September Bloom Day - a day late.

I'm late with bloom day. It happens. I wanted to post what's blooming anyway.

It's been really warm and dry for September so far. I'm not sure if it's just that I had forgotten how nice September can be in the PNW or that it really is warmer and drier than normal. Regardless, the weather is sure to turn in the next couple weeks. It's hard to believe it with the deep blue skies and temps in the 70's and 80's lately, but the days are quickly shortening and the highs will soon be in the 50's with the clouds and drizzle socked in for the duration. Fall is definitely in the air. The mornings have been in the upper 30's to the mid 50's depending on the day and early mornings in the garden are requiring cuddly sweaters and sweatshirts. Autumn is almost here and the flowers are on their last hurrah.

The sunflowers are dialing down the blooms and hanging heavy with seeds. Here's a giant one:

The cosmos are over 8 feet tall now and still blooming it up:

Closer:

The Hollyhocks are finally blooming. I started them from seed in mid-may:

Closer:

The California poppies are about done, but here's a clump still blooming:

Tithonia is looking spectacular right now. A very appropriate orange shade for the fall:

 

 



Plains coreopsis is gorgeous with its yellow and rust flowers:

Loads of dahlias signal the closing of summer:

The zinnias are still looking beautiful:

Russian sage is also still looking great:

as is the agastache:

Blue salvia grown from seed this spring is looking wonderful:

The Big Red Sage brought from Austin is still blooming and attracting hummers:



Red riding hood penstemon just keeps on blooming and doesn't mind the dry weather at all:

Blue flax is blooming:

Granpa Otts morning glory took a while to get going, but is stunning right now:

Nasturtiums are still blooming, although they are beginning to get overtaken by aphids as of late:

The lupine is finishing up blooming and I have begun to collect the seeds. A few spires are still going:

Dianthus has bloomed from spring all the way through summer and keeps on blooming:

I purchased some guara at the local big box store on clearance a couple weeks ago. I love these as they remind me of my Austin garden *smile*:

And last, but not least, the fuschia are still blooming. I have a few different ones in pots, but this one is especially interesting as it was one I bought in Austin in the spring of 2011. That was the year we had 3+ months of 100+ degree temps without a break. This fuschia melted by April that spring and I just stuffed the whole hanging pot of what I thought were dead plants in a corner under the eaves of the house behind some shrubbery and forgot about it. There they sat all through the torrid summer, a casualty of the heat as happened to every fuschia I ever bought down there.

Then, in the Winter of 2012, the darn things began to grow again!! I couldn't believe my eyes. I drug the pot of  the shrubbery and put it where it could get some rain in our unusually wet January and February of this year. The little survivors kept growing and pretty soon I had some good sized fuschias going. I packed them up with me when I moved this spring and when I got here I replanted them in a pot with some pink geraniums I also brought with me. They kept growing and in the temperate Pacific Northwest climate, they flourished. They began to bloom and have been one of the hummingbird favorites all summer for me. The fuschia are 'Angels Earrings' and are true survivors. I'll be overwintering these ones for sure:

Happy Bloom day everyone!