The first day of fall, 2020, came and went without too much fanfare this year.....guess the media has more to think of than whether our leaves are changing colour or not. But here we are, realizing for many reasons that we should be out in our gardens as we quietly slip into October, and that it really is time to cut things down.
Fall colour…
But I look out the window and still see much colour, and many plants which have yet to bloom. The most noticeable late-bloomers this year are the Asters. Only one or two are showing any colour, and a few of them seem to have dried out and died after the drought of early and mid-summer. Hopefully we will have a lot of rain in the next while so the plants will form good roots before the ground freezes.
Asters just starting to show colour.
Aconites, the tall, blue, fall versions ( Aconitum carmichaelii, for example, and not to be confused with the tiny yellow flowers of early spring named winter aconites, which are in a different family) have yet to bloom, but that is quite normal. Some years they are the only blooms left once everything else been cut down. They are not even showing colour yet. But try mixing one of the late-flowering varieties with a white fall anemone like Honorine Jobert in a protected but fairly sunny spot, and you will have a lovely combination of white and blue at a time when those colours are rare. Oh, and do remember that all parts of aconites are toxic, very toxic.
Dahlias continue...
…two months of flower is pretty good, although they do start blooming quite late. Roam Flora is where I bought the tubers.... roamflora.ca – a local cut-flower farm in the west end of Ottawa.
Look at their website.. they have some amazing tulip bulbs only available another couple of weeks, and so far, I have found nothing decent in the way of bulbs here in Ottawa. I ordered some in April as I was afraid there would be none left come fall, and that is what happened – some shipments were held up in a strike on the docks in Montréal, and others were never ordered or even grown as we remember from the destruction of millions of bulbs in the Netherlands. There will be fewer bulbs in the gardens come spring, but let it act as a reminder to order bulbs and all other things – peonies, iris – very early next year. Write to the growers and get on their mailing lists now so you don’t miss out. They will send a reminder when their catalogues are in.
Some of the tulips on offer at Roam Flora, a local flower grower….
