Six on Saturday – 05/10/2019 – mainly purple

I’m writing this on Friday night (October 4) – we have a frost warning in place with an expected low of plus three degrees Celsius – feeling like minus one. If frost arrive it will be the earliest in many years – it’s usually a week away. I’ve already harvested tomatoes and herbs; the chard and beets will be fine as will the winter squash. Foliage on the tropicals will wither and turn brown though – it means a week of lifting tubers and bulbs, drying and storing. Autumn is here.

We’ve had a lot of rain this past week and the yard is looking pretty happy, all things considered. The main colour is purple, thanks to Asters, Colchicum and a few magnificent Chrysanthemums in pots. Here are six things in my garden; to see six from gardens around the world click on the Propagator‘s site.

1 – Right off the bat, here’s something that’s NOT purple! I obtained some Pawpaw seeds in the early spring and, after four months of germination, two seedlings popped up. Here’s one; I don’t have a spot for it, yet, so it will be heeled in somewhere protected from hungry rabbits. Here‘s an interesting story about Pawpaws, once commonly found in Southwestern Ontario but now quite rare.

Baby Pawpaw tree – Asimina triloba

2 – Here’s something kinda purple – Russian Sage. It starts of slowly in my garden and doesn’t get too big, but that’s all right because it lasts until mid autumn!

Russian Sage – Perovskia atriplicifolia

3 – So, I think this is Sky Blue Aster (and not Smooth Aster) – mainly because I planted one many years ago and this pops up in about the same place every year. I really love the delicate blue of the flower plus the delicate stems and foliage. They’re not aggressive enough for my fields and meadows though, unlike New England Asters, so the seeds really need to be purposefully cultivated and not simply scattered hither and yon.

Sky Blue Aster – Symphyotrichum oolentangiense

4 – I grew snapdragons in my kitchen garden last year and in the fall just let them be. Seeds were obviously produced because a single plant appeared this spring. I let it grow without deadheading or cutting it back and it produced flowers on multiple stems reaching three feet high all summer. Interestingly, the snaps I planted this spring flowered once, quite beautifully, after which I deadheaded the, They re only now starting to produce a second bunch of blooms. Maybe deadheading isn’t all that it’s made out to be…

Snapdragon ‘The Rocket’ – Antirrhinum

5 – Colchicums are still looking glorious…

Colchicum

6 – And then there were mums… and mums beside Cassia…

purple Chrysanthemum

Popcorn Cassia – Senna didymobotrya