I am back to join Cathy at Rambling in the Garden with her lovely meme after a couple of weeks off.
The summer was a trying one, but the lower night time temperatures recently plus two whole days of light rain have provided some relief. I wouldn’t exactly say the garden has sprung back to life, but after chopping back the plants that suffered most I can at least bare to look at it again, and as you can see from my vases, I do have some flowers to pick still! 😃
First the pastels:
Perennial sweet pea, Cosmos, Echinacea, Verbena, Agastache, Sedum, Scabiosa, Miscanthus and Asters along with a lovely creamy white Heuchera flower which gets ten out of ten for surviving the heat!
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Then a few hotter colours in my newest vase – a cheapie red glass bottle found at my local supermarket for a song. 😉
Orange Cosmos, Tithonia, Calamagrostis, Gaillardia, Persicaria, Plumbago, a red and a blue Salvia, and a poppy seedhead.
I must admit the apples are also from the supermarket – we will have a few to harvest soon, but not as many as last year. But the vegetables should make up for that; the beans and zucchini were wonderful and I still have over twenty butternut squash to harvest!
Hope you have had a good summer and are looking forward to autumn as much as I am – my favourite time of year. 😃
Words and Herbs 
Nice that you still have some flowers to arrange. What a summer, eh? I miss my orange/yellow cosmos, they were a bust this year (rabbits). I like the red bottle.
Glad to read you’ve had some rain. We’re getting light rain today and it is such a blessing after being baked dry. Hopefully, there will be more coming down the road.
Let’s hope we all get a good rain this autumn Eliza. What a summer it was! I only had a couple of cosmos make it to flowering stage this summer… first slugs, then drought! LOL! I wonder if we will ever have the perfect gardening year! 😉
One can only hope! 🙂
Your blooms really do look fresh, and like you I was amazed at what a difference some very light rain could make (although we did have about 10mm last night, which is even better!). What a pretty combination in that first vase – that white heuchera is especially pretty – and the second one is really striking with those bright colours. Shame the apples were not your own, but it’s good to know you have lots more things to harvest!
Our grass has started growing back and the garden is starting to look a bit green again. Rain is in the forecast, so let’s hope it doesn’t pass us by again!
That’s good to hear. We have now had some PROPER rain, including a thunderstorm just after I went to bed last night – over an inch in total yesterday. Hurrah!
My cosmos is just opening Eliza lol what a weird summer indeed. Cathy as always thank you for your beauties.
Thanks Eunice. Cosmos always takes its time here too!
I love the arrangement in the red vase! I’m glad you got some relief after your previous stretch of hot, dry weather and that cooler temperatures and rain have brought color back to your garden. After briefly feeling the slight shift that marks movement in the direction of autumn here, we’ve been hit with a miserable heatwave that’s rapidly withering everything in place. Regrettably, September and early October can be very variable here and we’re unlikely to see any rain until November.
Well, I can only hope your heat subsides a bit until your rainy season Kris. Our gardens have had a lot to put up with this summer, haven’t they. I dream of the perfect gardening year, but suspect it just isn’t going to happen! LOL!
The vases have an autumnal vibe and I love the mix. Nothing beats a cheap red bottle for a fun vase. We have also started seeing some showers and things are perking up even though it is still hot… I had one mango this summer and the squirrels ate it!
Oh, sorry about your mango! Most of my veg survived the odd nibble. Only the kohlrabi didn’t make it. I have now learned that hares like anything in the cabbbage family, which really surprised me!
Hmm, the rabbits here eat everything..
Oh good to see back Cathy 😀 Two lovely vases with the blues, pinks and whites especially pulling at my heartstrings. Still rather warm days and nights for us. We have apples and pears here to harvest soon but I’m most envious of your veggie crop. I predict that soup will feature on your menu this autumn 😂
Oh yes, lots of soup! And pumpkin pie at some stage too. And roasted butternut. I shall give a couple of them to friends too. The deep pink perennial pea has come back well after a major chop in August, and is cheering up the garden no end. 😃
? What is the season for your perennial pea? I know that they are adaptable, so I suppose that they can have different seasons in different climates. Ours bloom at the end of winter, and into spring, and then dry out prior to the arid warmth of summer. It is different every year. They resume grown with the rain of late autumn or winter, but do not bloom as profusely as they do at the end of winter. We got some here that are striped paler pink, and some that are white. I dug and propagated a few of the white sort for my own garden. They really are a nice bright white! I do like the bright pink also, just because that is what is most familiar.
Hi Tony. Here, the perennial peas start flowering around the end of June or early July and if they are deadheaded they usually go on until October, or the first frosts, when they die back completely until next spring. I cut mine back drastically this August as the heat was spoiling them. The white one (which is actually very pale pink) hasn’t reflowered though. I have seen red, pink, pale pink and white. And I think I had a mauve one in my first garden. I suppose there are more colour variations if you grow them from seed.
