I do have two caryopteris in my gardens, looks like the one in your pictures, mine are blooming now. I lost a Snow Fairy over the winter. I do have one aster,it's not blooming yet. I have had trouble with asters surviving here, don't know if I did something wrong or not. The one I do have has been in the garden for a while. I've not tried helenium or agastache ( I like the silvery foliage), will have to look into those.

Sherry

sunnyborders how long have you had Eupatorium 'Chocolate'? Can you please take a picture of it for me? I am considering adding two of these to my front bed to replace two hydrangeas that bit the dust :(

Emily, one for four year and two for three.

Picture below (today) is the first purchased. It's also currently the biggest and the most advanced towards flowering. It's in now in full sun; the other two are still in partial shade. This species is said to be much more shade tolerant than other related ones.

I just learned about the current naming; most of the temperate garden Eupatorium have been reclassified into other genera. The correct name for 'Chocolate' is now Ageratina altissima 'Chocolate' (common name: white snakeroot 'Chocolate').

The Chicago Botanic Garden's Joe-Pye weeds/snakeroots trials gave four plants the ranking of excellent, one being 'Chocolate'.

Today

Wow! Thank you sunnyborders. Is that over 4ft? If it gets this tall, then I won't be able to use it in my front bed :( Are your shaded ones significantly shorter? I do really like it though!

'Chocolate' is one of our favorite plants because its flowers add such a nice touch to the mid-late October garden when everything else is fading. Mine grow on the north side of the house, under the roof overhang - so they get shade (and some sun in the afternoon) and the soil is very dry. Other than in the first year or two, they've never needed water. They get to 30-36" tall here. I've never had any issues with them seeding around or otherwise spreading.

Oct 10 2015

Looking in the opposite direction Oct 9 2011

Great plant - a definite favorite here!

A favorite of mine as well for the same reasons, dark foliage until fall, late bloom, does well in dry soil. The last few years there has been some light self seeding. Below is a photo from 2014. This is a grouping of three mature plants 3-5 feet tall.

Forty inches, Emily.

Intermediate light one, a few inches shorter and most shaded, a few inches shorter still (at this point in time). But it's only three plants.

sherrygirl, my memory is that you are somewhere in the midwest so your soil texture and pH are different than mine which is acid and well-drained without being dry. Agastache rupestris likes good drainage, especially in winter, so if you have a sandy area or a hill, plant it there. Otherwise, create a mound to plant it on, and don't cut off the dead stems until you see new basal growth starting in spring.

I have found that the asters sold in stores at this time of year don't survive, but I've had at least one of the Woods series (woods blue, woods pink, woods purple) survive as well as Lady in Black, Bonningdale white, Aster laevis 'Blue Bird', and one of the other tall blues, perhaps October Skies. This is one of the few types of plants I make an effort to plant in spring.

Thanks NHBabs, I'm about 40 miles west of Chicago, we have clay soil here. The aster that has survived here was purchased at my favorite local nursery, it's been in business for 80 years, so they "know their business". I will have to inquire there. My neighbor has trouble keeping asters alive too. The only ones he has going look just like mine.

Sherry

Well, it's not exactly spectacular, but it is Sept. after all and frost is threatening soon, so anything blooming is bonus for me. I just wish these clumps of corydalis lutea didn't wait so late to put on their show. I also wish these plants weren't so huge.

Little Lime hydrangea is showy too.

Was just up in the Muskokas.

Lots of orange coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and garden phlox (Phlox paniculata).

Port Carling (Sept 6).

Outhouse plant (R.lanciniata 'Hortensia') at the Port Carling museum.

Lots of well maintained annuals (Bracebridge: Sept 8 ).

"Hotlips"

Rouge, love your turtlehead, Hotlips! I have some and have struggled for the past few years about placement. I've moved it four times over the past 7 years. I think I finally found the right spot, moved it again a month ago. Thanks goodness it's been a trouper.

Sherry

Ooh - thanks so much for mentioning Eupatorium 'chocolate,' Sunnyborders. That is one beautiful plant. Definitely going on my wish list. I'm in Oklahoma, so I'm a little concerned about our hot summers since I read that summer heat may cause the plant to deteriorate, but I may try it on the north side of my house. Do your summers get very hot?

They can get quite hot, Kez, but what I note most of all (as someone raised in southern England) is how humid the summers can be here. Re temperature, this year has been particularly hot here with, I think, close to 4 times the number of days over 78°F that we had the previous year.

Re the latter drought conditions, this is the first year I've noticed some of our 'Chocolate' wilting a bit during the day and that is with our continual summer-long attention to watering.

I did read somewhere that Eupatorium 'Chocolate' is more drought tolerant than other Joe-Pye weeds.

