September GBBD: Blooms, Bees, and Butterflies

It's time for another Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, the monthly round-up of what is blooming in your garden.  A few days ago, I wasn't sure I'd have much of anything blooming today.  It has been cold here. After a couple of days of rain, the temperatures plummeted, never reaching higher than the 50's and dropping into the low 40's each night.  We never had a frost, thankfully, but I was beginning to worry. 

The sun has returned, and yesterday we may have reached 70 degrees again, making it a good day to walk around the garden and see what is in bloom.  I was surprised to see that the 'Little Business' daylily was reblooming, albeit a single, small bloom.

 

In the expanded section of the shade garden, turtleheads have been blooming for a week or more.  This is a new plant here, planted this spring when we thinned them out in the Nursing Home Garden where I volunteer.  One of the benefits of volunteering--free plants!

 

Another new bloom this month--the Japanese Anemone.  It has taken awhile to get going, but it made the "leap" this year and is finally tall enough to be really noticed.  I have a second small Japanese Anemone nearby in the Arbor Bed, which looks like it will soon bloom, too.  I'll be darned, though, if I can remember where I got it or when I planted it!

 

 

 

A few other blooms are carryovers from last month, like the 'Limelight' Hydrangea, one of my favorites of late summer.  I'm trying to prune this to more of a tree form, and one branch is complying by standing up straight and tall, seeming to reach for the sky.

The Brown-eyed Susans, Rudbeckia triloba, continue to put on a show.  I've noticed the goldfinches like these almost as much as the purple coneflowers.

Another favorite of mine and the hummingbirds, 'Wendy's Wish' is doing well despite the crowded conditions I planted both of them in.

Some of the containers are still looking good, while others are beginning to look a bit tired.  The pots of coleus in front of the house are approaching shrub proportions.  A few years ago I bought too many coleus and stuck them in a couple of pots by themselves when I didn't know what else to do with them.  They looked so good by fall that I've done the same thing every year since.  The burgundy coleus really stands out, especially among all the green shrubbery.

 

Many of the annuals are still putting out new blooms, like this white cosmos.

And, of course, the zinnias, including my favorite 'Zowie Yellow Flame,' which will keep going until the first frost.

Signs of fall are definitely evident in the garden.  The few ornamental grasses I have are beginning to shine, like this Panicum 'Shenandoah,' which glows in the sunlight.

Miscanthus 'Morning Light' is also showing off its plumes.

 

The berries of the Beautyberry are just beginning to turn purple.

Meanwhile the seedpods of Blackberry Lily have opened up, revealing how it got its name. 

The vegetable garden is nearly done now, too.  The squash bugs finally got to the cucumbers and squash, and the green beans are finished.  The tomato plants are still producing more than we can eat fresh, but the blight is slowly taking them over.  But the volunteer cosmos and some marigolds in the veggie patch are looking good and hiding the slow decay beyond them.

And the Butterfly Garden is a mass of color right now with all the goldenrod and asters. 

 

 

But best of all, this little area of natives is really living up to its name right now.  I hadn't seen a single Painted Lady all summer, but today they were swarming everywhere. 

 

 

 

In fact, as I was taking photos yesterday, I became so entranced by all the activity throughout this garden and other areas, that I started following the butterflies and bees around and forgot all about focusing on what was blooming.

 

 

A bumble enjoying the cosmos.

 

And a lady beetle enjoying a pink one.

A marigold in the veggie patch.

  I don't use any chemicals in my garden--which is why the squash bugs eventually ran rampant over the squash and cucumbers.  But we had more than enough squash and cucumbers already, and it's a small price to pay for all the happy bees in the garden.

A bumble too busy enjoying the zinnias to notice he's not presenting his best side for the camera:)

And one last promotion of the 'Zowie' zinnias, a butterfly and bee favorite.

 

 Who knows what the next Bloom Day will bring.  An early frost could very well bring an end to many of these blooms, and the butterflies will have surely left by then.  So I'm going to enjoy every beautiful moment in the garden I can until then.

 

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is brought to you the 15th of each month by Carol of May Dreams Gardens.