lovely weekend

We are in the midst of a lovely autumn weekend. Our city does a clean-up every spring and fall that allows residents to get rid of the junk. Today was the fall clean-up. Mark cleaned out some stuff in the garage and put it out by the curb yesterday. This morning some guy came by and took over half of it. One person's junk is another person's treasure!!

One of our neighbors who has given me leaves in past years knocked on the door last night asking if I needed more this year. NO!!!! I'M DONE! Yeah, that's what my brain was screaming at me, but this morning I headed over there and brought home 13 bags of oak leaves. I'm pathetic.

We have had a stack of logs on the side of the driveway since last summer when we trimmed up a maple tree. This afternoon we rented a splitter, split all the logs, and hauled them back to the firewood pile. I still have to actually add them to the pile, but the hardest part of the job is done at least. And the driveway looks much nicer.

It's supposed to be near 60 tomorrow - key word "supposed to be" - so I'm thinking I'll take the opportunity to put hooks in the porch to hang Christmas lights this year. On one of our drive-arounds last year, I picked up some cool ideas for lights, and I can't wait to try them out. The lights won't be turned on until after Thanksgiving, but it is way nicer to put them up when it's 60 than when it's 30!!

If it does hit 60, I want to get down to the Arb for a walk - I haven't been there for awhile, and I think it would do my gardener's soul some good. Maybe I'll even remember my camera - although I think most of our leaves have fallen. I picked Mark up at the airport yesterday and was surprised to see quite a few trees that still have leaves near there. Mark is hoping to get in a motorcycle ride if it's warm tomorrow. Gosh, we seem to have a lot riding on tomorrow's temperature! :)

A few things are still blooming in the gardens. I emptied out the last of my containers today - very sad since they're still blooming. I left this one with the geraniums - I'll pull them after we have a hard frost. The first two photos are "Hawkeye Belle" - this rose is peach to lt pink in the summer - but now with cooler temps it's a little deeper color - very pretty. The next photo is my green leafed snakeroot. These have a ton of bloom stalks - but just started to bloom. If we'd had an earlier frost, they wouldn't have bloomed this year. And the bellflowers are blooming again. I really wish things could just keep blooming away until next April when the tulips start in again!!

fall blooms

We've had two very windy days now, and I'm happy to report the oil/gas film on the lake from our neighbors' boat sinking has disappeared.

Our boat was pulled yesterday, so this weekend we'll be getting that winterized and ready to cover for the winter. If the weather cooperates, we'll also try and get a start on taking the dock out. It's way more fun getting all of these things out in the spring than putting them away this time of year! Here are a few more of the blooms I've been enjoying the last week or so.

Carefree Beauty rose

hibiscus

turtlehead

snakeroot (I think "Brunette")

anemone

veronica

John Davis rose

more September blooms

Kind of a quiet, boring day here - we spent most of the day leveling a space for my new garden/storage shed. Hopefully, I'll have photos to share of the new shed within the next week. Tonight we went out for pizza with friends - a very fun evening of catching up.

Here are more photos of this weekend's blooms.


This is by far the best photo I have ever taken of spiderwort. Usually they come out looking very flat. This one is perfect (if I do say so myself!). About a month ago, I cut most of the spiderwort back, and now they are blooming again.

This is the wild coneflower that's been blooming all summer. This is a workhorse!!

The mountain bluet is blooming again also. I love these spidery blue blooms.

I have a snakeroot plant that has been moved many, many times. For the last few years, it hasn't been very happy and hasn't bloomed. So last fall, I moved it to yet another home. When I dug up the plant, it split into 3 plants. They all look healthy, but they are just now sending up these little flower stalks. I think they're the same variety as the ones I showed blooming a couple months ago - big, beautiful flower spikes. I'll give these another year here - hopefully, they'll bloom earlier and better next year. (If not, I do have a couple more places to try :) !)

Here's one of my dark snakeroot - I believe this one is "Brunette." It's just starting to bloom. Again, not terribly impressive. This one may not be getting as much moisture as it wants - it's right next to the river birch clump. Gosh, I hate to move these things all the time.