I don't feel like leadwort gets quite the respect it deserves. A slow spreader, it eventually forms a deciduous ground cover which looks nice all season and has that awesome blue color.

Mine has been blooming for weeks through heat and drought and about at its peak now.

'Karl Foerster' feather reed grass. I love it from June to January even though the tan color is not a favorite of everyone, right now it's looking even better because of the perovskia all around it.

Sedum 'Red Caulie' is upright with red stems, dark leaves and deep red bloom.

I am having difficulty with other photos not loading so will try again later.

The native grasses are really coming around now. I let the prairie up front go natural this year just to see what it would do. Its been a terribly droughty year (not unusual for Oklahoma) but these plants can take it.

Mixed grasses and prairie plants

I've got some really nice Little Bluestem coloring up red and the Kansas Liatris is now blooming. 'Blonde Ambition' blue Grama got quite large this year (year #2 for them).

'Thin Man' Indian Grass from High Country Gardens is a hit with me, nice blue foliage & very vertical, an 'exclamation mark' at the end of the Hell Strip close to the driveway. I think I want more.

More Little Bluestem and Sideoats Grama, I think these have great texture and they really light up in late afternoon sun.

Azure Salvia from Kansas. Nice, very blue and much more well behaved on the dry Hell Strip.
Wide shot. There is a path going through the right side but you can't see it in the photo. The Apache Plume by the wall are still fairly young but I love the way the plumes catch the light. Full shot of 'Thin Man' planted last fall from a 4" plug, It will be better as time goes on. A lot of the Indian Grasses splay out, not this one.

Oklahoma native grass, Muhlenbergia riverchonii to the left, pink seeds catching the late rays along with 'Blue Heaven' bluestem and 'Blonde Ambition'.

We've seen some great critters too. Lots of butterflies, flying insects of many kinds, preying mantis and hummingbirds and we just found the usual Garden Spider over on a big cactus the other day. My husband shot some fantastic pictures of it.

Local Genotype Little Bluestem 'The Okies' showing red color on bloom stalks down on the Hell Strip. I love these tall guys.

Cowpen Daisy by 'Okie' little bluestem

Stunning colors in the Okie Blue Stems!

I love the flowers of grasses and some of your photos are particularly wonderful the way they catch the light coming through the grasses. Thank you for showing us they are autumn into winter flowering and foliage stars in the garden.

Sorghastrum 'Thin Man' is a stunner with its upright habit and large flowers.

I gave up trying to have a classic continuous bloom perennial garden and instead have a smallish bed focused almost exclusively on three perennials that have continuous spring/summer into autumn bloom in my area. Penstemons, Agastache and Echinaceas.

Penstemon 'Sour Grapes' is the star, beginning bloom as early as April and ending with November cold spells. It is literally never out of *lots* of bloom stems If deadheaded conscientiously. I know of no penstemon to compare. Unfortunately it's confusing to acquire because there are several in commerce of the same name. It's sturdily upright, has lovely burgundy stems and dark leaves. Here's a photo taken last week. It has at least this much bloom continuously.

On its left is a long blooming Agastache, cultivar name no longer remembered Slower to start blooming by months to its companion Penstemon and sooner out of bloom, (though it's flowering stems remain decorative), but still in bloom June well into late September. The same with the Echinaceas, June well into late September for many, though not all. I went in for well over a dozen of the new Echinaceas of many colors and am into my third year with no losses except Burgundy Fireworks which gophers ate.

i do have a few late flowering perennials I mix in with my much more numerous all season bloomers. I don't have a personal photo of a showy late bloomer I enjoy very much, Rudbeckia triloba. In its second year it's capable of a stunning and lengthy late summer into fall display. The flowers are smaller and a little more yellow than the similarly colored Rudbeckia Goldsturm but there are uncountable masses of flowers on a much taller plant.

i ditched the shorter asters as too invasive and the taller ones are not very long blooming in my garden. Mums eliminated too because of too much maintenance to keep to size.

I prefer the flowering grasses to finish off my season and they have the added advantage of winter presence too.. My favorite for a beautiful edge plant is Calmagrostis foliosa, a native California grass which is evergreen, beautiful twelve months of the year and never needs shearing to do it.

Speaking of foreground plants, Silene dioica 'Clifford Moore' starts blooming in mid spring and flowers profusely into well past mid summer and is repeating for me now about a month after deadheading

My favorite grass for the mid perennial border is Pennisetum, usually Hameln though this year I'll be trying the newer Ginger Love and Desert Plains. I also enjoy the tall Panicum 'Heavy Metal'. Very good background plant to display flowers against and it's flowers are showy in their own right and it's a wonderful fall and winter color plant. My ornamental grasses get cut back in late January and usually show green in late January to early February here, so they give me almost 12 months of interest in addition to their special fall displays.

