Amazing how beautiful your gardens look at this time of year, Paul! I find Angelica to be such a presence in the garden. She towers over all plants around her yet does not detract from the beauty of the hosta due to her open habit...a lovely architectural addition to a beautiful garden.

No pics to offer, only appreciation. :-). Thank you for sharing.
Jo

Definitely not done yet... still very beautiful!

as a fellow zone 4 gardener, I'm surprised most of the garden here is still show worthy, but tonights predicted low temperature of 28ðF may start the inevitable decline. I spent a lot of today bringing in things like ponytail ferns, Christmas ferns n the like, setting up the hoses to drizzle, burying potted ones in the dirt, storing excess watering cans, many of you know the drill.

the year started slow wet and cold, so there are a lot of things that need to still mature seeds. crab apples, apples, pears all bumper crops keeping me canning, cherries not so much.

I have yet to harvest a mature hosta seed pod, odd.

late bloomers like yingeri are just now blossoming so there's not much hope for that.

unless we get an Indian summer!

the last two days have been so brisk the honeybees didn't even show up to raid the Sedum they so very much enjoy.

on the other hand, as of 7 p.m. Today I still have hummingbirds!

an 'end cap' display from a bed still kikin' :

hh

Looks like you still have some vibrance left in the gardens, Paul. Continuing to look A-OK. A question: In your first pic; The powder-blue with with white margins in the front of the bed...Is that 'First Frost'? Whatever it is, I love it.

Thanks,
Don B.

Thanks. very nice September pics! Garden looks great

HH. . . Now THAT is an exceptional foliage display! Just look at all that gorgeous variation of green. Wow factor!

Don B - that is Aristocrat. Color changes thru the season, with the late summer/fall colors as my favorite. I moved it to the border when I expanded this garden a couple of years ago.

Paul

looking good, Paul

used to love angelica... they disappeared...

hostahillbilly - 28 degrees - really? Our zone 4 low for the next 10 days is 41...

but I'm also not seeing mature pods. We are actually looking at some 70s highs and 50s lows for the next 10 days, so lots of growing still going on.

much of my garden is fried from the drought, but still... some pretty stuff and, as said, still have hummingbirds. Last couple of weeks also saw lots of sphinx moths pretending to be hummingbirds.

lots of fragrant hostas... I have a giant Royal Standard in a fairly sunny place just to have a hosta there in the sun garden... kind of take it for granted and ignore it - but man, it is just covered in fragrant blooms.

Aphrodite has big fat white buds... just won't open!

OK Paul... you've inspired me... I haven't even completed my once walk around photography task. Cloudy day - I'm headed out now!

Paul, I really like your groupings, and the aristocrats change photos are great! Is yours slow? Here's ours planted in 1999 , too shady?
hh

Thank you, Paul. I like the later-season variegation better, too. It goes from beautiful to very beautiful, IMO.

Don B.

HH, Aristocrat in my garden seems to be one of those hosta that grows to a certain # of divisions and can't seem to grow any bigger. Interesting that as much as I like Aristocrat, I've never taken pics of it in others gardens (other than MN Landscape Arboretum)....

Aristocrat is a sport from Hadspen Blue, which has never filled out that much for me either. I moved Aristocrat in 2011 to gain more light and see if I could grow it fuller - seemed to lose a bit last year from the move and gain it back this year, so we'll see going forward.

Paul

Here's a comparison of 2012(top 7/12) and 2013 (bottom 8/13)-

Paul - looks like this year's aristocrat is putting on a second flush