Since NHBabs is temporarily without internet access, I'll post this month's thread. PixieLou, if you ever happen to stop by, we're keeping your tradition alive!

As of last evening I am finally back on line after several calls to my new internet provider. Yippee! An antique iPad 1 (circa 2010) isn't really a viable option for surfing the internet!

Welcome back, NHBabs! It's funny, and sadly true, that a piece of technology dated 2010 can be considered antique.

Slowly getting into late summer here (I refuse to call it fall).

Sweet Autumn Clematis is blooming now - the volunteers are covering my storage unit and the Phlox Protection Zone fence.

The storage unit is strategically placed so that anyone slipping on the ramp to the tool shed won't fall over the retaining wall - they'll just flop onto the storage unit. The clematis decided on its own to decorate it.

Another clematis is guarding the phlox which have mostly gone by.

A few phlox are remaining, these in the Phlox Protection Zone:

Phlox 'Purple Kiss'

Phlox David's Lavender'

And another David's Lavender that seeded itself in a rugosa rose enclosure:

Sedums are flourishing:

And one sedum is coexisting with white wood aster.

Claire

Wonderful photos, Claire. Love that David's Lavender.... hmmmm. Maybe I should put some in next year.

Molie

Man that Sweet Autumn Clematis is a monster. They do not play well with others, but I'll bet it's perfuming your garden.

Speaking of perfume my Brugmansias are blooming well right now and I finally got a picture that I like of one of them.

I got this new Clematis delivered yesterday from Brushwood and it had a flower on it. This is C. 'Crispa'

The Zinnias are blooming like crazy and I have more than I can cut right now.

I had a tree go down last year exposing some of the Hosta to too much sun so part of my solution was to plant sunflowers to provide some shade. These are now about 9 feet tall.

And I was surprised to find this Bearded Iris reblooming in the white garden.

Happy Labor Day everyone. Enjoy the weekend.

Steve

Question for Steve:

Are your zinnias and brugmansias hardy? Or do you re-seed/bring them in for the winter?

Beautiful photos, Steve and Claire!

I was astonished to find this on my formerly non-blooming pimento pepper plant this afternoon! An actual blossom! I grew this plant from seed in a pot, then transplanted it to the vegetable garden where it languished. A suggestion from someone was that peppers of all kinds seem to do better in poor soil inspired me to replant it into a pot filled with a mix of soil and sand. I passed it over every time I treated my other potted plants to a dinner of enriched old fish aquarium water. Apparently this starvation diet bore fruit.. or at least flowers. I just want this plant to produce a couple peppers, for seeds and for using in paella (which I make only about once a year) so I don't need many peppers. I'll settle for two, which is how many blossoms I have. At least it is in a pot so I can remove it to the house at night when the frost strikes and keep it going into the fall.

Hmmm... well apparently Houzz is having problems with their photo upload software again, so I'll leave you all to envision a white pepper blossom and try again later to upload the image.

Alright I will try it this way! There's more than one way to post a picture, if I can figure out how to make this work...

http://homepages.sover.net/~lsudlow/images/post/PepperBloss8Sep2015a.JPG

http://www.sover.net/~lsudlow/images/post/GardenWall28Aug2015b.jpg
http://www.sover.net/~lsudlow/images/post/GardensBackOfHouse28Aug2015.jpg

I guess the best I can do is clickable links since Houzz doesn't appear to like html code.

Glad to see your photos, Claire and Steve. My poor phlox are all drying out in this heat. If there is any one good thing about this crummy summer, it's that there's been no mildew on the phlox. The only parts of our yard that look good are the dry gardens down at the end and the plants on our covered deck. I'll see if Houzz allows me to post them.

Here are some of our Phal. orchids on the deck.

And a not-so-good photo of Indian Giver, the only daylily that's re-blooming now for me, against an Iceberg rose and a low-growing white phlox 'Triple Play' behind it.

Molie

Okay, so the photo upload worked... try it again tonight, Sped?

Here is our dry garden at the end of the yard. It's really, really dry this year and many plants aren't do so well. This area is now our 'Textural Garden' with the sedum just loaded with bees.

The top side of the path...

From another angle...

One spot of color comes from volunteer portulaca which appeared in the gravel edge of our driveway. These come back every year.... some place.

