Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day September 2013

Can it be September already?   It can't be the last week of summer already; it seems like it just got here.   On the other hand, some of my plants are looking pretty overgrown, tired, and ready for a little slowing down.  Here are some of the blooms in my garden today.

The begonias are still going strong and will until frost  or until they get really tired and I cut them down and bring them for a few months.

Impatiens niamniamensis 'Congo Cockatoo'

Hydrangea 'Pistachio'

Hydrangea 'Bavaria' aged from blue with white edges to this lovely mauve color.  Yum!

Happy accident.  Rain made the dahlia collapse onto the hydrangea .  They make a pretty duo!

Lots of echiverias are  blooming their heads off right now. 

Brugmansia 'Charles Grimaldi'  

Some of the first asters (or whatever the taxonomists are calling it today) are starting to open.

 

 

'Fragrant Cloud' earns its place in my garden with a strong fragrance that wafts nicely.

There are some really nice, big and showy cannas blooming right now but instead, you get to see the more odd than pretty Water Canna (Thalia dealbata.) Not a true canna.

 

 The hardy fuchsias really shine at this time of the year!

This one that's now way over my head was a little innocent thing in a gallon pot last summer. 

Anenome season! 

 

Clerodendrum bungei  gets forgiven for traveling all over the garden because of the fragrance of it's nice late season flowers!

It wouldn't be a bloom day without my pal Abutilon megapotamicum.

 

Cyclamen

A nice, well-behaved perennial impatiens whose name I've forgotten does well in fairly deep shade.

Electric blue flowers of Salvia 'Blue Angel'

 

 

 I got a couple of clivia miniatas from Sally Priest at WeHop this spring, this one with variegated leaves.  I'd never grown them before and, since they have to be brought in in the winter and need to be pot bound to bloom,  they're still in their nursery pots hanging out in the timber bamboo grove.  Just a couple of days ago, I saw a flash and found  this sweet thing blooming.

Persicaria 'Golden Arrow' is the darndest plant.  I've planted it in dappled shade, which it should like but instead it leans over to get to the sun.  However, the parts that get more sun get scorched by it.  There's just no pleasing some people!  Wouldn't want to be without it!

I remember first seeing Colchicum at a now defunct  neighborhood nursery that had been a local institution since 1889 (Poole's.)  The large bulbs, sitting naked on the counter, were covered with these crocus-like flowers.  They must be put in the ground after flowering to put down roots or they'll not survive but it's a fun thing to amaze your friends by pulling one of these out of the ground just before bloom time and presenting them with a "magic" bulb that blooms with no soil.

I grow pelargoniums for their beautiful foliage which, when brushed against, emits a fragrance that screams summer to me.  Their continual bloom from the time they're planted until frost is an added bonus!

Eccremocarpus scaber

Another abutilon.

 

 New guinea impatiens.

Ceratostigma willmottianum 'Palmgold' 

What's blooming in your garden this month?  Join in the fun of Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, a global floral party hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens,  and share your blooms!