All the Dirt on Gardening

Verbena Our garden is always loaded with shades of lavender and purple in October. Purple Reullia is my blog's header photo. Here is a photo essay of  more of the flowers blooming in blue and purple today. 4-O'Clocks Mealy Cup Sage Purple Heart Asters Thai Basil Beautyberry shrub Tall native Asters

Perennial asters ( Asteraceae ) are the star of the autumn garden. In fact aster is the Latin word for star. There are 180 to 250 species of aster annuals, biennials, perennials, and sub-shrubs.     These members of the Sunflower and Chrysanthemum plant family are also called Michaelmas daisy, starwort, and frost flower. New England asters are easy to grow. You may notice that their flowers close at night. This one is our native Smooth Aster Symphyotrichum leave var. laeve. This Aster tataricus grows 6 feet tall and multiplies every year. If you like to see Monarch butterflies in the fall as they migrate, plant tataricus! Most asters used for cut flowers are hybrids of two North American natives: Aster novi - belgii (New York aster) and Aster novae- angliae (New England aster). Good Scents Garden The shorter, shrubby aster varieties barely spread and make a tidy front of the border display. Because there are so many varieties, their names are used inte...

We had a deep freeze - 28 degrees F ( 15.5 C ) - that turned our late fall garden into a blackened early winter scene. Luckily, I took a few snapshots the day before. Mexican Sunflower - Tithonia - was a volunteer in the both the flower and vegetable garden this year. Ever-durable - Autumn Joy Sedum - was flowering in pink and feeding butterflies. And, the June planted Renee zinnias brought bright colors, skippers and small butterflies by the hundreds. This was the year of basil for me. I planted hundreds of seedlings for a non-profit fundraiser and put the extras everywhere in the garden for the butterflies. Over the past few years, I collected asters and many of them are still hanging on despite the hard freeze. All in all, it was a glorious fall.

Photos: Both photos are from Mountain Valley Growers : Chocolate Scented Daisy or Berlandiera lyrata. Their Internet site describes it as having "a quarter-size, vibrant, yellow daisy with striking red striped undersides and chocolate-colored stamens." Mountain Valley Growers has the plants. The scoop on this beatuy - it is native to the southwestern United States, dies back in winter, and, grows to 1.5 feet tall. Blooms at night and emits its chocolate scent in the morning. I have purchased several items from Mountain Valley Growers and most survived. In the shed there are 3-butterfly bushes from MVG. I also bought a collection of Salvias that did well last summer and now are quite happy in the shed for the winter. The Maraschino Cherry Salvia was a knockout. I really, really want Hotlips Salvia now and will order it this month. Click here to see their list of available plants. MVG has a 6-plant minimum, so 6-hot lips salvias plus shipping comes to about $37.00 wi...