In just two days, September will be here. It always marked the true end of summer to me, even though the days were often still hot, the light had already begun to shift and the days were getting ever so slightly shorter. As a kid, I hated it. As an adult, I often think about how I have missed most of summer and how did that happen??
When I was a kid, summer lasted forever, now it seems like it is two weeks long. How did I miss vacation time? And not having a pool to laze in and swim in, that is the thing I most miss about living in Florida. I would get up in the early morning, make coffee and slip out to the pool and swim laps - fast and slow, and sip my coffee while everyone slept.
This summer I saw the daylilies and then the rain and weeds came. I sprained my ankle, and walking on the uneven ground of my gardens to do weeding was out...so the weeds have won this year.
I do love the change in the greens at this time of the year. The bright spring greens are wonderful, but the complexity of the greens as they age and darken is something I enjoy watching. As I walk my dogs each morning, I have been seeing lots of purple flowers. Why so many purple flowers in fall?
Thistle
Joe Pye Weed and Ironweed
Flax on the roadside
Here's one of my hydrangeas that has been incredible this year. It is at the end of its season.
And I always love the Queen Anne's Lace (Not purple!!)
What kinds of flowers and foliage are you seeing where you are right now??
We'll be doing a drawing (random number generator) of one winner if you make a comment by the end of August!! The prize will be one skein of Yummy 2-ply Sock and we'll include a pattern of Martina Behm's Miss Winkle.
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Not really seeing too much quite yet, but I noticed the Porcelain Berry is starting to color. Such a stunning combination of colors on one plant.
I get excited when I see a bit of Ironweed, but there’s not enough of it in this part of MD. I miss WV, where entire fields are covered in Ironweed with some Joe Pye mixed in. Heavenly!
Here in southwest Louisiana its time to cut back the roses and I’ve just finished so the only color I have in the garden now is blue from the Plumbago and soft purple pink from the Blue Indigo. In a few short weeks I’ll again have red, pink, yellow, white and peach colored roses.
I am seeing coneflowers in all of their glory. In our garden and other gardens as well. I love how the goldfinches hang on with a delicate balance to get some goodness from them!
Last year with the extreme heat and my chronic poison ivy, the weeds definitely won. This year, I concentrated on getting the front beds back. The rest, not so much. Maybe next year?
I’m seeing Black-Eyed Susans here in Georgia.
In our yard, we had a bunch of Tiger Lilies growing but someone small and two years old pulled most of them off (and what he didn’t physically pull was knocked out by him shaking the branches). We also have some sort of…well, I’m not sure what they are. They look like violets on a huge bush. Perhaps they’re some sort of lilac that I don’t know about. They were planted when we bought our house in February. They’re pretty and that’s about all I know. And, of course, the lemon tree and the orange tree are full of “babies,” some of which are going to be quite huge.
The season is winding down here, as well. My roses are giving me one last gasp of summer, and the fall raspberries are ripening. The sumac is even starting to turn colors!
I went on a fantastic walk on Vinalhaven Island in Maine yesterday! The moss and mushrooms, pinecones and trees, green of the ocean. It was just fantastic… The light has changed here (to fall) and all of the colors are crisp and clear!