Fall is in the air

Happy Autumn Equinox! Here at Lydia Street, it is starting to feel like fall. The temperatures have dropped in the evenings and the mums are starting to bloom.

For years and years, we would buy potted mums to sit on the steps. The bright colorful blossoms would be wonderful until winter actually started to set in, and then I would toss them into the trash.

Why didn’t anyone ever tell me to plant them? They make beautiful garden plants when they are all green and then, when you least expect it, they burst out in full bloom. That’s starting to happen here.

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Take a look at these Sea Oats

There’s a touch of fall in the air. The temperatures have been in the 80s during the day and the 60s at night.

The garden is beautiful in the fall. The mums are starting to bloom now but what I want to show you today are Sea Oats, an ornamental grass that turns this wonderful shade of pink-brown-gold. The latin name is Chasmanthium latifolium.

What I like about these is that they can’t be mistaken for weeds.

Purple, green and gorgeous

We haven’t tried eating these beautiful Hyacinth Beans but we are certainly enjoying looking at them.

The contrasting colors really help make this plant stand out.

Bright and beautiful sunflower bouquet

Some of the sunflowers survived the terrible storm incident earlier in the summer.

They are hardy plants, and although our plan to disguise the neighbor’s house didn’t turn out as well as we thought it would, we have been able to enjoy the flowers very much.

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Sunflowers are here

The sunflowers have finally started to bloom here at Lydia Street. We woke up this morning to find two opened blossoms and more buds getting ready to bloom.

Even Harold the Bee stopped by for an early morning inspection of the blossoms.

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Daisy in the sun

When will our sunflowers bloom already?

Good job sunflowers. You’re growing tall and strong and doing a pretty good job of disguising the ugly side of our neighbor’s house. Now it’s time to make some flowers. Please?

UPDATE: They’re here!

What’s blooming this week

Here’s what’s blooming in the garden this week. Click on a photo to open the gallery.

Crocosmia

Echinachia

Rudbeckia

Stachys Monnieri

June 9, 2012 [The babies!]

June 2, 2012

May 21, 2012

April 25, 2012

We’re having babies in the garden

Crocosmia ready to bloom

Echinacia beginning to unfurl

Tiny monarda

Lilies of the Ditch

We love our common day lilies. Known as “roadside lilies” or, as some people call them “ditch lilies,” these plants are so easy to grow that who wouldn’t love them?

We’ve heard that some gardeners don’t like how invasive they are. Or maybe they don’t like the fact that the blooms last only one day. We’re certainly not snobs here on Lydia Street but we do wish that the blossoms could be used in floral arrangements without wilting. Sigh.

Ditch lilies (and their upscale cousins, daylilies) are plentiful in our neighborhood and loved for their prolific foliage and happy orange blossoms that bloom all summer long.

Lilies of the Ditch