Sunny Rudbeckia Tiger Eye Gold, still in its pot, having been bought in August…
Although I still have a couple of summer trips from Dorset and West Wales left to share, I thought it was time to put on record what has been going on in my own garden, too.
This time last year we were having a heatwave in the UK, but this September has been far more “backendish” – a bit nippy at night and wet, wet, wet…
Early one morning it poured with rain at the same time as the sun shone through the leaves of my Liquidambar styraciflua tree…
Although we have had lots of heavy rain – causing flooding in many places – there have also been sunny, dry days, but the warmth has well and truly gone and it doesn’t look as if we will have an Indian summer this year.
One thing we will always have, though, is the diadem weavers of goose-summer, as I called last year’s blog post about garden orb-web spiders in autumn…
Crouching garden spider (Araneus diadematus)…
Weaving garden spider (Araneus diadematus)…
While the spiders flourish, it has been a bad summer for insects – we have seen very few butterflies and I fear the bees have suffered, too. For that reason I left my Japanese anemones until just a week ago before I cut them back. Because we garden in partial shade, the anemones reach out for the light and that makes them flop all over the steps up into our back garden. But the pink flowers were so full of bees in early September that I left them that way until nearly all the pollen had gone…
The last few Japanese anemone flowers in September, most of them reduced to bare green balls…
I wonder, too, how this green lacewing fared in the rain…
Green lacewing on the outside of a window in the rain…
You may remember the cute grey baby starlings in the garden in May. When the family are grown up, the starlings usually go away again until the next year. But this time they have stayed around, which is a bit annoying as they eat everything on the bird table – especially the dried meal-worms.
Still, at least I have been able to watch the young ones grow into their adult plumage…
All grown up – a starling (Sturnus vulgaris) in its starry new plumage in September 2012…
I had one pleasant surprise in early September. I thought the leaves of my blueberry in a pot were starting to go red already, but when I looked closer, I found it was the flowers of a Schizostylis coccinea nearby, which doesn’t usually do very well, growing through the bush.
Schizostylis coccinea growing through a blueberry bush – it’s sometimes called a Kaffir lily…
A closer look at the Schizostylis coccinea…
On the subject of bulbs, while this one has done well, I was disappointed this year that my Eucomis bicolor didn’t flower at all. This is it in a previous, sunnier summer…
This is my Eucomis bicolor in July 2010 – this year there have been no flowers…
Finally, it’s goodbye to the campanulas for another year…
The last few Campanula poscharskyana flowers of summer…
The Squirrelbasket 
You have a wonderful garden. The flowers in my garden look really sad but the trees seem o.k. Desperatly need some rain here. Thanks for this lovely post.
I wish we could share our rain with you, as we have had too much this year 🙂
Love that you left your anemones until later Pat 🙂 Gorgeous photos.
Thank you as ever 🙂
Love your rudbeckia – they are just about the only flower left in my garden that add a bright spot of colour at the moment – oh and the cosmos. What would I do without cosmos.
I’ve not been able to keep cosmos, or at least the “chocolate” cosmos I once had lasted only for one season. My garden isn’t very good at delicate plants – not enough sun and flat ground…
Best wishes 🙂
Pretty starling and spiders.
Indeed – and the spiders are still getting bigger!
By the way, did you see the latest story about bees producing blue honey in France?
Here
Best wishes 🙂