{"id":3191,"date":"2020-09-28T06:39:45","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T14:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3191"},"modified":"2020-09-28T06:39:45","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T14:39:45","slug":"summers-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/summers-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer’s End"},"content":{"rendered":"

My garden is a riot of activity at the moment, with honeybees, bumblebees, skippers and pollinators of all kinds swarming over the exuberant asters and rampant perilla mint.\u00a0 All that frantic action almost obscures what is missing\u2014the big butterflies, like monarchs and swallowtails, which floated through the garden every day in the summer.\u00a0 They are gone for the season and only the white cabbage butterflies are left.<\/p>\n

Also missing in action are the scores of roses that have appeared in fits and starts since May.\u00a0 The bushes haven\u2019t stopped producing; they are just slowing down, their energy spent by a growing season\u2019s worth of effort.\u00a0 If Nature cooperates and keeps hard frosts at bay, the bushes will continue on in this way for quite awhile\u2014sometimes through Thanksgiving.\u00a0 I hope for that, but also know the USDA says the \u201cfirst frost date\u201d for this area is October 15.\u00a0 The tightly furled buds on some of the bushes may well be the last roses of the year.<\/p>\n

The flip side of all this finality is that the Japanese beetles that generally plague the beds in July are also gone.\u00a0 Aphids are less common too.\u00a0 They will be back in droves next year, but for now, I don\u2019t have to pick them off the flowers or blast them off the stems with stiff sprays from the hose.\u00a0 The elimination of those chores might give me more time to enjoy the late blooms, though I am frequently too busy cutting back all the rampant end-of-summer growth to appreciate that freedom.<\/p>\n

The roses are more jewel-like now.\u00a0 This may be due to the fact that they are less numerous, or possibly because of the unique qualities of autumn light.\u00a0 Whatever the reason, they glow.\u00a0 Sometimes the petal colors change too, either because of the shorter days or cooler temperatures.\u00a0 The flowers on the pink \u2018Gruss an Aachen\u2019 shrub rose, which have peach overtones in spring and summer, now appear silvery pink.\u00a0 \u2018Scentimental\u2019, red and white-striped at all times, is now more red than white.\u00a0 Some of the deep yellow blooms seem closer to rich cream.<\/p>\n

It is as if all the gaudiness of summer has been thrown off in favor of a more restrained, elegant attitude.\u00a0 Maybe the effort of competing with a bubblegum pink aster is just too much to bear.<\/p>\n

Certain varieties seem to flourish better than others in the late season bloom sweepstakes.<\/p>\n

The champion in my garden is an old shrub rose that is probably \u2018Marie Pavi\u00e9.\u00a0 It is about four feet tall, and also supports the white-flowered clematis, \u2018Duchess of Edinburgh\u2019, which is growing up through the rose canes.\u00a0 The flowers are relatively small\u2014about two inches across\u2014with a pink flush in bud.\u00a0 When fully opened, the blooms exude a lovely fragrance.\u00a0 \u2018Marie Pavi\u00e9\u2019 is slow to start in the spring, but once it gets going, it does not quit until real cold sets in.\u00a0 Right now, it boasts scores of blossoms, with new buds forming every day.\u00a0 I keep a small bouquet of them on my desk as a reminder to stay upbeat whatever the challenges of the day.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sally Holmes\u2019, is almost the opposite of \u2018Marie Pavi\u00e9\u2019, but it shares the seasonal longevity trait.\u00a0 The big single blooms have only five white petals apiece, but they open like happy faces and keep smiling until at least October.\u00a0 \u2018Sally\u2019 has the added distinction of lasting longer in a vase than any other rose in the garden.\u00a0 This is important if you like indoor arrangements, and only have a few roses to choose from.<\/p>\n

Right now, \u2018The Fairy\u2019 has only a few pink flowers, but I see a barrage of buds that are harbingers of blooms to come.\u00a0 \u2018The Fairy\u2019s\u2019 pink color is not the bright pink of some of the asters, but it stands out anyway.\u00a0 I have deliberately excised the perilla mint that has threatened to engulf the little shrub.\u00a0 If the rose is making the effort to bloom vigorously as the days grow shorter, I will make the effort to give it some elbow room.<\/p>\n

The ultimate act of hope in fall is the planting of spring-flowering bulbs.\u00a0 The ability to pick a few late roses as you finish all that digging is a great way to celebrate the here-and-now.\"Buck<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My garden is a riot of activity at the moment, with honeybees, bumblebees, skippers and pollinators of all kinds swarming over the exuberant asters and rampant perilla mint.\u00a0 All that frantic action almost obscures what is missing\u2014the big butterflies, like monarchs and swallowtails, which floated through the garden every day in the summer.\u00a0 They are … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[2386,634,731,2385,11,1498],"class_list":["post-3191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","tag-autum-light","tag-fall-flowers","tag-fragrant-roses","tag-october-garden","tag-roses","tag-white-roses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3193,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3191\/revisions\/3193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}