"By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather
And autumn’s best of cheer."
-
Helen Hunt Jackson, September, 1830-1885
After a very hot, dry August we were bless with ample rainfall. In September I review the garden and make notes of what I want to grow for the next season. The plants have really struggled with the summer drought but the hardy ones made it through. First we had too much rain, followed by very little rain and extreme temperatures. My beautiful Daphne 'odoro ' succumbed to sudden death syndrome which I think was from the excess rain.
Disaster struck North Carolina's western area with Hurricane Helene's floods destroying entire towns and killing many poor, rural area residents. It's so heartbreaking to look at the damage that was done. This is a very unusual event as hurricanes are not common in the mountains. Thankfully many people and organizations through out the country have come to the aid of the flood victims.
On a visit to the garden center I spied an unusual variegated Lorepetalum, aka, Chinese fringe flower , and decided to get it for a partly sunny area.
'Jazz Hands ' Lorepetalum has gorgeous variegated foilage that's evergreen. In the Spring the bright red fringe flowers appear. It is a hardy carefree shrub.
Since my backyard garden has matured I can now turn my attention to the roadside garden that fronts my driveway. I've already planted it with deer and rabbit-resistant plantings but want to add more bee and butterfly perennials with a long-blooming season.
Just a few of my deer and rabbit-resistant perennials in the roadside borders-Shasta daisies, wormwood and Brazilian verbena.
In addition , yarrow, autumn sage, little bluestem, lantana, rosemary, oregano, goldenrod, black and blue salvia, mums, carex, japanese roof iris and catmint have survived with little attention.
I ordered one thousand seeds of 'Robinson's red ' mum, picture above, and will sow them in late April/early May. This is a long-blooming, stunning perennial.
Looking forward to the cooler days of October, a wonderful month in the garden.
