and appearance of 'Spilt Milk'-(creamy variegation) and 'little volcano' over 'Spring Grove' and 'Gibraltar'. Is 'Pink Fountains' one of the larger or smaller varieties?

Katy, one grass I love that's not too tall is Schizachyrium scoparium 'The Blues' - Little Bluestem. This photo is from Lazy S's Farm; I ordered some from them this summer, so my experience with it is limited. Great color, and it's a native.

Bunny Grass is also fairly short, but after noticing it in mall parking lots, I'm losing my interest in it. (If any one wants some, I have more than I need!)

Lespedeza Pink Fountains is described as "compact variety." Too soon to say if it has reached its full height in my yard, but it is about a yard high at this point. I am sorry to say that I don't have room for the bigger ones. I was lucky to find this because I just wanted to try one and didn't realize at the time of my impulse purchase that this was compact. I can't really do a comparison of it with other varieties.

{{gwi:1090764}}

I am really enjoying my zinneas this time of year. I know they are easy to grow and inexpensive and a child could grow one, but that makes me love them even more.

White wood asters have been blooming all over the yard for about a month now, looking good with all sorts of plants.

A nice combination (sorry no photo yet) is white wood aster next to two chrysanthemums - Mary Stoker and a "red daisy" chrysanthemum, which is actually bronzy.

Which brings me to the DUH statement - chrysanthemums are looking great. Not the intensely manicured, globular plants you buy in the fall which don't fit into my very natural, relaxed garden. I'm talking about loosely growing chrysanthemums that either have wintered over or were started as babies this spring.

I now have Clara Curtis, Mary Stoker, French Vanilla and the red daisy type mums; most of them bought from Bluestone Perennials.

Mary Stoker and French Vanilla are good next to Miscanthus and Panicums.

Maybe I'll try Mary Stoker and Clara Curtis together next year (one pink with a yellow eye, the other golden straw yellow) ...

The mainstream asters are just starting, and the big blockbusters should be open in a week or two.

Some really nice goldenrod walked in. Look good with the white wood aster.

Claire

And a whole lot of sedums of course...

Claire

Here in "New England-in-Exile", my favorites this past week
have been the dozens of Anenome x hybrida 'Honorine Jobert'
with their brilliant white faces (and a yellow eye) poised
on top of their wiry 4-foot stems. It took me years to remember to sprinkle them about in the Spring (when our thoughts are hardly on Fall!), ideally with their basal clumps heavily mulched and/or shaded by other lower growing perennials. Although I have several of the various pink varieties, nothing pleases me as much as the simplicity and clarity of these white Japanese anenomes - especially when so many other Fall flowers are so aggressively (albeit beautifully) blowsy. . .

Katy: my hands-down winner for a handsome, smaller grass
would have to be Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln'. . .
at roughly three foot (in bloom), it is tough as nails,
and there are seven of them scattered about my property
with their "tails" glowing right now. It's slender green
foliage blends beautifully with many other plants, and it
turns a lovely yellow later on in the Fall.

Another good-looking 3-foot grass is Panicum virgatum
'Shenadoah' (red switch grass) - starts the season blue/green, turning red in June and sporting airy red
flower clusters in early Fall. . .in my experience, I have
sometimes found it hard to find at nurseries though I don't
know why.

Carl

P.S. This winter I simply MUST purchase a digital camera
so that I can post photo illustrations of what I'm
talking about - it makes such a difference!

Can someone identify that bug on evonne's zinnia? [g] I saw one of those in the yard and wondered what it was. BTW, evonne is that a cactus zinnia? Very pretty!

I am a fan of Pennisetum Hamelin too.

pm2

pm2
I looked up Leafhopper in Garden Insects of North America by Whitney Cranshaw (IMO the bible of bugs)and he stated the following that I thought was interesting;
More than 2,500 species of leafhoppers are found in North America, and at least some may be associated with almost any plant except those with thick, waxy foliage. All feed on sap which they suck with stylet mouthparts from leaves and, less commonly, succulent stems. Damage to plants is variable as leafhoppers are far less abundant than their distant relatives the aphids, but significant plant injury is rare. Most species feed on the phloem of plants, removing only modest amounts of sap and excreting some honeydew. kt

Carl,
I have been busy looking up your recommendations and I love Pennisetum alopecuriodes 'Hameln' with it's soft little foxtails. Rick Darke suggests that it is an excellent ground cover for massing. Panicum vairgatum 'Shenandoah' has a fabulous burgundy color and a mass of this would look remarkable at this time of year. I am a true beginner with grasses as I have had in the past a hard time in my minds eye fitting them into my landscape...crazy I know. In the grasses family are there distinctions made between clumping and running? I would really rather this particular garden not be over taken by grass in a few years. Thanks kt

It feels like only yesterday I was also a beginner with grasses. I didn't really see the point, and at least around here, it was (and still is) very difficult to find them in inexpensive, small sizes. Practially all grasses are sold as either two or three gallon plants, with corresponding price tags.

Most ornamental grasses don't really run, however, particularly in zone 6b and warmer, some can become aggressive seeders. This is particularly true of the pennisetums. I think Moudry has an invasive reputation, though here it sets bloom stalks too late to produce seed. Hameln may be considered sterile. I grew my pennisetum from seed from the Parks catalog. It seems to come and go there.

