Autumn has finally truly arrived with some rain every day this week; but not all day so that yesterday the weather was glorious warm sunshine for at least 4 or 5 hours, time to get weeding, especially the circular rose bed which becomes very overgrown each year with Gaura growing to about 1.2 plus metres! Strangling the roses and hiding weeds.
This morning there was pleasant sunshine when I woke but by 9.30 rain was falling again; I just manages to take some photos of the Slope before the wind started making it unpleasant to be outside, who knows what it will be like this afternoon.
Suddenly the slope looks totally different, lush almost. Cathy at Words and Herbs asked today what our favourite flower was today and amazingly what came into my mind was Perovskia! How can that be you may wonder when they have been flowering for months, I think the reason is that now they are more distinctly blue (this could easily be the effect of the softer light). In summer I notice the blue haze of waving stems now the individual flowers are more apparent.
From the usual view point
Perovskia showing the form of its flowers
The unusual prostrate Perovskia continues to be well prostate – I think I should take cuttings as I would like this effect higher on the slope
The ground is turning green, not thankfully weeds but thousands of seedlings of Californian poppy Eschscholzia californica.
Eschscholzia californica new seedlings pushing out of the ground
You can see from this image the texture of my tuffo soil!
Last autumn I moved clumps of Tulbaghia violacea because where they were planted in the Left hand border had become shady and they were too congested. I had hoped they would provide flowers during the lean month of August, but they needed more time to establish; now they are rewarding me with lots of pretty star shaped flowers heads.
Tulbaghia violacea with stipa behind
Clumps of Tulbaghia are flowering
Tulbaghia violacea
Gaura’s nodding butterfly like blooms are adding to the scene as are Stipa tenuissima now adding that touch of fresh green I wrote about missing only a couple of weeks ago.
Gaura
Solanum jasminoides alba another long flowering plant
In the autumnal light this brightly coloured salvia is more visible
What is different in your garden this week? Has autumn brought you glowing colours or a second spring as it does for me.
Parts of the slope are looking full again
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
I had to smile at the perovskia love-in! It does look good in the lower light levels at this time of year. I have a neighbour who is growing it in her front garden, where it is thriving, it is partly what convinced me it should work in my own garden, but hers has long since stopped flowering, whereas mine are still going strong. I think the extra shelter I have is the reason, though how long they will hang on now that we have the first of the northerly gales I’m not sure. The Tulbaglia violacea flowers are beautiful. I have still not worked out how best to use Gaura in my front garden, the white is too cold to work in the fence border, but I think it might work well in the wall border. You are going to have a sea of poppies next year!
My Perovskia usually flowers until we have a frost, just one and that’s it until next year. Although I like their ghostly stems in winter. If your soil is free draining then the Tulbaglia will work for you too.
Anche le mie gaure sono altissime e si accasciano sulle rose soffocandole, ma sono ancora fiorite; tu Christina come ti comporti, di solito, le tagli o le lasci così alte ? Nel mio giardino stanno spuntando ora le nerine, pian piano lo stelo che porta il fiore si sta alzando, ma non è ancora sbocciato; sono in attesa perché le ho sempre viste solo sulle riviste! Ti ho scritto una mail, vorrei ordinare dei bulbi e ti chiedevo dei consigli…
Ciao Anna Maria, spero che tu faccia un post sul blog quando sbocceranno i Nerine, io non ci ho. Riguardo alla Gaura non le taglio, però l’anno prossima le poteranno, perché non posso permettere che si soffocano le rose ancora un altro anno. Non ho ricevuto un mail.
I can only agree with you Christina – that Perovskia is amazing! Mine is fading now, and rather bedraggled after heavy rain today too, but has been such a lovely sight all summer. I really like the fresh green Tulbaghia… it looks like a spring flower! (Thanks for the mention too. 😉 )
The only thing bout the Tulbaghia is the smell of garlic, that’s why it is important to have in an open situation it had begun to smell very strong when it was in shade!
I am a frequent visitor to Cathy’s wonderful blog. She is a lovely person and also inspired me to think of my own favorite plant of now.Which is our tree that we named William, that’s a long story… I really like yours–especially the Perovskia.
Cathy’s blog is always interesting with very tempting recipes! Have you written about why the tree is called William?
Not yet, but I should get around to it. 🙂
GORGEOUS…and alive 🙂
Always a positive thing; being alive that is!
October is treating you well. Here, the weather has been a grab bag. Many things that usually stay interesting through Oct have been beaten down, but our so-called lawn has greened up, so, on average, not a bad trade-off. I’m looking around and thinking we need more red fall color…always something that needs tweaking.
There you have the advantage; because we don’t have a big enough difference in temperatures between day and night we don’t get any fabulous colours.
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Thanks for visiting, hope you enjoy your garden.
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My garden looks more like a second spring at the moment although cold weather is forecast. My Perovskia is just finishing and is a star together with the Gaura for keeping the weeds at bay. Three of my shrubs have fragrant blossoms this week – two flowering for the first time, so that is different, this week.
My Eleagnus is flowering too, I love its perfume.
That was a surprise for me this year. I intend to post about it.
The fragrance is so intense, you don’t notive the small flowers at first then, pow! the perfume hits you and you see serch out the flowers.
I’ve finally found a spot that makes perovskia happy in my garden. We’re heading into fall so my garden is getting ready to go dormant in the next few months. I love your perovskia with the red salvia. 🙂
The Perovskia and Salvia is more noticable now, when the sun was very bright the salvia was bleached out.
I can see why you love your perovskia, but I can only dream of what your slope will look like when all of those California poppies bloom! The autumn sage that is blooming in my garden now looks a lot like your brightly colored salvia. It always puts on a show this time of year.
Mine flowers during the summer but in the low autumn light it makes its presence felt more.
Christina I am just loving all the blooms popping up and new growth coming from all the rain. Happy garden, happy gardener.
Yes, the cooler weather doe smake me a happy gardener.
Christina, your California poppies will be gorgeous and will self-seed like mad in that tufo! How similar the weather of California and Lazio can be. The picture of your rocky soil made me miss Rome. My flowers are fading while the efforts I put into foliage is paying off. The dogwood trees are brilliant, the blueberry bushes a brilliant red, the Acer palmatum the star of the show.
I hope that you will join in next week for Garden Bloggers Foliage Day (22nd of each month). What you describe must be wonderful.
Perovskia is one of those flowers that seems to glow in the right sort of light. I want to see your slope when it is covered with California poppies!
Me too! It was pretty good last spring but with all these seedlings it should look amazing.