10 September surprises!

Summer is definitely over.

The swing seats are being dismantled and the BBQs put back in the shed, but this year our gardens seem to be putting on some very welcome ‘plot twists’ before we batten down for winter.

Here’s what we mean…

1. 1. I’d forgotten how worthwhile it is to deadhead clematis!  C. ‘Prince Charles’ is one of the Group 3 types that flower on the current season’s wood, so I cut every stem back to 30 cm (1 ft) in March and he was already sporting masses of its charming gappy blue/mauve flowers by mid-June. I clipped most of his seed heads off at the end of July, and he’s flowering his pretty little socks off again in September.  Perhaps not quite as dripping with blooms as the earlier show, but what a bonus among the oranges, buffs and carmines on autumn!

2. As I expect you know, I’m lucky enough to spend my summers in western Normandy but we usually head back to Blighty by mid-September and miss the colouring-up of the Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) growing on a large metal arbour.  Not this year.  It’s taken on its autumnal hues a couple of weeks earlier than normal – just for us to enjoy before we head northwards again.

3. Do you remember that somewhat mournful song by Elvis Costello:

As you turn to walk away

And as the door behind you closes

The only thing I have to say

It’s been a good year for the roses…….

Well, it really has been a fab year for roses!  At least it has here; their deep roots haven’t worried at all about the hot dry weather, they just slowed up a bit and now we’ve had some proper downpours, they are all flowering almost like it’s spring again. Whoopee!

4. Just to ward off Laura’s upcoming scorn of my ‘common’ choices, I’d like to leave you with the wonder that is Cercis canadensis ‘Eternal Flame’ – okay, I’m cheating a little because it’s not really a ‘surprise’ – this little award-winning tree has been gorgeous for months, but its beauty is even more intense with the lower autumn sunlight shining through.

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Yes definitely cheating if it’s been looking good for ages, and it wasn’t actually a ‘surprise’ that Elaine chose both a clematis AND a rose in her selection was it?
Nothing quite so normal coming up….
5. My first surprise was to see 13 (I counted) cones strutting their peculiar stuff on my pot grown banksia. Its species name has been lost in the mists of time so if any of you can identify it I would be most grateful.

6. Next it was the crepe myrtle’s turn to delight me.
I know this is Lagostroemia ‘Braise d’ete’ as I found the battered label in the compost heap last winter and I’ve only ever bought one. Having grown it in a pot for years I took the plunge and planted it in a very sheltered corner last year. Having thrown out one flowering branch back in August I thought that was it, but now it’s burst into bloom all over! Braise d’ete translates as glowing embers of summer which I think describes the blooms very aptly as you can see from our featured photo at the top of this weeks blog.

7. My final surprise was to find my Chilean guava, Ugni molinae, was quite so pretty in berry. I covered it with a mosquito net this summer to stop the blackbirds stripping the fruit and now have a lovely horde to pick and eat.

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It’s a surprise for me whatever the month, to have ever heard of any of Laura’s plants. Here in the Scottish Highlands my September surprises are somewhat simpler.

8. For instance, I feel the crab apple tree above my house is having a ghastly September surprise/shock as its little yellow fruits are being over-run by plump red and green apples. The rootstock to which the crab apple was grafted is, like that annoying friend you’d hoped to drop, clearly ‘back again’ and taking over its life.

9. For myself, there could be no greater surprise that when my Kniphofia caulescens which has been sitting like a huge inert leek since I acquired it years ago, suddenly erupted this month with something that could knock out a burglar. It says something about its provenance (Lesotho mountains) that it waited until all the lightweight perennials packed up their tents, before making its move.

10. My final surprise is that something’s gone right. I moved a little tree – Heptacodium Miconoides – in the spring because I needed to park my car in that spot. It had been quite happy there but always got frosted before its flowers opened. I thought it might hate being dug up/its new spot/its overbearing new neighbours but not only has it settled in nicely but it’s flowering ahead of Jack Frost for the first time ever.

I love it when there was no plan, but it still came together!

Have there been plants in your garden in the last couple of weeks that have given you a pleasant surprise? Do let us know about them.  

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This pretty daisy is tougher than the internet would have you believe and really lights up the late summer border which is why it’s Louise’s Great Plant this Month.

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Brand new this week – we’re now able to showcase gardening items currently on the market that we recommend for a range of jobs. And we’ve had one of our weekly ‘scout abouts’ for suppliers offering seasonal discount deals.

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In the video below Laura explains that there is a very narrow window to plant autumn flowering bulbs, and why the middle of September is the perfect time to get this task done. 

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