Autumn Flowers

 I've neglected this blog again over summer, and autumn feels like an odd time to pick up a gardening blog. There are still flowers to be seen though - an advantage a perennial garden can have over a 'summer bedding' style planting.

This white Michaelmas daisy, the orange violas and a couple of still-flowering dianthus are all 'rescues' from the garden centre clearance racks. I'm fond of a bargain (who isn't?) and with perennials a little care will see them flourish for years.






































Michaelmas daisies are the mainstay of my autumn flowers with these long established plants now forming good-sized clumps.
I just wish I last year's rudbeckias had survived to add a splash of bright yellow to the garden.

Autumn flowers

kaffir lily

 We've passed the equinox so there's no denying that it's now autumn but for the past few days the sun has been out and the days almost as warm as in summer, so, along with 'proper' autumnal flowers - michaelmas daisies and kaffir lilies, some summer ones are having an extended flowering season

michaelmas daisies + verbena

hardy fuchsia

 hollyhock

one last rose

sweetpea buds

welsh poppy

nasturtiums

another hardy fuchsia

montbretia

nasturtium

lavender

winterjasmine

but along with all these, the winter jasmine is starting to flower! Almost four seasons at once.

First of the month - August

 the day - and the month - started off sunny, so we briefly went to the allotment and came back with a box of goodies - potatoes, rhubarb, a few raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries and even blackberries,

 tomatoes (probably the first of a glut)



french and runner beans

 a handful of peas

 courgettes (definitely well into a glut of these)








Back home for lunch - and the rain came down soaking everything and making the flowers look most bedraggled

 It may only be the first day of August but with blackberries ripening and Michaelmas daisies flowering Autumn seems only just round the corner

October in the garden

 It may be October - and well on the way to winter - but it's still surprisingly warm so many of summer's flowers are still blooming.







So there are nasturtiums, marigolds, sunflowers, rudbeckias, welsh poppies and sweet peas

along with more typical autumn flowers - fuchsia bushes, michaelmas daisies, kaffir lilies and verbena

the sweet williams have even decided to flower a second time - even if they are a bit straggly.

Lots of lovely flowers for the house

Autumn Equinox

Pottering about and taking for photos for this equinox post, I was struck by the dominant colours in the garden right now - purples/reds of fuchsias, michaelmas daisies, kaffir lilies, dianthus and late sweet peas - and yellow/orange of sunflowers, marigolds, nasturtiums and rudbeckias.
It isn't a planned colour scheme - I'm never that organised but it certainly looks bright and cheerful.