It's Not Over Yet

Bigger than ever

Around here, it seems that most don’t see fall as a garden season.  Many homeowners have already covered their pools, cut down the flowering ornamental grasses and emptied their containers of annuals.  And we haven’t even had a frost yet.

To me, it’s just too soon to shut things completely down.  It’s a time in my garden when the lawn returns to vivid spring green.  No longer just a backdrop, shrubs in the screening hedge step forward with blazing colors.  The autumn sky becomes a magical periwinkle blue.  And after the fall equinox, the lower sun begins to highlight instead of washing out all of these marvelous colors.

Nursery-grown Chrysanthemum fill an end-of-season void

My back patio containers have seen better days, but they aren’t done yet either.  In fact, the summer chartreuse and purple Coleus is fuller than ever and the perfect colors for fall.  Some of the annual Verbena and Salvia are still shooting off cheerful violet blooms.  To add a bit more seasonal color, I’ve replaced a few of the dead or fading annuals with fall-blooming Chrysanthemum from the local nursery.  This should keep things going until the first hard frost decimates the less hardy container plants.

I know that freezing weather is just around the corner.  And that in a week or so the fall foliage will drop like rain just as it hits its peak. But I also remember how bleak and colorless winter can be.  I know that when I stare out those frosted windows during winter,  I will yearn for my garden in leaf.  So for now,  I will try to stretch out the garden season for as long as possible.  For me, it isn’t over until the last deciduous leaf drops to the ground.

And the Winner Is...

Inspired by last night's Oscars, I thought it might be nice to give a shout-out to the stars of my garden last year.  Overall, it turned out to be one of the best seasons (even though Hurricane Irene stormed the stage during Act III).  Stellar performances were made by both established plants and young, rising stars.

✯ My first award goes to the best "comeback".  After several seasons of lackluster presentatons, Hydrangea macrophylla 'Nikko Blue' came back this past season with the most blooms ever.  Following a spectacular opening in June, this hydrangea returned to the stage periodically all summer with fresh, blue flowers.

Nikko Blue hydrangea

✯ Best overall performance last year was from the June blooming Kousa Dogwood (Cornus kousa). Huge, creamy blooms covered every branch.  Unfortunately, this woody star always needs a season off following such a packed performance.  2012 will predictably be a less inspiring show.

Kousa dogwood

✯ The award for best plant in a supporting role goes to my Ostrich ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris). They are so easy to grow.   I use them all over the garden to help frame other plants, fill in large shaded areas and add low-maintenance drama.

Ostrich fern

✯ The best new performer of the season was the Echinacea purpurea 'B's Knees'.  I discovered this new star at a local nursery last year.  Its deep magenta color and lower height made this coneflower perfect for the expanded bed behind the pool.

B's Knees coneflower

✯ Best visual effects goes to my favorite autumn performer, Aster oblongifolius 'Raydon's Favorite', which took on a more important role after being divided to fill a much larger stage.  The huge drift of blueish-purple asters seem to echo the fall sky.

Raydon's Favorite aster

✯ And I have to give a lifetime achievement award to Hemerocallis 'Hyperion'.  Like Meryl Streep, this icon continues to give strong performances every season.  Tall, bold and fragrant, Hyperion daylilies put on a show not to be missed in my Hamptons Garden.

Hyperion daylily

✯ I thought we should have one award for a foreign production.  One standout from my trip to Italy last year was this purple bearded iris.  I have always loved this type of iris, but have yet to plant any. Maybe this will be the year to put one to work in my show.

Purple bearded iris in Florence, Italy

With the wacky weather we've had so far this year, it's anyone's guess which plant will steal the spotlight in 2012.  So stay tuned.

Making a Grand Entrance

Beautiful sidelights and transom

"Knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"Not Hamptons Garden blog. We've moved.  Find the full blog post on the beautiful entrances of Beacon Hill at the link below:

Making A Grand Entrance

See you there!

Let's Get Something Started

Japanese Stewartia dressed for fall

Seems like it's taking much longer for the leaves in and around my Hamptons garden to peak this year.  Autumn has been very wet and cool with little color.  I dream of sunny days when the garden and adjacent woodland burst with orange, yellow and red foliage.

Luckily, my Japanese Stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia var. japonica) was on schedule.  Always one of the first trees in my garden to put on a colorful show,  some leaves turned a bronzed red and others a deep orange.

I read that orange and yellow pigments are always present in deciduous leaves but camouflaged by the green pigment of chlorophyll during the summer months.  When photosynthesis stops and the green chlorophyll disappears, the other colors are revealed.  Red pigments are made mostly in the fall and are the result of trapped glucose reacting to sunlight and cold temps.  Just thought I'd share.

This Stewartia was planted about five years ago to help enclose the front lawn and partially screen out the parking area.  It produces a beautiful flower in mid-summer that looks like a Camellia blossom (guess that's where it gets the pseudocamellia part of its name).  The blossoms don't last more than a day before dropping to the ground, but it does produce flowers in abundance for weeks.

Hopefully, this is just a prelude to the fall foliage show.  However, when regions nearby get tree-damaging snow in October,  I'm thankful to have leaves of any color on unscathed trees.

Fall foliage

Summer blooms

Autumn Stars

Asters flanking dwarf fountain grasses

Nothing accents a fall garden like asters.  Performing a supporting role all summer with crisp, green vegetation, asters move to center stage in autumn when most other perennials have stopped blooming.

My favorite fall aster is Aster oblongifolius 'Raydon's Favorite'.  It has the most beautiful blue-purple daisy-like flowers that start blooming in early October and continue for many weeks.

I have two patches of 'Raydon's Favorite' planted in my garden.  The original collection edges the perennial garden adjacent to the pool. Since I spend little time by the pool in the fall, I added another grouping of these beauties in the garden across from the front door.

'Raydon's Favorite' will grow to about 36 inches left alone.  However, I prune twice during the summer to get shorter, bushier plants that don't need staking.  I prune the plants by 1/2 at the end of May and then again by 1/3 at the end of June.  Don't prune past July 4th or you may not get blooms that year.

Blooming across from the front door

This aster cultivar divides easily in the spring.  This past spring I split the current grouping by the pool into many divisions and spread them out to fill an expanded perennial bed.  I mixed them with summer-blooming perennials and dwarf fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln').  The fountain grass is now blooming along side the asters.

A simple arrangement

I was told by some local gardeners that asters are generally plagued with powdery mildew.  Fortunately, 'Raydon's Favorite' has been mildew-proof in my garden.

With all the rain here lately, I brought a few sprigs of 'Raydon's Favorite' indoors to admire.  I mixed them with a few stems of River oat grass (Chasmanthium latifolium) and Sweetspire (Itea virginica 'Little Henry') in a small Victorian vase.  A simple autumn arrangement.

Asters get their name from an ancient Greek work that means stars. Very fitting, not only for their star-shaped flowers, but also for their starring role in my autumn garden.

Star-shaped beauties