Monday, September 17, 2007

Bloom Day for September.....2 days late, but here I am anyway! First is one of my new best friends, echinacea! I cannot believe how long it took me to buy these plants, because the bugs love em', I love em', and as for bloom longevity-it's off the chart! I mean, if daylily flowers are so named for the length of time the flower lasts, then echinacea should be named "month flower" at least! And of course, it's aster time too.....they're my favorite part of the "lawn" ;-)
Many colors of bloom, too.....including white......
.....and some different color centers, too...
.....and my impatiens balfourii. This has been blooming for over a month now....
.....but the more common orange has just gotten started. I plan to buy more colors for next year since these grow so well and re-seed freely...very low-maintenance!
More asters...pretty close-up, too.
And the cardinal flower in the water garden is still blooming....the hummingbirds dig this flower a lot!
My obedient plant is purple, even though I remembered it as white....oh well, I like this better!
Black-eyed susans still at it, too. (Another volunteer in the lawn).
More awesome echinacea! This is a new cultivar, "Sundown", I think (I'll edit in a correction if necessary)....Barrie at Garden Mob doesn't like these, but I sure do!


This grass is "blooming" too, IMO....pic is blurry because it was a windy day, but I wanted to show the sunlight on the seeds and how it glows red...very red! My phlox are basically just now in full swing, too.....I could have sworn they bloomed earlier last year...this season has been just plain strange.....
....like how these brand new heleniums are blooming their skinny butts off, despite our drought conditions....
.......but I'll take pretty flowers any way I can get them, early, late, whenever!!

Cream gentain, again blooming what I think is later than usual....

.....my pruned helenium, persistently blooming despite shortened stature...
....this "Grandpa Otts" (or "Sunrise Serenade", I forget) morning glory....
...my african violet is blooming, even with sunburnt leaves! What a trooper!
And finally, "My Angel" clematis is covered with a combination of flowers, immature seed heads, and mature seed heads....guess she'll be prepared to reproduce even if we get an early frost. Now that's efficient!




17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous blossoms, and great photos too! Is your African violet outside? In the ground? I didn't know that was possible. It's a pretty one -- we've been bitten by the AV bug and have about 30 under lights inside.

lisa said...

Hi Marion-Thank you for the nice comment. No, my violet is in a pot in the screen house. If I did put the poor thing in the ground, it would be a goner!

Bob said...

Lisa your still have some beauties blooming this late in the season. The new helenium is wonderful. And the echinacia 'sundowner' is a good one. I'll be posting about them soon.
Thanks for sharing your garden, take care, BOB

Laurie and Chris said...

Wow you still have a lot blooming. Not us we don't have much left :( Your flowers look great.

Carol Michel said...

It was worth the wait to see all that you have blooming in Wisconsin. Thanks for joining us for GBBD!

Carol at May Dreams Gardens

Unknown said...

Lovely, Lisa! I think that's the other kind of morning glory, because Grandpa Ott's has some blue in it if I remember correctly.

That clematis just kicks my ass. (Can I say that on your blog?) Where did you get it, and what else can you tell us about it? those nodding flowers are way too cool.

Unknown said...

ps. I just noticed you left a comment on my bloom day post... before you run out to get that zauschneria, let me get through a winter with it. This is its first year! (And some of these things that HCG sells seem to do better when spring-planted in colder zones anyway. Some even note that on their listing.)

lisa said...

Bob-Thanks! I began an echinacea "collection" this year...the fever hasn't broken yet! I have seeds to sow this fall from even MORE varieties.

Laurie & Chris-Sorry to hear your stuff is winding down. After my drought-y summer, I'm just happy my stuff is even alive.

Carol-Thank you for starting this...I look forward to it every month!

Kim-You can say ANYTHING on my blog! I got that clematis ("My Angel") from Completely Clematis several years ago, and it has bloomed non-stop every year. It re-seeds all over the place, too...my mom and sister have seedlings. I'll be glad to send you some seed in the mail if you like...just email me your address. (Of course, buying a mature plant will get you blooms much faster!) I plan to order from Completely Clematis next year, cuz' their plants are so vigerous, even more than local-bought.

Connie said...

Great photos of some very nice looking flowers! I have helenium on my list for next year.

chuck b. said...

How nice your season is still going.

You're a step ahead of me with the conflowers. I bought seeds for white ones just a few weeks ago. Maybe I can get them started this year before it's too late but I doubt it.

Your African violet looks unusual (as in, uncommon and different); is it special?

lisa said...

Connie-Thank you! The heleniums won't disappoint you, they are very tough and bloom non-stop...a nice addition to the late season bloomers.

Chuck-You'll see more bees and butterflies when your coneflowers get going...I still can't believe it took me so long to get them! The african violet is definately different...I got it at K-Mart a couple years ago when they had a big assortment of cool colors, some with variegated foliage. This is the only one I have left out of three...not sure why the others died. Watering can be tricky with these, though (prone to rot).

Unknown said...

Oooh... I would LOVE to have some seeds from that! I can't seem to find your email address for some reason, so can you email me? blackswampgirl AT yahoo DOT com

(I have a few things I could trade you if you want.)

lisa said...

Absolutely!

Ki said...

You have interesting and unusual plants. I really like the impatiens balfourii and the morning glory is spectacular, haven't see one like it. The Clematis looks pretty wonderful too. We bought the Echinacea "Sundown" too and though the flowers are a very pretty color it doesn't seem to be a robust plant. Unfortunately we've had very few blooms this year.

lisa said...

Thanks Ki! Sorry to hear about your echinacea...hopefully it will do better next year. Frankly, I found the bloom action with mine to be very surprising, especially for a first-season performance!

Annie in Austin said...

It's pretty fun to see the flowers all blooming together - good thing you took photos, Lisa, because they might not overlap like that in a "normal" year. Then again - this might turn out to be the new normal ;-]

I like the clematis, too - in the photos the colors remind me of the native red and straw yellow columbine.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

lisa said...

Thank you, Annie...that's one of the reasons I like blogging so much-I can compare one year to the next with text and pictures more easily. I keep garden log books too, but this is more fun! I like those native columbines too, they volunteer all over my yard every year.