mears garden: Fall- week 1- September 21

Sunny skies- falling leaves- cool mornings-and lots of work to do. It must be fall.
I forget how busy fall is in the garden. Part of that is that I cannot get started at 5 in the morning. About all I can do at 5 in the morning is type some thoughts, and pour through the garden catalogues, supplemented with the catalogues on line.
This morning I was looking at Asiatic plants, not found at the local nurseries, at a company called Asiatica. My goodness. What a bunch of interesting things to grow. If only I was in zone 8. As it is I have to be satisfied with a little pink hepatica and a few other things.

Fall is right there in the middle of the garden year or more accurately, years. It is the end of this year and the beginning of next. I am planning and planting next year’s glories. At the same time I am cleaning up after this years’ garden. Actually I have found these last few days the most enjoyable days since the end of July.
First we have adequate moisture. I have still not used the hose all year. Actually, I used the hose today but that was because we had a tie dye party. Second, the hosta, the backbone of the garden, are full, and really not much eaten by those slimy critters, called slugs. What a name, slug. How could you ever have a positive public relations campaign with a name like that.
Third, the fall flowers have come out and give me that opportunity to invite the walkers over to look at something. The toad lilies are getting organized. The Japanese anemones are just wonderful. Finally this last week the fall crocuses have emerged.

So here are your pictures for this week.
1.Close up of Japanese Anemone. Be sure to see the companion pictures in the bonus picture area.

2. Fall crocus called waterlily- I have a few actual water lilies this late in the year. I had hoped that there might be a day when both the crocus and its namesake would be blooming but not so far.

3. Yellow toad lily called Lemon Twist. I was so embarrassed the other day when an early morning friend asked me that this was and I had not realized that it was blooming. It is such a contrast with the wonderful purples of the other toads.

4. A single fall crocus. I had some difficulty picking this pictures, compared with the other crocus pictures. Please see the other fall crocus pictures in the bonus area.