September In The Garden

It's just a few days away from fall and for the last few days the weather felt like it is here already. I have been working on and off in the garden for days now. It is raining today so I did not garden and had the chance to do this post.

Some plants are winding down here like hosta Plantaginea, rudbeckia and phlox but there's still some that are blooming.

Anemone rubustissima's first blossom.

A Morning Glory volunteer.

Gladiolus 'Passos'

Tricyrtis, I don't know which variety this is.


Late blooming hosta Red October.

Sedum 'Stardust' and S. spectabile 'Brilliant'.

And a very busy bee on sedum flower.

Last Friday, my Schreiner's iris order arrived. I could have planted them today if it didn't rained.




And finally I have dug the daylilies around the stump.

How I Spent My Weekend

There is a lot of work to be done in the garden before the plant and bulb orders arrive. I have already dug the two bushes that I don't want in the garden. They will be replaced by plants like maybe peonies and iris.


Last week, I dug a Forsythia bush which took me a while since it is at least half a century old. Today, I dug this Spirea bush. I did not have that much difficulty digging it because its roots are shallow.

Yesterday, I cut down the old stems of this lilac bush. Its stems are overcrowded and crisscrossing at the base so this is what I did. I wish I took a before photo so you can see the difference.

I am not really good at using a chainsaw but I got the job done the way I wanted it.

My next project is digging out the daylilies around this stump. I used them to hide the stump so it is not visible from the sidewalk. We have already contacted a contractor to grind it out this fall. Since it is in the middle of the garden, I could use the space to grow maybe a Japanese maple tree or an evergreen tree.

This is how it look like when Kwanso blooms with Silk Road. They clashed.

I love this oldie but goodie daylily. It will grace some other spot in the garden.

A Gardener's Generosity

Last week I received a box full of seeds/seedpods from the mail. It was from my friend and my fellow lily enthusiast Mike of Arcata California. In the box were seven packets of lily seeds of his own crosses, a medium sized packet of mixed poppy seeds and eight bags of Russell hybrid lupine seedpods he labeled painstakingly with their individual colors.















Being detail oriented, Mike even emailed me the above photos of plants where he collected the seeds.

These seeds will be wintersown. The lupines will be good companions for my lilies and the poppies for my iris. The lily seeds will be sown in winter together with the other lily seeds I have.

(Thanks Mike for generously sharing these seeds with me.)