Well, the season is getting pretty late now, but there are a few late bloomers hanging on, hoping for warm Indian summer days! Here are some of the things we’re still enjoying in our yard: The ‘Pink Simplicity’ roses have done better this year, with more regular watering and fertilizer. I finally trimmed them back on August 11th, and they grew back with lots of buds. Maybe I won’t replace them after all. We’ll see how their spring bloom is next year. On the right is Anemone x hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’ — always a great flower in the early fall.…

Last winter, I traded seeds with a guy from New York on Gardenweb.com’s perennial forum. He had seeds for these wonderful Hibiscus moscheutos ‘Blue River’ and I had to give them a try. I don’t usually go for large, gaudy flowers, but these were just too cool to pass up. I had about a dozen of them and have given some away to relatives. There are still six or so in little pots on my deck, and now that the weather has finally cooled a bit, I can put them in the ground. Just need to decide where to put…

Check out these babies — three really big bowls like this, filled with Jonathan apples. I like these apples a lot; they taste more like green apples than red ones and they ripen a lot earlier than my Granny Smith apples. I believe we harvested these last Thursday, September 6th. That was even a little late, because there were a lot on the ground that we left out there for birds and other animals to eat. I was surprised they were falling off the tree so much, but we still got a lot for our use. I made an apple…

I just learned something new this week. It turns out petunias aren’t true annuals — they’re really tender perennials that die when they freeze. So, I can overwinter them in the basement and plant them out again next spring. And they grow well from cuttings. So, I plan to make some cuttings from my pink wave petunia that’s in the ground and then keep the little plants alive in the basement this winter. They’ll be sharing space with geranium cuttings, too, so I guess the south windows of the basement will be pretty full of greenery this winter!

I’ve had some success with cutting-grown Missouri Evening Primroses (Oenothera missouriensis, also called Ozark Sundrops). I made some cuttings last summer and planted the new clones out this spring. These do not seem to be invasive like their Mexican cousins, so I’m liking them a lot. Here’s an example of the annual Geraniums I planted this year. Unfortunately, most of these are getting smothered by nearby tall flowers flopping on them. That’s my curse — I always seem to plant things that are too tall! I’m going to try to be better about this as I redesign my flowerbeds this…

I really enjoy my Hibiscus shrubs. These go by several names, including Hibiscus syriacus, Rose of Sharon, or Hibiscus Rose. I have three single-flowered ones and five double-flowered. They all start flowering some time in June, I think, and they keep going quite well through September. The photo at left is from last year in September, and these shrubs are flowering like this right now as well. I thought this might be Hibiscus syriacus ‘Aphrodite’ or ‘Minerva’ but those are supposed to be sterile hybrids, and these do produce seed pods. I also have five double-flowered specimens — one has…