Autumn brings us rewards of lots of brilliant blooms and berries
Autumn’s been in full swing for a while. We’ve had blue autumn crocus (Crocus speciosus) in flower and various different fungi appearing in my lawn. The greenhouse tomatoes produced ripe fruit well into October. A neighbour’s variegated holly has lots of red berries, however, these rarely remain until Christmas as they’re usually taken by the birds before then! Skimmia japonica and cotoneaster are both showing lots of red berries and skimmia ‘Rubella’ is decorated with red flower buds that will last until spring before opening to give small, white flowers. Nerines are still in flower with plenty of pink petals that seem to be remarkably weatherproof. The hosta has produced flower stems with blooms that are attractive when examined closely. Ivy-leafed geraniums in a range of colours are still flowering and now enjoy the shelter of the greenhouse. Some cuttings of these geraniums taken in early September are now rooted and have been potted on. The barbed wire plant (calocephalus) is an attractive silver colour. It’s very drought resistant and thrives in my light, sandy, seaside soil. I’ve found it increases easily from cuttings and provides an attractive backdrop for violas and other bright blooms.
Miniature daffodils in pots are outside in the garden and will stay there until they begin to flower from early February. As they come into bloom, they’ll be moved into the greenhouse to protect the flowers. The standard daffodils were nearly all planted by late September. However, I’m always tempted by new ones gifted or exchanged from friends. Of course, daffodils multiply each year so I’ve bagged up surplus bulbs to be auctioned off to help fund our local daffodil group. The next big job will be lifting dahlia tubers. Living near the sea we don’t usually get an early frost. I try to leave lifting them until as late as possible as I believe the shorter time they’re out of the ground the easier they are to keep. Quite often I can get away with lifting tubers in late November.