Autumn 'harvest'

Many of you are back from summer vacations or time away and that gives you time to be back in your garden. The leaves may be starting to turn on the East coast but here we're into our warmer months. Which means of course that our gardens are a tad confused. Is it Autumn or still summer? Vines and fall perennials like salvias in bloom say it's autumn but all our summer flowers say "Wait a minute, we're not done." I was sure that my garden was winding down from the blaze of color in summer and certain that there wasn't much new that I could share via photo in this blog. Lo and behold, there are still a few new surprises. Here they are, a kind of floral harvest.

Fuchjsia 'Firecracker'. Two of this charming variegated fuchsia bookend a much taller Fuchsia denticulata, in a raised bed populated with fuchsias, ferns and an early blooming Camellia Buttermint.

Ribes aureum. A nice shot with the patterned light on this bush ribes. I'm training it up against a fence, behind my always vigorous Hydrangea Nikko Blue.

One of my favorite plants, this Geranium phaeum isn't well known. I love the 'matte finish' of its purple flowers. Prolific and tough.

A new Sphaeralcea addition to my garden. This S. incana has as you can see soft orange colored flowers. Count me as a fan of globe mallows.

Here's another shot of my fun Gomphrena 'Fireworks,' catching the sun and throwing off dazzling color.

The first flower on my King Protea has opened to stage two, the red outer bracts contrasting with the white petals at the center (which here are still tightly closed).

Passiflora citrina. The simplest but one of the loveliest of all passion flowers. Love that lemon yellow!

Here's my Sphaeralcea munroana being visited by a Agapostemon texanus, better known as Ultra Green Sweat Bee. When I consulted my bee calendar to verify the bee species, lo and behold the author had a photo of this bee inside a sphaeralcea flower! 

Another shot of my Tweedia caerulea. I collected the seedpods of this milkweed member and wouldn't you know it, it's begun a second bloom season. No beating that color.

Echinacea Summer Sky. My collection of coneflowers continue to prosper. They bloom nearly year round now, offering passersby a flowering treat. Not to mention a parade of bees.

Dicentra scandens. Speaking of a long bloom season, this vigorous bleeding heart is still going strong, after first blooming in April.

Hebe evansii. Well, it's about time this guy began flowering. Jeez, I was getting worried. As you can see, it offers solid purple flowers, which look particularly lovely against the grey stucco wall.

Lastly, a different viewpoint of my Mimulus aurantiacus Jelly Bean Orange. It's proving a tough guy and a regular bloomer. Hard to beat that color!