Whats looking good in November

Just as I thought that it was all over with the frosts, the garden has suddenly started to look up again. In particular many late flowering Salvias are just getting into their stride.


Salvia splendens - the species


The lovely Salvia leucantha had a late start this year.


Salvia 'Mystic Spires' has been flowering since July.


Salvia atrocyanea grows from a tuber like S. patens.


This is a close relative of Salvia - Lepechinia hastata.


But there is more than just Salvias - Geranium 'Ann Folkard has been in flower since mid June.


Fuchsia triphylla 'Gartenmeister'.


Malope trifida. An annual, which was new to me this year, but it has been flowering since mid July and I think it is lovely. I will certainlt be growing it next year.

 

Oh, Peter, how stunning still for you. I choped all mine back in the summer and they are just coming back. Mine don't hold a candle to yours and do you remember a couple of years ago I put up a pic of one up in the mountains here that was a huge climber with humongous flowers? I would really have to go back, they were the size of Wisteria flowers? I must get a cutting again of that.

Not sure what I'll have to show as we have had torrential rains and all the flowers for our season have gone .. but this is normal so am not complaining.

Always a thank you from me. xx

 

Your Salvias are always lovely to see Peter. My Salvia Splendens survived a couple of nights of the frost, but the third night did for it and the next morning it was brown, droppy and dead :(

Your close ups of flowers are excellent.

 

Thanks SussexG. Many tender Salvias will take a few degrees of frost for a short time, but S. splendens is one that will take nothing. I am amazed that mine are still going after recording a -1C. They must be getting aclimatised to Yorkshire. :D

I hope you took some seed or cuttings - if not and you want to keep it going - get in contact.

 

Some really nice photos there, thanks for sharing.

The only colour we have now are the cyclamen we bought a couple of months ago to put round the waterfall. I'm well impressed with these as they've grown quite a bit and are continually producing more flowers. But there's buds on several of the roses, so we may get a late show.

 

IIRC the seeds of Cyclamen ripen a couple of weeks before the new flowers come - so nothing to remind one to collect the seed :( and it will germinate better freshly sown in pots than it will do just on the ground, I expect.

 

Thank you for that PeterS. I think I'll have to look into Salvias.
We've had a few frosty nights but some of the roses are still looking good. The Autumn Sedums are still great.The Bowles Mauve is totally unaffected and maybe surprisingly some of the Lavender is still looking good and a few lupins.
The best colour is coming from leaves on the things I planted for autumn colour.
For November I'm fairly happy with the show.

 

"The best colour is coming from leaves on the things I planted for autumn colour."

I think our Autumn colour is poor - is it just me?

We had a very dry early Summer, and then wet August / September, and no Indian summer.

The ordinary things have gone a yellow, like they normally do, but the plants that normally do an Autumn-Special - the Maples and their chums - have been a bit lacklustre. An American oak here dropped all its leaves before I even noticed it had turned, and an Acer something (palmatum probably) Atropurpureum is doing the same - I am pretty sure it normal goes from "copper" to "spectacular" first?

I formed the view that a drier Autumn would have prompted stronger Autumn colours, but I'd appreciate other opinions please.

 

Lovely pictures, Peter. My salvia 'Hotlips' doesn't seem to have noticed that autumn is here and is still blooming away. So is Salvia patens 'Oxford Blue'. For the first season I can remember, my geranium 'Ann Folkard' seemed to go through a bit of a manky stage in July. I chopped it back and it has since grown back strongly and still has a few blooms. Perhaps it didn't like the dry spell we had down south early on in the season. No danger of drought now!

 

I think your right about the drier autumn and the better colours Kirsten.
We didn't have the rain in August and September and the trees have coloured really well around here - including my own few.

 

The acer in my avatar and the big one have gone the usual bright red colour but only around the extreme lower edges under the main canopy, those on top have started to go greyish red and are already beginning to fall.

The large deciduous azaleas are looking really tatty now but all have nice fat buds on them.
On a technical note, the miniature azaleas of which we have many, I believe are technically part of the rhodo family, if they don't drop their leaves. Is that correct?

 

Nice salvias Peter. particularly like leucantha :thumb:

On the subject of Autumn colour, I find some of the best along side the motorways at the moment, its usually native trees and shrubs that have coloured up really well this year.

I think the ones planted specifically for autumn colour can be affected but our "strange" climate and are normally a bit variable.
Some might have caught a touch of frost a week or so back and as a result are losing leaves early.

One Ginkgo that I know of lost all its leaves, green, in one night, it usually turns golden for a couple of weeks, others not very far away are still green or only just turning.

 

Just a few more


Solanum sisymbriifolium is slightly weedy, but all the same is quite fun. Grown from seed this year it has reached 10 feet (including the pot).


Fuchsia 'Voodoo'. Quite the largest flowers I have ever seen on a Fuchsia - this one was over 3.5 inches across. But sadly like most Fuchsias it hides them below the leaves, which is why I like the triphilla types so much, that hold their flowers above the leaves.


Brugmansia arborea, grown from seed last year. As well as the flower there is a fruit - at the top. I had to cut this back from 8 feet high to 6 feet so that I could get it into its winter quarters in my summerhouse. It had several flowers and was still producing more buds even now.


This is my yellow Brugmansia, which has been flowering for two months. Its in its winter quarters in the house under some lights. I have a number of big plants overwintering in my hall including two 5 feet Brugmansia sanguineas, grown from seed this year but already with several flower buds. I am just hoping the lights will be strong enough to encourage them to flower.


Sedum seedheads still look nice.


Phygellius rectus 'Cherry Ripe'


Echium pininana in its second year. I just love this for its foliage - the flower spike is yet to be seen.


Vernbena 'Homestead Purple'. The colour doesn't come out well - but this is a really long flowerer.


Leonotis leonorus. I talk to my plants, but this one only understands Portuguese - courtesy of Victoria. :D


This is rather a failure. I wanted a Kniphofa, and got this without doing any research. But its Kniphofa rooperii, which is extremely late flowerer, and had only just deigned to start to get out of bed. :D

 

Very very nice, Peter.

 

Great pics and good show PeterS. Thank you.
I tried Kniphofia from seed this year. It was a mixed packet. Germination was poor but some did come, then they just died. They were outside but there was nothing wrong with the weather. Don't want to hijack your thread - but any ideas.