Here's my Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln' already giving a hint of its beautiful fall color into winter color changes. At its feet another very long bloomer, Gaillardia Mesa Yellow that I should mention.

Several Dahlias add variety to the main threesome to complete the late summer into winter picture. Oh, and I shouldn't forget the couple of roses in the background that flush repeatedly Into late fall and a pair of Restios which are evergreen and add some all season interest.

Here's the Dahlia I like because it needs no staking, Dahlia coccinea 'True Wild Form', photo from Annies's Annuals. Needs to be religiously deadheaded to keep flowers coming though and very late to emerge in spring.. Blooming now in my garden.

I also have a similar one I like, Dahlia coccinea palmeri with strongly black foliage, also blooming now. Quite stunning.

i wish I had room for Eupatorium 'Chocolate'!

One other nice feature of my favorites that I so enjoy is that they are magnets for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds!

Gorgeous penstemon! Truly outstanding.

I also enjoyed the photos of Fort Carling, wish there were more......

Stunning Dahlia echolane.

Sitting down here in hot dry Oklahoma, that looks like the Garden of Eden. Not fair. Not fair. Not fair.

No all kidding aside, truly lovely Catkin (but its still not fair)

Actually I enjoyed yours too Tex, regarding how dry you've been, it looks well.

Echolane,

I'm LOVIN' your Penstemon 'Sour Grapes'!! but I can't seem to find it online. Any suggestions?

Catkin,

Your garden continues to be lovely! At this point, my garden is definitely going to bed for the season.

I like the cerinthe - do you know what kind it was? Do you plant from seed - if so, does the plant really reach that size in one growing season?

Thanks for any help you can provide! (I've never attempted growing cerinthe.)

Princeton. I wish.... Seriously, it's a real problem to find it. And this penstemon is worth the effort. I've had one or more plants for many years. Last year, I wanted more, so ordered three from our local nursery, the one I had originally acquired it from some years ago. Three 4" pots, not yet in bloom, clearly labeled Sour Grapes. When they bloomed they weren't my Sour Grapes; instead a much smaller, lighter, more violet flower. The plants were one of the octopus type Penstemons with lax stems that fall and crawl everywhere. Hated them, Then after calling around, I heard about a nursery north of me that had them. My husband and I drove 100 miles north in high hopes they were my Sour Grapes and luckily they were. I bought five. And, no, they don't do mail order. I keep promising to initiate a conversation about my plant with Joy Creek Nursery in Oregon to see if they can help me sort out this situation, but I have yet to do that.

Echolane, thanks anyways! If you ever find it available for mail order, maybe you could let the group know? I'm sure I'm not the only admirer :)

I will. I don't ever want to be without this Penstemon and so I want to pin down its availability for myself, too. This spring I forced down some stems and buried them in soil and I now have some extra plants and that makes me feel safer.

That penstemon used to be easily available. I remember seeing it on Bluestone for years. Has it became less available? I never grew it, but seeing your thoughts, maybe I should have!

Still not Sour Grapes though - much more likely to be 'Raven', Blackbird'. The colour looks not dissimilar to 'Garnet' but lacking the narrow leaf shape. Sour Grapes is distinctly purplish/blueish/lilacish. You are right it is often confused in commerce, particularly with 'Stapleford Gem.

I've finally written Joy Creek Nursery in Oregon who carry many Penstemons and breed some of their own. They have a Sour Grapes offered for sale, and though the color in their photo is wrong and the plant seems a little shorter than mine, color photo rendition is variable. If not, it will be yet a third Sour Grapes in the market and, as you say, there is Stapleford Gem to further confuse matters.

I have Garnet too, and the flower is far smaller and far redder than my Sour Grapes. Raven? Maybe, but in photos at least, it seems too dark a purple.

Thank you for the kind words, Princeton, the Cerinthe is an annual, sometimes self-sowing in certain conditions. It is plain old Cerinthe major, I think. I planted seeds in pots last December and planted the seedlings out in the ground this Spring.

FWIW, Dave's Garden website lists these nurseries as having P. 'Sour Grapes'.

