The Days(& nights) are Cooling

As of this date we have escaped any real frosty nights. Temperatures have been very close to freezing for the last few nights.

The only evidence of chilling is some leaf damage on the cucumbers.

I have been making a start at retrieving those plants that need to come indoors .

Our pots of hot peppers are brought into the sunporch so they can continue to ripen.

The three Brugmansia are not cold tolerant, so I brought them in yesterday, probably none too soon. We will have to cut them right back, and store them in the basement somewhere. The big Bay tree will likely come in today, as will the various Rosemary pots.

The somewhat cleaned up sunporch will be its usual congested self.

I expect we have pretty well seen the end of the Basil harvest, but it kept going quite well all summer. My good intentions of seeing some fresh plants seemed to fall by the wayside.

This time in September brings a few interesting blooms to help ward off the "dread" of winter.

The Colchicum(Naked Ladies) are in bloom....they always add an element of surprise after being dormant since late spring. Out of sight , out of mind; so to speak. Speaking of surprises.....we were quite surprised to see a few late blooms on one of the Magnolia sieboldii.

The various Begonia plantings always look their best , it seems, just before they are going to nipped by frost! The huge amounts of rain we received during the month of August had left them looking a big bedraggled, but they have improved a bit during the last couple of "dry" weeks. This Picotee has been very pretty for a long time. This is Begonia grandis, grown for beautiful foliage, if for no other reason. The fall blooms of the Japanese Anemone in both pink and white help extend the season.

The pink is very prolific, and we are still waiting for the white one to open.

This is the first year I have had a Chelone(Turtlehead), and I am quite pleased. It has lovely foliage when some other plants are looking a bit tired.Every year we have a few late appearances from some Hibiscus plants. They are all grow from either cuttings or seed, and really need to be moved to a nicer, sunnier location. There is one completely in the shade of a youngish Catalpa.....not much hope of bloom there!

This vivid pink one gets a little more sun.

Sedums and asters are typical fall bloomers. The sedums are lovely, if a bit splayed. They always seem to get too big for their own good. The variegated version has been very pretty this year, and another nice surprise was a second blooming of a blue Corydalis right beside it.

We find the asters are a bit "off" this year. Perhaps they did not appreciate the excessive moisture in August. This is definitely NOT the true colour of this aster, it is much more of a bluish-purple. Even the occasional Goldenrod intruder can be appreciated. Goldenrod seemed to be very nice in all the "wild" spots.