{"id":103371,"date":"2023-10-15T17:48:13","date_gmt":"2023-10-15T21:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=103371"},"modified":"2023-10-15T17:48:13","modified_gmt":"2023-10-15T21:48:13","slug":"bloom-day-october-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=103371","title":{"rendered":"bloom day October 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\"IMG_8555\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Can we just keep calling them asters? Aster lateriflorus var. horizontalis ‘Lady in Black’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been talking up all summer the two Aster lateriflorus var. horizontalis varieties in my garden (‘Prince’ and ‘Lady in Black’). Rich dark leaves early in the season suspended on a light framework that doesn’t overwhelm neighbors. I’m not saying the Sept\/October blooms are incidental, but they are an additionally winning, late-season virtue of an all-around, very good plant. Wind and rain do not beat these plants down. Right now I wish I had room for a much larger planting of them — so good with grasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"IMG_8524\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_8579\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If I had to choose, my preference would be ‘Lady in Black’ for its open, arching habit of growth. Spittle bugs were all over early spring growth, so I cut quite a bit off to rid the plant of the pests — not sure if they’re damaging but they are disgusting! Even with that spring cutback it makes sizeable growth up to blooming size of approx 4 feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"IMG_8554\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
the “Prince’ is much more dense in habit, possibly more floral impact than LIB<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_8550\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Anisodontea and dahlias don’t know when to quit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_8541\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
those late-season sparklers, mums, are also very weather-resilient and really class up the fall vegetable garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_8540\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_8581\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
chocolate cosmos love the never-too-hot coast and have a very long season here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_8520\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
fall-blooming hesperantha is no flash-in-the-pan either. Their long season of Sept\/Oct bloom is as much an occasion in the garden as crocosmia earlier in summer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_8521\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
the bog sage, Salvia uliginosa, one of the “late but great” plants for zone 8b fall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Special mention to those plants whose images refused to upload: The wallflowers manage to handle the 4-month dry season as well as the cold, rainy rest of the year (Erysimum ‘Winter Orchid’); Emilia javanica, an annual with tall stems topped with small, brilliant, orange thistle brushes, nice with Pennisetum villosum, both gracefully handling a rainy October; and Parahebe catarractae, a flawless little foreground shrub, evergreen, covered in tiny white flowers now, as it has been on and off all summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"IMG_8542\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
the annual Kiss-Me-Over-the-Garden-Gate, Persicaria orientalis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And last but not least, the tall annual Persicaria orientalis in the vegetable garden leaning on the bean trellis. Lettuce, beans, peas, and zucchini have been stellar this summer on the coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Bloom Day reports for October can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been talking up all summer the two Aster lateriflorus var. horizontalis varieties in my garden (‘Prince’ and ‘Lady in Black’). Rich dark leaves early in the season suspended on a light framework that doesn’t overwhelm neighbors. I’m not saying … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[63,5119],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-qTh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103371"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103399,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103371\/revisions\/103399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}