Cait's Garden

I fully own up to having little patience with annuals in pots. The extra care they need to look good all season confounds me. I have had better luck with adding annuals into my perennial beds. These two have definitely given me a return on my investment: Ageratum (the blue one) and Lantana (the hot-colored one). Here it is, late October, and they are just about the only flower game left in town, as this lone Monarch attests to. (I seriously hope that lone Monarch heads for Mexico soon.) I will definitely be purchasing these two annuals again next year, especially more Ageratum. That little blue plant never quite blooming all year, whereas the Lantana had to “re-load” periodically. Both plants can be a little tricky to find, though, so buy them early in the season to make sure you find them at all.

And with that post, I might have just made my last bloom-related post of the season! I’d be sadder about it, but the fact that I’m making it this late in October is a good thing. We had a good year, didn’t we?

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I think this gets the nod for the last perennial in my garden to start blooming. This “Japanese Windflower” or “Anemone” is called “September Charm” because it does indeed start blooming in September. In my case, late September. And thanks to our lack of frosts so far, this is what this plant looks like now. You’d swear it was Spring! Indeed, this plant looks like it belongs with the spring flowers. A light, airy plant with delicate pink flowers born on thin stems (making it look like flowers being tossed in the breeze), this plant seems disconnected from the robust golds, reds, and browns of fall foliage. I wondered this year if I should move it to a different location in the yard, but I honestly couldn’t think of anywhere where it wouldn’t look out of season. And it seems to be happy where it is. So I will just enjoy the oddness of this fresh little flower on an October day.

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Obedient Plant deserves a shout-out at this time of year for delivering on the promise we waited for all year. In fact, every year I forget I have this tough garden staple until it suddenly opens with these amazing flowers in mid-September. This is why we plant flowers that bloom in the fall, for giving us fresh color when we start thinking the season is done. Plus, the bees really appreciate them now. The photo to the left is a glamour shot from my civilized garden, but below is a phone camera shot from a recent walk at Crabtree Nature Center. Seems there is a version of Obedient Plant out on the prairie, too! Score one for native plants, yet again.

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