The Late Bloomers

It is three days until October and the low spot on a North Carolina mountain top is awash in blooms. I'm not even sure if the blue asters have reached peak yet. It has been getting bluer every day.

The driveway bed is getting whiter every day. I should have pulled all those dead brown daylily stems. Every thing will be brown soon enough. Now that brown is just marring the colors.

A crashing wave of aster spills into the roadside vegetable garden. It will soon be time to go hunting for sweet potatoes.

And this was a surprise. A lily should never bloom this late and Bulbarella has no recollection of how it may have gotten where it is. Oh well. We'll just have to enjoy it.

Willow-leaved Sunflower, Helianthus salicifolius, is a recent addition. It will add to the late bloomers gathered on the mountain. 

The Hardy Begonia, Begonia grandis, is just now beginning to bloom. I expect this to become a pest, er new weed, in the years to come.

There is even aster froth by the service entrance. I know what not to pull.

The Sheffie Mums are definitely a bloom season extender. They don't bloom until October. They have been spreading like a weed and in all the competition they bloom more sparsely like a wild flower and less like a florists mum. I'm good with that. I spotted a different pink colored with a white center, late blooming mum in a client's garden. A piece of that will be following me home at some point.

I've got great weeds.

Weeds that nuzzle up just fine against the things I deliberately plant.

It all comes together late in the season for one spectacular show.