Let me count the ways:

60 plants in flower
12 grasses in flower, or seed heads
11 plants with colourful berries/hips
18 plants with striking autumn colour

And that’s not counting the ones with the odd single flower still just about hanging on, like the Lychnis coronaria, or evergreens and conifers, or plants which haven’t started to turn yet, like the larch, or those just generally green but otherwise unremarkable. David and I toured the garden and stock beds this afternoon, noting and photographing anything which looked really good, and the list is pretty impressve.

Some have just never stopped flowering, like Geranium ‘Jolly Bee’, Anthemis ‘E.C. Buxton’ and Penstemon ‘Garnet’. Others are in their prime, like the Schizostylis and the Asters. Many more are having a late re-flowering, having been dead-headed earlier, notably Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’. Whatever the reason, the overall result is a garden slowly slipping into autumn, but with colour and interest everywhere.

Pictures to follow here in a bit, but for now, here’s the full list.

In flower, 18th October 2009
Fuchsia magellanica var. molinae – natural late flowerer
Fuchsia riccartonii – natural late flowerer
Abelia grandiflora – natural late flowerer
Persicaria amplexicaulis – continual flowerer since July
Geranium ‘Jolly Bee’ – continual flowerer since June
Achillea ‘Summerwine’ – continual flowerer with dead-heading
Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ – natural late flowerer
Verbena bonariensis – continual flowerer since June
Anthemis ‘E.C. Buxton’ – continual flowerer since June
Astrantia major – repeat flowerer with dead-heading
Cirsium rivulare ‘Atropurpureum’ – continual flowerer since May
Cephalaria gigantea – repeat flowerer with dead-heading
Echinacea purpurea – natural late flowerer, prolonged with dead-heading
Aster ‘Harrington’s Pink’ – natural late flowerer
Aster ‘September Ruby’ – natural late flowerer
Helianthus salicifolius – natural late flowerer
Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’ – repeat flowerer with dead-heading
Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’ – repeat flowerer following shearing back in August
Rudbeckia ‘Goldilocks’ – natural late flowerer
Geranium ‘Orion’ – repeat flowerer following shearing back in July
Geranium ‘Nimbus’ – ditto
Penstemon ‘Garnet’ – continual flowerer since July
Prostanthera cuneata – continuous light flowering since first main flush
Erigeron karvinskianus – continual flowerer since July
Schizostylis ‘Mrs Hegarty – natural late flowerer
Agave – variegated – natural, but only occasional, flowerer.
Campanula poscharskyana – continual flowerer since July
Dianthus ‘Doris’ – continual flowering since June
Nerine bowdenii – natural late flowerer
Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’ – natural late flowerer
Salvia patens ‘Guanojuato’ – continual flowerer since July
Dahlia ‘Arabian Night’ – natural late flowerer
Dahlia ‘David Howard’ – ditto
Dahlia ‘Honka’ – ditto
Salvia ‘Indigo Spires’ – ditto
Lonicera – probably Dropmore Scarlet – natural late flowerer
Lonicera – a lovely pale yellow one that I don’t know the name of
Aster x frikartii ‘Monch’ – natural late flowerer
Lupinus arboreus – all three tree lupins are in flower – white, blue and yellow
Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ – natural late flowerer
Salvia macrantha var. macrantha – natural late flowerer
Salvia ‘Carradonna’ – repeat flowerer following July dead-heading
Spiranthes ‘Chadd’s Ford’ – natural October flowerer
Geum borisii – natural repeat flowerer
Anemone x hybrida – lots of different colours/cultivar
Tritonia disticha ssp. rubrolescens – natural late flowerer
Rosa ‘The Constant Gardener’ – repeat flowering following dead-heading
Leucanthemella serotina – natural October flowerer
Liriope muscari – natural October flowerer
Rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii – continual flowerer since late July
Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’ – continual flowerer since late July
Papaver atlanticum – repeat flowers on and off all late summer
Aconitum carmichelii – natural late flowerer
Nicandra physaloides – late flowering annual
Nasturtium – late flowering annual
Aster divaricatus – natural late flowerer
Heptacodium miconioides – natural late flowering tree
Vinca major – will flower on and off all winter
Cyclamen hederifolium – natural late flowerer
And a low mat forming plant that I don’t recognise at all…

Berries and hips
Holly
Rosa rugosa
Rosa canina
Malus ‘Golden Hornet’
Sorbus vilmorinii
Sorbus ‘Joseph Rock’
Callicarpa bodinieri ‘Profusion’
Iris foetidissima
Arisaema consanguineum
Cotoneaster – possibly dammeri
Several gorgeous culinary apples, notably Monarch

Plants with great leaf colour
Forsythia (surprisingly good!)
Hamamellis mollis – and all the lovely blossom still to come
Rhus typhinus (frankly its only redeeming feature)
Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’
Liriodendron tulipifera – wonderful golden foliage
Parrotia persica – scarlet and yellow leaves
Berberis thunbergii – bright red leaves
Libertia ‘Taupo Sunset’ – striking gold upright leaves
Enkianthus campanulatus – good red leaves
Vitis cognetiae – huge red leaves
Cornus elegantissima – the white margin is fading to a gentle pink
Acer palmatum dissectum – golden filigree foliage
Gleditsia triacanthos – fine golden foliage
Fothergilla major – bright yellow foliage
Acer ‘Osakazuki’ – just beginning to turn bright red
Acer ‘Sango-kaku’ – beautiful, divine, lovely. The best of all…

Grasses
It’s grass season anyway really so this is basically a list of plants we’ve got and that I’ve got names for…

Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’
Stipa ‘Wind Whispers’
Molinia – ident uncertain, but really lovely
Molinia ‘Karl Foerster’
Deschampsia caespitosa – its seeds have fallen but the bare stalks are lovely
Calamagrostis brachytricha
Miscanthus ‘Yakushimanum Dwarf’
Miscanthus ‘Zebrinus’
Miscanthus ‘Gracillimus’
Miscanthus ‘Morning Light’
Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’
Stipa gigantea

October 18, 2009