Someone said the other day that she liked to see what was still in flower at Nightingale to help her plant her own garden. Although, it was windy and rain threatened, I thought I would capture a few of the plants still in flower at the end of October. We usually get first frosts in the first week of November so it might be the last time we see these flowers - and some of the plants will die off too. We will try to lift some of the tender perennials but some we have taken cuttings from too.
We have lots of salvias in the garden - partly because they are so easy to propagate from cuttings. This one is called hot lips. It is an easy plant to grow and people love it.
Another salvia - Amistad. We have one in the polytunnel too - hoping it might carry on flowering for a bit longer.
We also have lots of penstemons. Mainly ‘Raven’ - smaller and darker red than this one. One of those cuttings that never got a label.
Some kind of aster (Michelmas daisy?). I think they have a new botanical name. We really like them - and a neighbour brought a big clump of them last week, which we have divided and planted in the sown meadow beds.
Another salvia - from another cutting with no name.
A self-seeded cosmos. Several of the annual meadow bed seed mixes had cosmos in them so they are in our compost and we get happy surprises. This one is in nice deep soil so has become quite rampant. It won’t survive the frost, going a grungy brown.
These hebes, by the gate, have been great. Again, from cuttings. The bees love them.
We have lots of sedums - they do well in our thin, dry soil and are fantastic for bees and butterflies. Most are root divisions from a plant in my garden. We leave them over winter as long as we can because they are good for birds and insects. You will also see some more unusual coloured ones around the garden - pinky-brown and dark purple ones. We actually bought them as plants - hoping to propagate from them too.
A garden friend brought us some big clumps of this perennial sunflower and it has been really good. Tall and makes good shapes in the wind. The leaves are rather elegant too.
A self-seeded annual - from the old annual wildflower meadow. We try to mow around them.
Another self-seeder - some kind of marigold (calendula). We should deliberately sow more of these because they flower late and do well. Good for bees too.
This tithonia (Mexican sunflower) is hanging on in there. It is too orange for my phone camera.
We have lots of types of sunflowers in the garden. Some are self seeded, some sown into pots and then transplanted, some directly sown. Not sure why some are still flowering. Maybe late sowings. The squirrels tend to eat our dry seed heads.
Rudbeckias are good for late flowers. We have several kinds in the garden. Some are annuals but also there should be some perennial (Goldsturn) in the meadow beds.
We have various pelargoniums in the garden. These were rather bullied by larger plants growing next to them and over them so are a bit small and weedy. We will aim to over-winter them and have a better - kinder - collection next year.
A different rudbeckia, next to some borage.
An out of focus verbascum - it was very windy. They were grown from collected seed and should be perennial. More yellow than the parent. They have been cut right back at least once and send out new flower spikes. Good for moths.
The ‘lime green’ tobacco plants have been lovely this season. Grown from seed by Lois. I have just bought some other tobacco seeds - alata. Again, good for moths. And there is a pretty scabious next to it.
The dahlias have been good this year. All grown from seed so you never know what colours they will be. They are a bit vulgar for some. We have two new raised beds by the veranda and we will grow some new ones for them. So popular with people and bees. We just leave them in the ground and don’t seem to lose them to frost.
We have white and regular blue borage growing everywhere in the garden. Good for bees and Pimms (just the blue bits of the flowers)
And happy halloween - bunting made from old T shirts…