Don't be fooled. Inside this thin coating of sweetness is a fiery core of total insanity.

Friday, October 31, 2014

End of the Month View -- The Bottle Tree Bed, October 2014

I didn't do an End of the Month View post for September, because quite frankly I was hard pressed to see any differences between how it looked in September and how it looked in August. I suppose I could have just written a really short post that said simply "See my August post here" but I didn't.

This month the Sheffield Pink mums have started blooming, and quite profusely. I divided and replanted them earlier in the year when I was redoing this bed, and they have responded quite enthusiastically. Too bad all our rain has made them so heavy. They're all hanging their heads like bashful suitors.

There are still plenty of un-cut-back seedheads in this bed now too, from everything that has bloomed this summer -- Veronica 'Lilac Fantasy,' various Verbascums, and Astrantias. I've left it all uncut, which tends to promote a messy overall look. But they do have their own kind of beauty in close-up. Another change since my last post is that the Amsonia hubrichtii, planted for the first time into this bed this year, is starting to color up. The clumps are still small. It'll be interesting to see how they look in a few years when they've bulked up.

The Bottle Tree Bed from the back porch

Droopy mums




Amsonia hubrichtii starting to color up

A second Amsonia clump, not quite as far along on its fall color

Veronica seedheads

Veronica seedheads, Sheffield Pink mums and the eponymous bottle tree

The very, very, very last Veronica flower

Sesleria autumnalis

Technically the Tropaeolum tuberosum isn't planted in the Bottle Tree Bed, it's planted on the other side of the fence, but the vine has traveled up over the fence and the blooms are mostly on this side. I posted about this plant here. I'll share one last shot of the delicate orange flowers.

"Up periscope!"

Helen at The Patient Gardener's Weblog hosts the End of the Month View meme. You can read her October post here, and be sure to check out the comments where other bloggers leave links to their own EoMV posts.