Every year, my perennial gardens start to look pretty tired and colorless around end of August/September. I've got dahlias, asters, black-eyed susans, michaelmas daisies that are putting on a show, but I'd love to know what else I might add. What's blooming, perennial/shrub wise, in your garden right now?

hi, Annie. Great topic!

Right now I have blooming:
Calamintha nepeta
Tagetes spps.
Echinacea 'Raspberry Truffle'
Sedum 'Autumn Fire'
Zinnias
Russian Sages
R. hirtas
Cosmos sulphureus
Asters
Begonia kaylen
Celosias
Verbena 'Lollipop'
Goldenrods
Caryopteris
Joe Pye Weed (White Snakeroot)
Calendula (pot marigold)
Basil ('Christmas' and 'African Blue')
Oenothera 'Prairie Lode'
Begonia grandis
Impatiens
Vinca
Snapdragons
4 0'clocks
Lantana
Gaillardia
Lobelia cardinalis
Coleus
Lavenders
Black & Blue Salvia
Red Salvia
Alyssum
Blue Mistflower
Butterfly Bush
Nemesia 'Opal Innocence'
Wave Petunias

Wow. Great list. I'm going to copy it, print it out, and add a lot of these to my borders! Thanks!

Last year I worked on acquiring more late season bloomers! :-).

Yes, "end of season" is the down time for my perennial borders. I've got dahlias and black eyed susans and some killer purple new England asters and I'm really considering grouping all these in one border so I have one really smashing autumn border.

Sounds pretty, Annie! My low spot is late spring/early summer, after all the bulbs are done but before the summer perennials really get going. Geraniums and penstemon bloom during that time, but the poor bees kind of buzz around sounding perturbed that the buffet isn't better!

we still have lots of blooms including Show n Tell dahlias along our veggie garden border with red cannas and bright yellow Jerusalem artichoke daisys. The goldenrod is now fading. We also have stevia in a pot, which looks like it is getting buds? I wasn't expecting it to bloom. Nice end of summer surprise!

Gorgeous dahlia!

beautiful!

I lust for dahilas. All I have now (all that survived the winter storage) are these huge melon orange ones that I think are gorgeous and the scarlet red Bishop of Llanduff. But I lost some lovely white ones, yellow, and a deep wine red dinner plate dahlia (rotted, my fault).

The reds are so beautiful Annie.

our Stevia is blooming now! didn't realize it bloomed this late in the season. I'm thinking of bringing the pot in to overwinter now... yet another pot added to the overwinter list. Guess I'll give it a dose of soapy water rinse first to clear out any ants. Not sure if it works, but is worth a try. I did that with our other plants too that we took in. So far so good.

I'll try and take a photo later. Stevia blooms are small white. Has anyone else tried overwintering it?

That's interesting, Wind. I have not tried growing Stevia yet, but MoBot suggests it can be overwintered.

I have some lime basil that is just getting ready to bloom now--it grew so slowly throughout the season, for some reason.

My sister (in North Carolina) grew some stevia once but I never knew whether the flowers were anything much; I just kept running across this little baggie of dried stevia leaves in the overcrowded spice cupboard and wanting to toss them out!

:D

Has anyone ever used the dried leaves as a sweetener?

LOL! I asked her that! She said no but one day she would!



right now they are moving, to a much smaller house. I kinda bet that little bag of leaves is no longer there.

But the funny thing is, when I first read your post, without remembering the "stevia" context, I was thinking "leaves --> sweetener --> soil amendment"

oh, Kyla, you are an ardent composter to have that association!

Um you're sure the little baggie of dried leaves WAS Stevia right? "Gee officer, I thought it was a bag of stevia...."

Uh.... Yeah, sure!