Screech owls call from the woods; the season is turning. Last week’s three inches of rain could not have been timelier; it was absorbed thirstily almost as it fell. The rain was preceded by two cool, dry days with the bluest skies we have enjoyed all summer.
“Fair weather” arrived to enable fairgoers to enjoy the fairgrounds, and relieved the Island from Hurricane Erin’s gray skies and stormy winds. Sweaters, retrieved from wherever they had been abandoned during the heat, felt good.
And nothing compares with natural rainfall! Plants luxuriate in it, and it is super to witness the almost instantaneous response of energy and growth, especially in vegetable gardens. Too often we observe weather systems part as they flow over the Island, dumping needed rainfall elsewhere. Why is that? Trees and evapotranspiration bring rain to Earth and to the Island (bit.ly/LFN_DroughtAndRainfall).
Late summer beauties
Suddenly, there they were: the “surprise” lilies. I planted the bulbs many years ago, and it is not every year that they appear. They really do surprise.
Officially known as Lycoris squamigera, the pinkish lavender, pastel flowers on the ends of long stems are also called naked ladies, magic lilies, or resurrection lilies. They are bulbous plants in the Amaryllis family, native to China and Japan.
Their site is a shade garden that is visited regularly by the local deer, yet they seem uninterested in the lycoris. Neighboring hosta, Solomon’s-seal, and lily of the valley were chewed right down during the drought. The straplike leaves appear earlier in the season and shrivel up after maturing, similarly to colchicums. Billows of ostrich and sensitive fern share the bed and obscure what the bulbs are doing, until suddenly, there they are.
For those shade gardens fortunate enough to host kirengeshoma (Kirengeshoma palmata), it is a banner year. The elegant, statuesque plant, reaching upwards of three feet tall and wide once established, makes a hard-to-ignore, textural statement in late summer, with maple-shaped leaves and buttery yellow, pendant buds and flowers.
Kirengeshoma fits in admirably among hostas, heuchera, ferns, begonias, hydrangeas, and other shade-loving plants. Kirengeshoma may be divided, which is best done in early spring. Make divisions with at least three eyes per plant, and replant about 30 inches apart in humusy soil that is moisture-retentive. Being long-lived and deer resistant, kirengeshoma rewards, year in and year out.
Ceratostigma (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides), the hardy plumbago, shares its blue flowers from early August into fall. This is an adaptable plant, whose flowers fit Roberta Hearn’s description: “the color of an LL Bean windbreaker.”
Ceratostigma is upright to about a foot, as well as creeping, performs well in rock and wall gardens and as groundcover in shrub beds, and blooms in locations with half sun/half shade. In full-sun plantings, the foliage of ceratostigma may acquire rosy pink and red tints, which provide an almost floral contrast.
In the annuals department, Select Seeds is where I bought seed of two unpretentious but interesting annuals: Marigold ‘Burning Embers,’ (Tagetes linnaeus) and ‘Red Peruvian’ zinnia, Zinnia peruviana. Both of these are forms that predate the extensive breeding and hybridizing of many of our favorite garden annuals. Sometimes it is fun to return to something simpler. These two little annuals are undemanding: no fancy soil amendments or sprays, just ordinary garden soil and sunshine.
Dahlias need no introduction: They are now coming into their shorter day-length glory. Good staking is a task that is rewarded when they remain upright despite winds and rain-softened soil.
Everything, however, is becoming more expensive. In dahlia growers’ lists of early-purchase tubers, prices of some favorites, such as ‘Labyrinth’ and ‘Cafe au Lait,’ have soared to just under $30. Dig and store your own with as much care as possible; here’s how: bit.ly/StoringDaliaTubers.
Beech disease info
A recent New York Times article written by Margaret Roach about the spread of beech leaf disease (bit.ly/NYT_BeechLeafDisease [paywalled]) mentions the application of a fertilizer, potassium polyphosphite, and the antifungal and antiparasitic, thiabendazole. Although perhaps impractical where there are extensive stands of beech, for specimens or lone trees these may offer hope.
Listen to or read the transcription of Margaret Roach’s podcast with Bartlett Tree Experts’ Beth Brantley, for another look at what is being studied, and where.
Brantley’s go-to advice to tree owners is for supporting the tree, regardless of breakthroughs in controlling the various pathogens afflicting beeches. Mulch out to the tree’s dripline with organic, composted woodchips, and water the tree’s root-run. Eliminate competing lawn or turf from the area of the tree’s root-run.
While research into causes and morphology of beech tree problems is critically important, it is the cures and steps that tree owners can take themselves that are of vital interest. My own amateur hunches about air pollution effects and Asian jumping earthworms (Amynthas agrestis, Amynthas tokioensis, and Metaphire hilgendorfi) are irrelevant, of course.
In the garden
Yellowjackets’ late summer appearance requires wariness when gutting fish or picking fruits, and during outdoor meals.
Passé perennials: Cutdowns continue. Shorten back wisteria to two or three brown buds.
Garden Notes’ previous edition mentioned the strangeness of so few pest insects in the vegetable garden here. Now, however, I suspect it is the birds and their garden activity that may contribute. Goldfinches, catbirds, sparrows, hummingbirds, cardinals, towhees, wood peewees, wrens, and probably more, are all numerous and quite active in this garden. I observe them patrolling along the cucumber and polebean trellis. What do they find there?
Which leads me to promote birdbaths in every garden, one at least, or more if there is space. Birdbaths also support bees and do not need to be fancy. Even repurposed plastic takeout trays are fine, as long as they are refreshed and kept clean. Position them near hedges or such, where they are somewhat protected, and cats and sharp-shinned and Cooper’s hawks cannot easily pounce.
Don’t scratch, investigate. Tick check every night.