When I researched it earlier, it seemed that this was the complete variation of color, just as you have observed. I have seen the red only online. Your season is probably what is more ‘normal’ for it, although, since it lives just about everywhere, it may not know what ‘normal’ is. There are a few species that die back in the arid summers here, but then there are also many deciduous sorts that stay foliated and active right through the mild winters here. This particular species does both.
That is interesting to hear they can remain green all year round. I always assumed perennials need a dormancy period to regenerate. But I suppose everything depends on temperature, humidity and of course light. Our days are getting noticeably shorter already.
Well, they do what they must. The perennial pea is a perfect example, it gets a dormancy there and here, but at different times, in order to accommodate the climate. For there, it responds to frost. For here, it responds to the arid warmth. Canna are dormant after frost here, but in Beverly Hills (in coastal Los Angeles County), a large and old colony in a historic park is generally evergreen. Sadly, the colony was removed a few years ago, partly because grooming out the old canes from the new canes that grow in spring is more work than cutting all of the canes to the ground like we do here. It is a low maintenance perennial here, but there, it is a somewhat high maintenance perennial.
Welcome back, Cathy. What a miserable summer it’s been for many. Your poor garden! We’re in the middle of a brutal heatwave. We reached 104F today, about 42C, with the threat of rolling blackouts due to the heavy strain on the power grid. Like you, I look forward to autumn every year. I can’t wait!
I suppose everyone has air conditioning in your part of the world, which must put a strain on your grid. Hardly anyone has that here as it is fairly unusual to have such long spells of really hot weather. I did wish for it at one stage, but we ate cold dinners a lot and cooking was done outside in the shade of the barn! Hope it cools down for you soon Alys. Soon be autumn. And when I see the first Halloween decorations appear I always think of you. 🤗
It’s much more common now as the temps are hotter and for longer. We didn’t have AC when we bought our house 26 years ago. We modified our heating unit a few years back when it was clear that things were getting worse and worse. My husband has worked from home since the start of the pandemic, so we’re particularly grateful to have it in place.
Thanks for thinking of me around Halloween. I think of *you* whenever I unpack your clever yarn pumpkin.
Two gorgeous vases to celebrate your homecoming – welcome back 🙂 I hope your garden team has looked well after everything. Bet they’re all delighted to have you back. I’m glad you’ve got some rain. Still no luck here, the clouds seem to laugh at us. Looking forward to autumn too at least as far as the garden is concerned, the rest I’m dreading somewhat. Big hug xx
Thanks Annette. The rain has only been light so far – so annoying how the forecast promises more all the time. So I have watered a few plants in the flower beds to keep them alive. I don’t want to lose some of my favourites! Have you had any relief yet? Our housemartins have flown, just a few stragglers left. Hugs to you all. 🤗
I understand now why Orban fired his meteorologists…I get so cross at times, they’ve been promising rain for months now and keep changing their minds. Hope none of them crosses my path 🤣
Beautiful arrangements!
Thank you! 😃
You were missed, Cathy. I looked for you thinking that perhaps I’d overlooked your posts. 🙂 Your bouquets are so sweet. You do still have some lovely color spots that don’t look like they’re struggling too much–or at least they can still deliver. I really do understand the angst that accompanies the dry, heat-filled days and watching the drain on our gardens. We’ve been in a prolonged extreme heatwave, but my native garden is doing well! The non-natives, not so much. 😦 But we may have some rain this weekend, thanks to a hurricane in Baja California. Oh do I hope so!!
Thanks Debra. I managed to visit my parents in the UK and when I got back summer was definitely coming to an end. It has been warm but dry since those brief showers, which were not much good for our trees, but I suppose better than nothing. 🤪
A hurricane does not sound good, but if it brings you rain I hope it is a decent amount and cools your temperatures down too. Good to hear the natives are doing well. 👍😃
I love the cool vs the warm tones of these two very different vases– ice and fire. It’s interesting to see how the weather has just been weird around the world. Our gardening season here in the Upper Midwest has been the craziest its been since 2015 when I loved here and we had snow in May.
Thanks Angie. I can’t remember a ‘normal’ year to be honest! There always seems to be something for us gardeners to moan about! LOL! If I didn’t have a garden I would have raved about what a fantastic summer we had this year! 😜
Oh, I’m glad you’ve received some relief. Those are beautiful arrangements; what a wonderful time of year for most of us. 🙂
Thanks Beth. Yes, a good time of year despite the ups and downs of the garden season. 😃
Yes
I love both arrangements, but the orange tones make my heart sing! That bottle was a serendipitous find!
😃 Yes, the red glass is perfect for some autumny colours.