Six on Saturday -Hits and Horrors

Hard to believe that it’s the first weekend of autumn; the year is, once again, whizzing by and the hot, humid summer days are already just a memory.  There seems to be a lot of purple in my garden this week – the New England Asters are in full bloom everywhere, as are the Colchicum, while dogwood and some Viburnum leaves are already brilliantly orange and red.

I did have one horrible shock this week though – and I’ll get that out of the way first:

1 – Yesterday, I discovered a few branches of a special weeping white pine – Pinus strobus pendula –  totally stripped of needles (see photo below).  The culprit?  These nasty white pine sawfly larvae.  I’ve never experienced them before so had to research what they were.  The really sad thing is that they don’t even morph into in interesting butterfly or moth – just an ugly, large fly.  All that destruction with no apparent benefit.

This is the leader – I may wind up pruning it off n the spring – need to wait to see if they ate next year’s buds too.  Those needles ain’t never gonna grow back!

2a – I’ve shown this Popcorn Plant (Senna didymobotrya) before, I think.  It’s grown to about four feet high this year, just starting to send off side branches,  and I’m troubled that I won’t be able to dig it up and overwinter it indoors.  There’s just no room for another tropical inside.  Maybe I need a greenhouse eh?

2b – closeup of the flower

3 – A few years ago, a neighbour gave me a tiny baby division of her variegated Sedum.  Here it is today, a teenager, blooming quite nicely for the first time.  Interesting that there’s very little pink or red in the flower (unlike the regular Sedum spectabile).

4 – Another neighbour brought over a dozen broccoli seedlings this past May.  They grew beautifully – at least, the leaves did.  Tons of foliage (that the cabbage moths devoured) but no flower to harvest.  Until now!  For a single appetizer, perhaps, or for just one dip into a sauce – this fingernail-size bit of broccoli!

5 – Zinnia elegans ‘Queenie.’  This Zinnia was hyped a lot in the spring and has been all over social media, but it’s turned out to be a bust for me.  The marketing effort touted its changing colours while for me, it was always a fairly insipid yellow or yellowy pink.  It wasn’t very robust, especially compared to other Zinnias, and was just as prone to powdery mildew as the other varieties.  Worst of all, most of the flowers were double (although not, for some reason, these ones), which are not very attractive to pollinators. Just say no.

6 – And finally, here’s a shot looking up at my small side patio garden.  There are layers of Iris, Marigolds, Colchicum, Veronica and deciduous shrubs going up a small rise; pots of Canna are on the edge of the patio.  It’s a small quiet oasis to watch and listen to the birds and bees.

That’s it for me this week – we have no frost forecast for the next two weeks so no major cleaning up to do yet.  I do have a few hundred bulbs to get in and will talk about those next week, perhaps.  I’ll be resting my legs for most of the day, today, trying to keep them fresh for the Prince Edward County half marathon tomorrow.  I may talk about THAT next week, as well!

Until then, enjoy the fall (or spring, if you’re on the other side of the globe!) and click over to The Propogator‘s site to link to wonderful Sixes from all over.