Hit the Dirt; Late Summer Flowers

This is Claire Ackroyd and you're listening to hit the dirt. I would like to see if the summer is wearing on here now I'd like to introduce you to some plants that you may not be familiar with that are some of my picks for late season. Flowers. I'm leaving out deliberately plants that have great full color and berries since that can be a topic of a later discussion. Anyway what I'm looking for now is plants that actually bloom at the end of the summer or even into the fall. And I'm taking here August beginning of August on as plants are blooming well from the beginning of August on as my late summer candidates. So the first ones that only just squeak in on the line are some azaleas that are late summer blooming these are the product of a breeding program at Western nurseries in Massachusetts and they are absolutely wonderful the plants we've all been waiting for. There are a lot of them. Typically they have names of candy as popsicle and lemon drop and. I can't think of any more candy names now there's a lot of them in the candy series Alias but the

two best for the late bloom that typically bloom in June and July which is pretty late for Israelis anyway but the two outstanding really late bloomers are called lemon drop and Pennsylvania lemon drop is in bloom in my garden always into August and Pennsylvania by its reputation although I've never yet owned it blooms a week later the lemon drop. So here are these wonderful fragrant late blooming Israelis that also have full color in their leaves and are plants the likes of which really haven't been known before they're perfectly hardy and really quite adaptable and wonderful garden subject. Another nice little plant there's a sort of new version of an old one is why Julia rumba the why Delia's are fairly well known little plants that are sort of nice garden shrubs that bloom early to mid summer typically and with a few extra blooms later on in the year and rumba which comes out of a series of Canadian why Dilly's all of which have dance names I'll see if I can do better with the dances that I did with the candy but there's Romber Samba tango minuet and probably others and

rumba is a dwarf very hearty one whose best blooming season is the late part of the summer probably August in Maine. Then another great plant is cleared through the summer sweet not well-known not commonly planted seriously overlooked is a lovely plant. It's a tall rather loose growing shrub that prefers to grow cool and moist it likes plenty of moisture at its feet and not too much sun on its head and it blooms. Early mid August or later in Arno depending on the season a little bit. And it has thin elegant spikes are wonderfully fragrant flower has sort of spun pungent spicy peppery fragrance and these white spikes of flowers a little bit like a Veronica flower on a tall rather loose floppy growing shrubs that may reach eight feet if it gets enough moisture. Hype Eric I'm probably not good as a group in Maine they're not that Hardy there depended on

a lot in England for late summer color they known as sunshine Bush is rather nicely they're all yellow flowers sort of fuzzy multi Stamer and yellow flowers all over Smalls sub shrubs and low growing perennials and high para can tell me and I'm the Coulomb St. Johnswort is a native of rocky slopes in parts of Canada and blooms. Mid July right through August and is quite hardy as long as it's grown on fairly poor soil with plenty of sun and it's a nice blast of bright sunny color in the late part of the summer. So now on to some VERY MUCH later ones my birthday is at the end of October and I'm good at knowing what's in bloom in Arno at the end of October. So the drop more honeysuckle is one that I can count on. It's the it's a honeysuckle vine and it has thin orange the red tubular flowers that don't have much fragrance. It's very hardy very vigorous and the best thing about it is that it's still blooming well past the

first frost. At the end of the summer. Another nice plant into some perennials I don't think it's a well known plant but it should be the false turtle heads. There's a plant called The Rose Turtle Head key lonely Obi core which has extraordinary flowers that look like the head of a rather sleepy turtle. Born in long pink spikes on a plant that grows maybe two feet tall it likes to grow in swampy conditions and it doesn't start blooming until the very end of the season. Probably the last perennial to bloom well in Maine. It's very hardy will tolerate a certain amount of shade and is a strong pink We tend to get sort of rusty golden colors in the fall and to have this sort of strong rosy pink flower is really a thrill. Another one of my personal favorites is The Helen's flower. Helene Iam also known as the sneeze weed or sneeze Wort which is one of the fall days this is just the nicest of the fall days it's blooms very late. There are some pretty red Goldy hybrids that are not too tall. It's a

stiff looking rather in a way almost awkward looking daisy flower with a conical Center and the petals are rather small and reflects back away from the rest of the flower. So it has a rather sort of Woody coarse texted plant and it's wonderful it stands up to winter the late late summer winds and poor conditions at the end of the year doesn't blow over doesn't need staking. Cuts very well all around very nice plant and a big surprise to have this thing come on right late at the end of the year when everything else is dying. And the last one plant that no garden should be without is the native hammerless Hammam Ellis Virginie end of the witch hazel so lovely shrub that grows in shady moist conditions too. Oh as much as eight to ten feet rub a Speccy open growing flower plant and flowers in October when the as the leaves fall it produces a peculiar little scrap like yellow flowers that may have been the most extreme cases have even bloomed after the first snow. So you've got this

extraordinary combination of snow and opening flowers and it's lovely it's mildly fragrant. Pretty full color and a wonderful thrill to get some flowers that late in the year. I think I'm out of time I'm never out of plants and this is Claire Ackroyd and you've been listening to hit the dirt.