Fall for Fall

By Ms Sherry

mums

sedum

japanese anemone

Fall is officially here, but in East Central Alabama it is still warm and muggy. We have just about drowned with the heavy rains over the last week or so. Usually September is a month where we see long stretches of drought. Not so this year. Remembering days of endless dry heat without a sign of water makes me glad for the recent rainy days. The mushrooms are, indeed, flourishing providing a daily job for my husband as he removes them from my curious puppy.

Many often consider this time of the year to be rather blah. The summer annuals and perennials have faded . The fall color is not yet visible on the trees, and it is too early for the pansies. However, if you planned for four season bloom, there is still lots going on in the garden. You can find beautiful sedums, glorious sasanqua camellias, brightly colored mums, and the dainty but dear japanese anemones. Toad lilies (mentioned in an earlier blog) are still blooming.

If you have not planted japanese anemones, you surely should add this fall blooming perennial to your garden. Happiest in part sun and watered regularly, the japanese anemone will happily spread over time. One of its major disadvantages may be that the blooms grow on stems which can get leggy and need some staking. The one that I have pictured above is ‘Honorine Jobert’.

Sedums flourish in full sun, although they will tolerate a little shade. Their claim to fame is they don’t need much water. There are literally dozens of these succulent perennials on the market–some with large leaves, some with small leaves; some are trailers; others grow upright. Many are evergreen; others disappear over the winter. I have them in a range of colors from chartreuse to bright green to variegated. Sedums make wonderful container plantings.  Although most are not grown for their flowers; many (such as the one in the photograph: Sedum ‘Autumn Fire’) have a beautiful fall bloom.

As far as mums go, I don’t have much luck growing them as a perennial. They get leggy and fall over and never seem to look like the ones available in all the garden shops right now. About the first of September I replace all the spent annuals with pots of mums; they really do brighten up the landscape and can be enjoyed for weeks; however they do need frequent watering. My sister grows ‘Ryans White’, ‘Ryans Pink’ and ‘Ryans Yellow’. She says these old-fashioned mums are prolific spreaders but not invasive and the clumps just get larger and more beautiful as the years pass. They grow without care and really add a lot to the late summer/early fall garden. She tells me they are a great pass-a-long plant and she has shared them with many friends over the years.

Please do remember – as you shop garden catalogs and shops and the internet – to plant for 12 months of bloom in the garden. With the choices available to us all now, it is not hard to do and the rewards are great!

The mallow

By Ms Sherry

This little jewel with its pink flowers with purple stripes is a mallow, more specifically Mallow sylvestris (french hollyhock). The gardening source I turned to remarked that it needed good drainage and preferred regular water (“The Southern Living Gardening Book”); mine, however, is growing between rocks set out as stepping stones under an overhang so it frequently misses the rain, and regular sprays from the hose. But it grows happily. When I first got a mallow from a local nursery, I planted it in a beautifully groomed flower bed with great soil; not only did it refuse to prosper, it died. Some may view this mallow as a pest because it reseeds so prolifically that there can be dozens and dozens of plants almost overnight and they can spread throughout the garden. This is not a problem to me as it is so beautiful. When there get to be too many, I just get out my pruners. Although it does best in full sun, mine is planted in part sun. Many would refer to this mallow as a pass-along plant. If you can’t find a friend with an extra plant, perhaps he/she will share the seeds.

At Master Gardeners we define a weed as “a plant out of place.” Thus, for some, this mallow may be a weed as it is likely to turn up way far away from its original home. But for me it is a joy!