japanese anemone – The Gardening Blog

I’ve been working my way through a lengthy list of Things to Do in the garden – none of which I will bore you with here. You know the drill … cut back, tidy, dead head, prune, chop, feed, mulch, plan, re-pot, plant, prepare … and then still lots more to do. One of the advantages of all this activity is that cutting back the tired summer growth seems to bring the Autumn blooms to the fore. After last years change of season realisation that everything is white in my garden, I’ve been trying to add a few more blues and pinks and I’m enjoying the colours. But it seems more white sneaked its way in too …

First Camellia bloom of the season. Last year they started to bloom slightly earlier which I wrote about here. This lovely bloom below is on the 3 year quite large shrub. It’s the first one to bloom every year. It is one of my favourite plants in the garden and I’m relieved it recovered from the strange leaf fungus or mould that affected it late last year. Cutting back the plants around it and removing the affected leaves seems to have done the trick.

Here are some of my other ‘Autumn Lovelies’…

[one_half]Lovely Autumn foliage in the garden[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Close up of Nandinas changing foliage[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Sweet Sutera loving the Autumn sun[/one_half]

[one_half_last]These are new and loving their spot[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Everybodies favourite, favourite[/one_half]

[one_half_last]My lovely little field of Anemones[/one_half_last]

[one_half]with lots more to come …[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Reseeded itself? Wonderful[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Sigh … I love all the foliage[/one_half]

[one_half_last]And the roses are still looking lovely[/one_half_last]

Don’t you just love the start of my little “field” of Anemones? I’ve read that they can become invasive … I say, “come and invade my garden with your pretty flowers! We’ll make lots of space for you here in the shade”. I should have bought three times the number I bought, they are so pretty and brightening up a corner that would otherwise be quite boring right now.

I’m totally bowled over by the little white Begonia (third last photo) that appeared again. I planted 6 seedlings last year and all of them succumbed to something-or-other (I suspected cut worm at the time). But this one seems to have come back or reseeded itself? I’m delighted, it was a nice surprise.

I’m loving all the foliage right now too. Everything is gorgeously lush and beautiful. And colourful. And growing. Even the Gardenias are lush and green with the most beautiful shiny dark leaves. They do this to me, the Gardenias … At the beginning of summer the Gardenias look frazzled and spare for about two months and I threaten them every year with removal. Then three months later they do this. They go green and lush and I don’t have the heart to yank them out.

So what’s going on in your garden right now?

Today I am grateful that gardening allows me to be creative. My beloved grandfather was a talented and prolific artist and it has often bothered me throughout my life that I never cultivated the artist in me. I stopped drawing at some stage and today find it difficult to draw even a simple stick man (ok, that might be an exaggeration, but as I child I could draw and paint. Well. That is something I cannot do today).

But in the garden I can pretend to be an artist! I can be creative and “design” garden beds, I pair different plants for effect, prune shrubs to shapes that appeal … often the results of my gardening creativity are questionable, but I’m learning to be creative in my garden and for that I am grateful.

Photo: Japanese anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’. I simply love this easy-to-grow plant which rewards me in my shaded garden with a wonderful display of these gorgeous white blooms dancing high above the plants foliage in late summer to early autumn.

‘Honorine Jobert’ is a vigorous, fibrous-rooted, mounding, compact Japanese anemone hybrid cultivar which typically grows to 3-4′ tall and spreads by creeping rhizomes. Single flowers (2-3″ diameter) with 6-9 overlapping white petaloid sepals and yellow center stamens appear on long, wiry-but-graceful, branching stems over an attractive foliage mound of trifoliate dark green leaves.

About the 30 Day Challenge

Cat of The Whimsical Gardener, has invited Garden Bloggers the world over to join her in the 30 day challenge of posting a photograph and sentiment that you are thankful for – every day for 30 days. Find something you are thankful for every day, for 30 days, can’t be too difficult, can it? See all my posts filed under “30 Day Challenge“.