The physostegia - or obedient plant. This is a fun little plant that should keep increasing in number every year.

Turtlehead. Not a great photo - but look at all those blooms! I love these plants.

I think this is the last veronica in the garden still blooming.

Brown-eyed Susans are still going strong.

A tuberous begonia. These finally started blooming last week - way too long to wait for container plants!! I had some red and some yellow that did quite well this year, but the rest were only so-so. I may decide to not do these next year...

The white "David" phlox is still looking very pretty. Some of the other phlox have blooms, but they're coming to the end.

The Japanese anemone are still looking good.

Another shot - I just love these airy little blooms.

I just took some under-performing begonias out of a hanging planter by the streetside door, and put in these pansies. (And then the temps jumped into the 80's for a couple days - of course!!) I absolutely love this color.

cimicifuga - snakeroot

A few days ago I did a post that showed my snakeroot (below). There were a lot of comments about it, and I thought I should pass on the information I have on this great plant.

In the photo below, the lantern is 4 ft tall - and the top of the bloom is about 5 ft. The plant itself is probably in the 3.5x3.5 range. I have grown it in full sun with phlox (beautiful!) and in almost full shade. I think it blooms a little better with a little bit of sun. It's a plant that likes water, but I haven't had it get wilty on me.

I don't remember the name of the green one - I've had it for about 25 years! I move it every once in awhile, and it usually breaks apart when I do, so I'm always getting new divisions - which I would guess keeps it healthy and growing.

I also have a dark one - photo above. I believe this one is called Brunette. It's a little smaller, blooms a little later, and likes more shade. The bloom is pinkish instead of white - the buds are burgundy, so it's interesting when it starts blooming and you have the burgundy and pink together.

The old name for this plant is cimicifuga - and as blackswamp_girl noted in the comments, that is a fun name, and I still use it too. In the last couple years, they have reclassified it, and it is generally under the name actaea now (not nearly as fun to say!!). Some common names are snakeroot and bugbane.

One interesting side note: when I googled it to find the new name, I found a site that said cimicifuga means "bedbug repeller" - I can honestly say I haven't seen any bedbugs in the gardens that have snakeroot in them!

summer gardens

This is such a great time of year for Minnesota gardens! The roses are starting their second show. The asiatic lilies are pretty much done, but the orientals and daylilies are in full glory. All of the prairie-type blooms are jumping on the bandwagon. I just love it! Here are a few of the things in my garden right now.


Ligularia "Othello" - I just put in this plant this year. I have "The Rocket" which is starting to show some color too, but my first try with this one. I thought I was buying one "Othello" and one "Desdemona" - but when I got home, found I had two "Othello." Not a problem - they're looking good!

I love veronica - I have it in several gardens. The bees love it too - there's at least one in this photo. This is in the west porch garden - with pink roses - beautiful.

Not a great background - but the bloom is perfect! This is J.F. Quadra - a new climbing rose. I planted it last year - and this is the second show of blooms this year - lots of new growth. Meresy_g at Edge Effect commented that my red daylily would look nice planted in front of Russian sage. I agreed and started looking to see if I had any red and purple combos like that - I just happen to have a Russian sage planted beside this climber. In another year or two, I think it could be looking pretty good. (This is on the fence - wonder if I could talk my neighbor into planting something tall and purple and airy on his side??)

My wild brown-eyed susans have been blooming for awhile - but the hybrids are just starting. I love them with purple coneflower and phlox.

More balloon flowers - I love the color - and the bud is too cute.

This is snakeroot or bugbane. The latin name was cimcifuga but they have reclassified it, and I can never remember what it is now. I like snakeroot, and that's what I always call it. This is another one that the bees love. This is a plant that will grow in sun, but prefers partial shade. The plant is fairly large and then gets these wonderful tall blooms. It adds great height to the shade border.

Here's a photo of the snakeroot plant - the buds are all curly and maybe snakey?? and then as the flowers open the bloom stalk straightens. I think it's very fun. And it has a cool fragrance.

Last but not least, phlox. I have this purple, plus a darker pinkish purple, a dark pink, and white. They all smell just like phlox should.