Putting the Garden to Bed

Although I love each of the four seasons, I am always a little sad when summer is over and my garden gradually fades away until the first hard frost. I don't cut back my garden aggressively like I used to - rather, I let each flower and plant live on and reseed until each has finished its work for the year. Last winter, my Queen Elizabeth rose bloomed on December 1!

As of today, my Russian Sage is still going strong (it loves the cooler weather) and my angel wing begonias are tall and rangy but hanging on. My flowering maple behaves as if it's still June, and many of my other perennials have reseeded and are beginning to brown and crumple.

I'm wintering over vast amounts of scented geraniums - at least 8 varieties - as well as some of my specimen begonias. Live plants and flowers are essential to any home, but especially to a home in winter.

Here are a few shots of my garden in mid-August. (I'll be back again soon as I have a lot of work to show you!) Enjoy this last look at summer -

A type of anenome - it doesn't bloom until August and it has a tendency to take over the garden if I'm not especially careful. I like to call it the "Jurassic Park" plant because it gets so huge!

Tweedia-

A variety of native Lobelia -

My beloved windowboxes - filled with coleus, scented geraniums, and angel wing begonias -

More begonias -

I love old-fashioned flowers and vines, such as the morning glory. I have this all over the various garden walls -

The moonvine plant - I love it! It has these enormous, Georgia O'Keefe-like blossoms and it blooms at dusk. It's now pretty brown and dried out, but I am glad I have these photos -