Labour Day Weekend

The end of summer is here but the garden is perky - ready, aye ready to carry on into fall.

The phlox blooms on as do those stalwarts, the bachelor buttons, the impatience, the lobelia and the pinks. The cosmos are tossing out flowers from five foot high plants. The lavatera shines a silky pink.. The Asiatic lilies look seedy but the orienpets are magnificent, large and brassy. A cross between an Oriental and a trumpet lily, Orienpet lilies blossoms are huge and as ruffled as a ball gown.

The crab apple tree flaunts bright red fruit; the sea lavender, a late bloomer, presents a cloud of fluffy buds. It will be another week before the tiny flowers open.

The sweet peas dot the back lane fence with white and deep purple flowers. Sweet pea makes a long lasting bouquet, almost as good as the godetia, another great cutting annual.

The mountain ash and the high bush cranberry are sporting bright red berries but not for long. The birds will soon devour them. But the birds will not touch the crab apples until late in the winter when the fruit softens up and sweetens with the frost.

Meanwhile the longed for rain arrives flattening several plants. These will have to be staked up tomorrow.

On a trip south into Wisconsin, I saw fields of tansy, once a cultivated species but now growing wild. An old fashioned plant, it can be seen in a few gardens around town. Tansy is a tall plant with blazing yellow flowers and it will grow just about anywhere although it seems to prefer dry places. I even saw a patch growing along a bit of rocky shore of Lake Superior.

Further south, I ran into prairie flowers such as blazing star and the wonderful prairie sunflower. This small flowered plant also can be found in local gardens. At Crex Meadows, a wildlife sanctuary near Grantsburg Wisconsin, the wild sunflowers covered acres of prairie in brilliant gold. The grasses were marvelous there. I found some bluestem well over six feet high.