Blue fescue is about a foot tall without the flower stalks. This one is a garden pest for me. I think it has to be very closely related to lawn fescue, if it isn't the same species. So it won't be listed as officially invasive, but it does seed around.

The other short grass I grow is hackachloe (or however you spell that thing) It grows a little looser than the others, and may be less suited to a formal design.

My volunteer garden has rings of pennisetum around canna in the big circles beds of the annual bedding level. It may be a bit of a cliche now, but it does work.

http://www.ivyhall.district96.k12.il.us/4TH/KKHP/1INSECTS/katydid.html

The big green hopper is a katydid! In some unusual instances, they are known to change color to match their environment too. Take a look at this pink one!!!

http://njmg.typepad.com/owl/2007/09/pink-katydid.html

I am unsure about the zinnea. I planted California Mixed Giants, and that one came up. None of the zinneas on the package look like that one though. I also got a punch of white zinneas that are more compact with pink spots. They look paint splashed.

Katy:
It is my understanding that most of the ornamental grasses
are well-behaved clumpers, and if, over time, they seem to
get too massive, they can be divided in late winter like most perennials - although some of the bigger grasses (6' and over) can be a REAL challenge to divide. . .in my own
garden, I have never done it except when I specifically
wanted more plants. There IS one exception to the clumpers,
however, as I learned when I gave a division to a friend
and it nearly overwhelmed her garden in barely two years -
Phalaris arundicacea picta. . .It's a shame, because when it's properly contained (mine was in a designated 4'x4'
area with landscaping timbers on all four sides) it's a
quite lovely, cream-and-green leaved beauty, about 18-24"
tall - if it starts looking a little brown and tatty in
mid-August, you shear it to the ground, and lush new growth appears with alacrity, handsome until frost. So, IF you can contain it securely, it's worth a try.

In my response the other day, I failed to mention another
favorite, shorter grass - Chasmanthium latifolium (Northern
Sea Oats) - stands about 2'-3'high, with dangling oat-like
seed heads atop slender stems. It likes moisture (heavy
mulch helps AND it can take at least half-shade; this one does seed somewhat, but never so heavily that you can't weed out the seedlings - although I find it a particularly labor-free way to get new plants ! This grass, because it is so upright, blends beautifully with shorter perennials
in a mixed bed.

Track down a copy of Piet Oudolf's "Gardening With Grasses"
if you can; this Dutch master recently completed a public
garden, using primarily grasses, at Battery Park in New York City, that simply takes your breath away. . .

Carl

Carl,
Thanks for all of the great info. it's exciting to have a new interest. Of course I hopped right over to Amazon and ordered Piet Oudolf's "Gardening With Grasses". I love the seed heads of Chasmanthium latfolium I can almost picture them dancing with the wind. I have two daughters living in Manhattan so a side trip to Battery Park will be a welcome diversion from all of the drama.

Take lots of photos, please! I'd love to see that Oudolf garden. I have one of his books and am not inspired by it, but that may be a fluke, because I've liked most of what I've seen of his.

The garden in Battery Park is all that Carl says. I use to visit there, sometimes by bike, and eat lunch by the Hudson watching the boats pass.

Clarie

I know it's not the week of 9/21 any more, but I finally uploaded some photos! This is my blooming magnolia -- the only healthy mag of my 3, and it may be dying too? Is this its swan song? Or does anyone else have a reblooming mag?

And this is a happy front yard moment of 'sweet dreams' coreopsis and something like 'september ruby' aster. Click on either image to go to a little album.

Better late than never!
ML

Don't you love Sweet Dreams? I haven't dead headed mine and it keeps flowering.

About your Magnolia - I had a Merrill magnolia that rebloomed in fall for a couple of years, and was clearly in decline. It looked ok each spring, and bloomed, then sort of withered away during the summer months, blooming again each September. It finally gave up the ghost, and I suspect that it had to do with root injury that occurred when we removed a large maple nearby. I don't mean to say that yours is not doing well, it's just FYI.

mad gallica said:

"Most ornamental grasses don't really run, however, particularly in zone 6b and warmer, some can become aggressive seeders. This is particularly true of the pennisetums."

In the last few weeks I've been noticing what seem to be Miscanthus seedlings coming up in my garden! I've seen at least 3 so far - I don't know which Miscanthus they are (I have many) but several of the seedlings are near where I used to have a Yaku Jima.

The leaves have that fine stripe and the raspy feeling you get with Miscanthus when you run your fingers along the leaf.

Claire

Mayalena,
Again I love your front entry garden it's not easy design a front garden with structure and interest that doesn't swallow up the house (yours is too beautiful to hide). I would love to do a mutual thread this winter on the challenges of front entry gardens what do you think?
Mad Gal,
I was just talking to a local nurseryman who confirmed that it appears Miscanthus is escaping in my zone and it won't be long before the problem is apparent.

Here, I've seen a couple of pennisetum seedlings, and no miscanthus seedlings, but we can be a lot colder. In a way, invasive miscanthus is bad news for us since people often seem to overreact to invasives, and don't understand the climatic limitations.