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Posts Tagged ‘Mums’

It has been a lovely Fall so far … crisp, sunny days with a light chill at night, not quite cold enough to turn on the heat, but chilly enough to warrant a warm blanket or quilt.

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On morning walks the leaves seem to whisper that no matter how green they are now, they soon will be slipping into golds, crimsons and pale, dusky rose.

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Pumpkins and mums announce the onset of Fall, and the river glides lazily towards the sea, resplendent surrounded by her last-of-summer greens.

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The smile that flickers on baby’s lips when he sleeps — does anyone know where it was born? Yes, there is a rumor that a young pale beam of a crescent moon touched the edge of a vanishing autumn cloud, and there the smile was first born in the dream of a dew-washed morning.   ~ Rabindranath Tagore

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This year? Not all that well, I’m afraid. I don’t, in fact, actually have a garden … I have a variety of flowering plants in pots and containers that enliven my nice, deep, wrap-around porches . But this year, it hardly felt that it was worth the time potting them. Even the Impatiens – which rarely fail to shine – did poorly.

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This is the one plant, above, that did the best. I bought this solid pink Impatiens plus a new variegated one, magenta and white with a darker leaf, that did even worse. Although this one looks pretty good, it was potted at least 3 months ago, and normally an Impatiens in this spot would have been covered with flowers. I did read an article that spoke to there being some kind of  bug or blight or whatever with Impatiens this year. A small comfort. Those below, with both types in the container and in a favorite spot for Impatiens, also show a scarcity of  blooms.

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I believe it was our crazy weather. We had 9 or 10 days of scorching sunshine, temps in the mid to upper 90’s. Before or after that we had nearly 10 days straight of rain with not a drop of sun. I’m not posting photos of all the plants that barely survived. A Lobelia I got in May … I missed one day of watering and half of it died. I bought Lantana for the first time and had them in spots for sun-lovers, they were scorched before I even knew to move them.  Violas, Alyssum and some others just barely grew at all. Quite disappointing.

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And the Hydrangeas in the yard? This particular plant which last year had blossoms in a rich blue, (see photos here), this year saw flowers in pale to medium lavender with only half the amount of petals per flower. Weather sure can make a difference! (How do farmers sleep at night?)

EndSummer-Mum2Thankfully, the weather has stayed in the 80’s with nice cool evenings for awhile and seems to be continuing. Ever the optimist, I bought two small-ish mums at Home Depot and replaced the pair of sad Lantanas. It’s a new season coming soon, so perhaps it’s a good idea to slowly replace some of the plants in the sunny spots and see what happens.

I would not describe myself as a person with a green thumb, but even I couldn’t have managed such poor results on my own!

Here’s to Fall and some gardening success.

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