Elsewhere in the garden

Making a fine show is an aster, noted earlier this year for reappearing after being AWOL last year.

Quite a welcome return and a nice bit of fall color

My Inferno Strip

High Country Gardens has a selection of plants to thrive in what they call the inferno strip. This is a dry hot area of your garden where it is difficult to develop beautiful plants because of space and access. Mine is a narrow strip of soil (rocks in my case) between the retaining wall on the north side of my house and the walkway.

I bought into the concept believing that if there is an inferno strip, it is this area of my yard. These are the survivors.

Starting from the bottom, we have a salvia. I am afraid that I have forgotten which one and I bought it locally, not from High Country It's not a beauty yet but it does have some sky-blue flowers and it made it through the summer with little coddling.

Next is a penstemen (pine-leaf if I recall). It blooms in the spring and the rest of the time looks like this I started with two and this one is left

Next up is artemesia Seafoam. It doesn't bloom but is is attractive most of the time. This one is a survivor of two as well.

Finally, up top is an unlikely inferno dweller a self-seeded viola She popped up all by herself (and some siblings with her) and now as summer is fading has started blooming. I don't know how to explain her but she is definitely welcome.

What's blooming now.

The weather is cooling down. Plants are less stressed and just maybe some nice fall blooms are on the way. For now, this is what I found this morning.

The rain lilies have been blooming for over a month. They come and go quickly however and catching them has been a praoblem. Today I dound a nice white one.

Next is the mandevillea. This was an impulse buy in July to help fill the trellis which has been bare all year. This is the first of the blooms since I planted it. It seems happy mow but may not survive the winter.

Making her first blog appearance is Mmc. Cecile Brunner, looking the best for this year. She is still tiny but I am hoping in time she will make the 3 feet promised in the catalogue.

And finally, crocosmia. This is the third year I have tried to grow them and finally they are taking hold and appearing happy. I have several clumps established from bulbs planted in late spring. They were a long time coming up and once up I wondered if they would bloom. Now I am just enjoying their exuberance.