Lookin' Good on Labor Day

Garden Club members were asked what was holding up well as summer wanes. Here are their reports:

>From Christine Gonsalvez: Bush clover (Lespedeza thunbergeii), a woody

shrub, normally upright, now covered in rose-purple, sweet-pea blossoms that weigh down plant into a weeping shape; winter savory (Satureja montana), leaves & form similar to perennial candytuft, covered with dainty, white tubular blossoms, usually stays evergreen all winter; a perennial sunflower (Helianthus grosseratus) beginning to sport three-inch yellow flowers atop six-foot stalks, goldfinches swarm over seeds later in fall. Its root ball doubles by spring, so I cut around the ball, then cut it in half, and reposition it in enriched soil every year. Invasive, but nicely so.

>From Mary Himburg: The Japanese Fall Blooming anemone that Sharron Catallo gave me a few years ago looks good; shrub roses, and impatiens also look good.

Mary Beth Huttenlocher lists the above anemone (Anemone x hybrida) as her favorite fall flower. She also likes: toad lily (Tricyrtis), sweet autumn clematis (C. maximowicziana, syn. paniculata), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida), blue salvia (Salvia azurea var. grandiflora), hibiscus (H. syriacus), climbing honeysuckle (Lonicera), and roses of all types.

Kay Robertson was delighted with her snapdragons (Antirrhinum) 'Floral Mix' until two weeks ago when they went kaput. "They were about eight inches high and wonderful," she says, "but now they look like wire plants." Chuck's blaming a resident mole. Kay's filling the space with mums.

Louise Mauti reports that the Phlox paniculata is in its third bloom period. She & Dom cut down phlox and French lavender (Lavandula dentata) earlier and have been rewarded with continuous bloom.

In the Meadors' garden, I whacked off half Sedum 'Autumn Joy's' growth in June. I convinced my neighbor, Corrine, to do the same, as she too, was hit by "sedum sprawl" last fall. At the moment, those fleshly stalks are standing straight, maybe not as tall as last year, but it looks as if both she and I will avoid the hideous sprawling that affects these top heavy plants in autumn.

Also lovely: Kiringeshoma palmata (Japanese Yellow Bells), great in shade with waxy, yellow bell flowers & maple-shaped leaves, about three feet high by five across; Heucheras, "Ruffled Petticoats,' and 'Palace Purple' among other purples; most ferns; grasses Miscanthus and Hakonechloa; Tricyrtis, except 'variegata' which seldom blooms before getting zapped by frost; and the beautifully invasive, Japanese anemone 'Honorine Jobert,' gorgeous, single white flowers on deep green, maple-shaped leaves.

Hostas looking happy: Big Sam, Ginko Craig, Gold Drop, Halcyon, Inahu, Love Pat, Krossa Regal, Mildred Seaver, Minuteman, Patriot, Paul's Glory, Peridot, Pinky, Strip Tease, Sum & Substance, tokudama Flavocircinalis, Wolverine.

Note for 2001: For every slug killed in late March, you have reduced the summer's slug populace by 3,000. I am not making this up.

Rake Away!

Linda Meadors

Hort Chair