Last Flower of the Fall?

The cyclamen is happy with the cool weather.  So am I.

Well That's Different...

Orostachys furusei, a new plant for me this year.

The Finale

The front yard still looks good thanks to the mums, asters, geranium and the self-seeded goldenrod.  After the solidago finishes blooming, its getting tossed on the compost.  That tiny, weedy white aster on the right?  It self-seeded too.  I might transplant it to a better spot.  I kind of like it.

Is baptisia really worth it?  It bloomed so long ago that I've kind of forgotten why I have the sprawling mass of its foliage.

Tall Stoop Planters

I cast these recently for a client who wanted some tall (23"H) planters to flank her doorway.

I didn't want them to be ridiculously heavy and unwieldy, in case she wanted to move them.

Casting them in parts solved the problem.

They were so nice that I might even make myself some.

Square Rimmed Trough

I cast this square trough in July.  It's as satisfying as I had hoped.  Now I have to decide which of my over-eager "dwarf" shrubs to put in it.  I have a chamaecyparis and a cotoneaster that are both getting too big for their own mixed troughs.  They need to be separated for their physical health and my mental health.

Alliums for Webb

Webb expressed surprise a couple weeks ago that I had allium blooming in one of my troughs.  I always think of them as a spring plant too, but have found a few good summer bloomers in the allium family.  Above is garlic chives, allium tuberosum.  It's perfectly happy in a whiskey barrel on the hellstrip by the street.

Allium senescens var. glaucum, the circle onion (its leaves grow in a swirl).

The circle onion at home in its trough, with gentian, sedum, a chamaecyparis and so on.  That's carex glauca in the trough behind, mimicking the alliums' foliage color.

It's Later Than You Think

The full sunflower in bloom, the unopened bud, the dried flower head going to seed, the spider web...this image seems to sum up Labor Day weekend.  We've come far along in the growing season but there's still a little drama left.

The curtain is opening on Autumn, my favorite act in the yearly play.