My whole garden is toast. Literally brown and crispy. I've had no time to water, and even when I do, I'm really worried about my well. I've lost a lot of perennials, and I think I've lost some shrubs that I've had for years. I'm hoping the roots are still alive and maybe there will be some miraculous comebacks!

Suzabanana,

The Zinnia's are annuals. Just some cut and come again types that I grow for cut flowers. I really like them and will continue to grow these from seed each year.

The Brugs are in their second year. The spent the winter in my attached garage, in a semi-dormant state. They do not survive in freezing temperatures, but a cool dark basement is a good place for them. Some gardeners bring them in for the winter. Some take cuttings and restart them every year. The garage worked well last year, but they need to be root pruned and repotted. I'll save that for next Spring.

Steve

So sorry Diggerdee. :-(

I've been hauling my watering cans out to some of my newly planted shrubs. Our lawns have big brown patches that look like the Arizona desert. I half expect to find lizards and scorpions out there in a few days!

We finally got some much needed rain last night so I'm hoping it spells an end to the drought.

It rained! and rained and rained and rained.... the garden looks clean and happy.

The view from my kitchen window of happy washed ornamental grasses.

I walked out to get a different angle.

The reddish plumes are Miscanthus 'Malepartus', but there's also panicums and other miscanthus in there.

Claire

We have also had rain - 1 1/2" in the last three days, and much needed it was. The garden wouldn't mind a bit more as many plants are looking parched and tattered. Between low water and neglect (I was gone much of August and still haven't gotten caught up with anything in my life) the garden isn't looking great (other than some quite vigorous weeds!), but I did manage to find a few areas that look nice.

Agastache - can't remember the kind - has been blooming three or more weeks

Asters - there are two different white ones blooming as well as this pink.

This rose has bloomed late enough both years I've had it to completely miss the Japanese beetles.

Phlox are still blooming in white and pink.

and in the garden behind the house, the perennials look good, even though the woody plants are in tough shape (voles killed a Viburnum last winter, and the cold damaged the Kousa dogwood). Front to back: Agastache rupestris, herbaceous Caryopteris divericata 'Snow Fairy' which is actually blooming along with the variegated leaves, shrubby Caryopteris 'Sunshine Blue' (also blooming), and seed-grown Helenium.

It's almost the end of September and I decided to show parts of my garden before the October thread rolls around. There's such a difference between the beginning and end of September as the season changes.

The sweet autumn clematis lining the Phlox Protection Zone is now switching to seedheads and the goldenrod is blooming, but the phlox are still hanging in there. The alley is also a whole lot neater since I weeded out most of the soapwort. I left the soapwort in the Phlox Protection Zone hoping to discourage the woodchucks. The garden phlox seems able to compete with the soapwort.

A volunteer aster is beginning to bloom next to the phlox (I may have transplanted it there, I don't remember, but it was a volunteer somewhere).

Tall and medium-sized garden phlox (David's Lavender and Purple Kiss).

Away from the alley, the hardy begonia is starting to bloom! I didn't expect it to survive last winter. This is the only survivor from three original begonias. I keep hoping it will form bulbils but I haven't seen any.

A self-seeded goldenrod is thriving next to Hosta 'Stained Glass'.

And a first year mullein is bedecked with white wood aster. The aster just appeared in the mullein, I had nothing to do with it. That's one of the house sansevierias behind it.

Some of the sedums are a much darker color.

I'm still waiting for most of the asters, and the winterberry fruits are turning red so there will still be something to show in October.

Claire

Azalea Gilbraltar

Native Pink Honeysuckle
Shade Garden Astilbes
Balloon Flower
Big Blue Angel
I have a family of 7 black squirrels.Clematis

Carpet Rose 'Amber'

Debra, your flowers are so much better off than mine. Did you get rain or just water? I wouldn't show any of my clematis because they're all crispy, and my hosta plants are also looking forlorn. Beautiful photos, but I wish they were larger.

Claire, your phlox are lovely. I think I'll look for David's Lavender next year.

NHBabs, I always enjoy your photos of the fields... not too far from now they will be snow covered I guess we're unusual for retired folks because we'd never move south to Florida or the Carolinas. We both love winter, even though we're not into winter sports, and the four seasons.

These last two posts were posted in the wrong year's thread. Perhaps the posters can copy and paste over to the September 2016 thread.

NHBabs, I meant to post here, the 2015 thread.

OK, I'm confused.