J Lynn Nursery (Blain, Pennsylvania)
Learn more about J Lynn Nursery.
Purchase this from J Lynn Nursery's website Plants
Joy Creek Nursery (Scappoose, Oregon)
Learn more about Joy Creek Nursery.
Purchase this from Joy Creek Nursery's website Plants
Lazy S'S Farm & Nursery (Barboursville, Virginia)
Learn more about Lazy S'S Farm & Nursery.
Purchase this from Lazy S'S Farm & Nursery's website Plants
Secret Garden Growers (Canby, Oregon)
Learn more about Secret Garden Growers.
Purchase this from Secret Garden Growers's website Plants

I like that "True Wild Form" Dahlia and the Crocosmia "Emily McKenzie". I have the old standby "Lucifer" that returns faithfully every year and blooms for several weeks in late spring/early summer. Here's some early October flower power from the Victor/Victorian garden:

Pffft, who cares what it's called as long as you love it...and it is a star in your garden. Nothing easier to propagate either.

Checking out all the nurseries listed on Dave's Garden, I found only one possibility and it looks promising! Here's a link:

http://yhst-27104608415819.stores.yahoo.net/penstemon-hybridus-sour-grapes.html

Still looks a bit too much on the red side - Plum Jerkum looks similar.

I have found all the plummy. burgundy, purple penstemons to be infinitely more floriferous, longer lasting and reliable than any of the whites/pale pinks. Unsurprising since many of these garden hybrids have dipped extensively into the species possibilities - heterophyllus and spectabilis, for example has given us that electric blue tint and open florets seen in Stapleford Gem.

Accurate color rendition of photos can be so problematic. Some weeks ago I had a phone conversation with one of the employees at Joy Creek Nursery and when discussing one or another particular Penstemon he would occasionally concede that the color in the photo wasn't entirely representative.

As for the Sour Grapes in the above link, I was encouraged by the description of its lengthy bloom period, the upright habit, and the height.

I've been admiring a pretty color combination in bloom right now in my pot garden - a very pretty peach Gerbera and a yellow Agastache. I do wish the Gerbera were not such a shy and stingy bloomer though as I've waited weeks and weeks for it to flower again and it looks like I'll get only this one flower.

As a photographer, it's HARD to photograph certain colors and blues and purples are really hard. The only way to get accurate color renditions is in post-processing (and you need a blossom in front of you to do it well)...this would be awfully cost ineffective, unless the nursery man is also a semi-professional (or greater) photographer. And still perhaps not a wise use of his/her time business wise.

The difficulties of rendering colour into prints, even digitally, along with my dodgy eyesight, means on-screen identification is always a crapshoot...and I really ought to know better. I certainly avoid the 'Name that Plant' forum as a lost cause...so give my assertions the credibility rating they deserve! The world of roses is absolutely rife with misidentifications, sometimes carrying on for decades of red-hot dispute.

I like your combo, echolane!

Here are some more shots from my Fall landscape (may have to click to enlarge)

Rheum palmatum/ornamental rhubarb w/Iris x robusta 'Gerald Darby' encroaching on Spirea 'Bridal Veil'

Fuchsia magellanica 'Aurea' w/ Bergenia

Gunnera being awesome

Shade border just beginning to show color--Acer japonicum 'Aconitifolium' in the distance

NO ID Dahlia (roadside stand find)

NO ID hardy Mum with Baptisia foliage behind

Cotinus coggygria 'Golden Spirit' w/red Snapdragon

Katsura trees turning/Monkey Puzzle tree Araucaria araucana Viburnum 'Mariesii' far right

Polemonium boreale 'San Juan Skies'
Waiting to be planted (the tip of the iceberg) Astelia chathamica x nervosa 'Silver Shadow' in the foreground--found this one on sale for $6.50!

Incredible 'catkin'. Even with your huge property I love seeing those containers.

"September Charm" with persicaria "Golden Arrows" in front.

Here it is almost November and I have a few late bloomers I thought I'd add to this topic. I do wish the photos fell into the category of spectacular as the topic heading suggests, but I take comfort that I do still have flowers to enjoy.

Here's a floppy Aconitum and a late blooming Echinacea.

and a very pretty Silene uniflora Druetts Variegated

Bat Face Cuphea below. This plant is extremely floriferous from mid spring to frost. Also a bee magnet.

I bought Ratibida pinnata in a 4" pot in August and never expected it to bloom. Suddenly it shot up and teased me for a long time with its many buds and finally yesterday I caught sight of yellow rays opening out.. I felt as excited as a small child at holiday. And it's almost November!

i mustn't forget my wonderful ever blooming Penstemon Sour Grapes which is still showing quite a few flowering stems. It really has been in continuous and generous bloom since mid-spring.

And here's some fall color from A dwarf Japanese Maple

And one of my favorite fall color plants, Itea virginica 'Henry's Garnet', because it retains this colorful look all winter.

And now for a pretty Fothergilla gardenii, probably Mt Airy

A blueberry's fall display is almost as pleasurable as its berries.

A dwarf Ginkgo just shy of full fall color.