• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Garden Making

Inspiring ideas and information for great home gardens

  • Design
  • Containers
  • Food
  • Gardens to visit
    • British Columbia
    • Alberta
    • Manitoba
    • Ontario
    • Quebec
    • New Brunswick
    • Nova Scotia
    • Newfoundland
    • England
    • U.S.
  • Events Calendar
    • By organizing group
    • By location of events
    • In British Columbia
    • In Alberta
    • In Saskatchewan
    • In Manitoba
    • In Ontario
    • In Quebec
    • In New Brunswick
    • In Nova Scotia
    • In Prince Edward Island
    • In Newfoundland & Labrador
    • Local garden tours
    • Plant sales across Canada
    • Outside Canada
    • Form to list your event
  • Reader photos
    • Reader images of gardens
    • Container gardening images
    • Reader images of plants in 2019
    • Reader images of plants in 2018
    • Reader images of plants in 2017
    • Reader images of plants in 2016
    • Submit photo to Garden Making
  • Shop
    • Print still available
    • PDF downloads
    • Digital Library
You are here: Home / August in the Garden / Autumn-blooming perennials

Autumn-blooming perennials

By Judith Adam

Yellow rudbeckia, a tall beauty. (Photo by Brendan Zwelling)
Yellow rudbeckia, a tall beauty. (Photo by Brendan Zwelling)

The weeks from the end of summer to the first frost are a rich season for late-blooming perennials. I don’t have nearly enough of these plants that flower when temperatures and soil begin to cool, and daylight shortens. But the few I do grow provide real pleasure and spur me on to purchase a wider selection.

There are many forms of coneflowers in the rudbeckia clan, all with reflexed yellow petals and brown, cone-shaped disks. They’re long-blooming and pest-free, and require little care beyond watering each week if there’s no rain. My favourite is Autumn Sun coneflower (Rudbeckia laniciata ‘Herbstsonne’ syn. R. nitida ‘Herbstsonne’, Zone 3), now more than six feet (1.8 m) tall in my garden. Careful watering has resulted in their lofty stems; they have a natural stiff and erect posture, with no flopping. The plant’s height is vulnerable to wind, and I find it useful to provide a support (the deck banister), and loop a loose piece of hemp twine around the cluster of stems to prevent them from being bent over.

‘Herbstsonne’ coneflower starts blooming in my garden about the middle of July and carries on into September. The plant has generous side shoots that produce lots of flowers all through the upper half of the plant. If allowed to stand into winter, the seed heads are charmingly snow-capped. The flowers are prodigious nectar producers, and enthusiastically attended by small bees and miniature wasps from dawn to dusk. These little fellows are entirely indifferent to curious gardeners and allow close observation. Cruising the garden one morning at dawn, I was surprised to see little bees sleeping overnight on the plant, hiding themselves deep under the reflexed petals where they attach to the central disk. They slumbered on until the first direct sunlight began to warm the petals and stimulate the day’s nectar production. Such dedication!

Easy-to-grow Japanese gentian. (Photo by Brendan Zwelling)
Easy-to-grow Japanese gentian. (Photo by Brendan Zwelling)

Japanese and willow gentians

One good reason for joining a plant society (I belong to the Ontario Rock Garden and Hardy Plant Society) is the opportunity to discover new plants and learn how to grow practically anything. For years I thought gentians were too temperamental for my rough-and-tumble garden, but plant society members set me straight on some of the easiest gentians to grow. Currently blooming is Japanese gentian (Gentiana scabra, Zone 5); it’s in bright light on a slight slope next to some stone steps. It has 10- to 12-inch (25- to 30-cm) stems with the signature gentian-blue bells with white or grey throat markings. You don’t need a lot of these flowers to attract attention!

Although Japanese gentian is a beautiful plant with pride of place in my front bed, the real treasure is a small clump of willow gentian (G. asclepiadea, Zone 5), around the corner in the air-conditioner garden. This most graceful arching gentian is in heavy bud and my hope is that it will open in the coming week and remain in flower into September. The graceful stems travel in an arc, with their sleek flower buds prominently displayed on the upper side of the stems. My willow gentian grows in shade, with stems about 18 inches (45 cm) long, and would be larger in brighter light. The combination of graceful architecture and cobalt blue flowers is like too much happiness. When it’s in bloom, I keep slipping around the corner to make sure it’s still there.

Japanese and willow gentians are happy in light shade or part sun, with rich soil, consistent moisture and reliable drainage. I don’t know why anyone would want a gentian to be anything but blue; still, there is a wine-red gentian (G. scabra ‘Toki-rindo’) that’s quite appealing. I just might need to investigate that.

 

Planning for spring bulbs

Dare I mention that it’s time to be thinking of your spring bulb purchase? No one wants to let go of summer, but it’s worth trying to remember how the garden looked last spring, and where there were empty sections that might benefit from a display of narcissus or tulips. If only I would place markers where the bulbs are buried, make a map of the beds or keep a better journal of what bulbs are already planted—but the gardening life is busy, and I do more chasing after events and not enough planning ahead.

I do remember saying to myself that I need more crocus. I’m greedy in spring and want to see big bursts from bunched snow crocus, the early species that bloom even before the snow is gone. I was also disappointed that not enough daffodils returned, and I definitely need more ‘February Gold’, a small narcissus that comes out in March. I had some very double narcissus that were so top heavy with clustered petals they toppled over and required staking. (I don’t want any more of them, thank you!) I’d rather plant trumpets like ‘Ice Follies’, with a white perianth and frilled yellow cup, and the scented poet’s daffodil (Narcissus poeticus var. recurvus), with recurved white petals and a striking yellow-red eye. Maybe it’s time to make a statement with thick clumps of classic big trumpets, like yellow ‘Dutch Master’, with more flowers per stem and reliable return for several years. I’ll need to think about this more, and look through the print and online catalogues. Time marches on.

Date: August 10, 2011 | Updated: February 5, 2019

About Judith Adam

Judith Adam is a horticulturist, landscape designer and author of several best-selling gardening books, including Landscape Planning. She lives in Toronto.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Judith Adam says

    August 14, 2011 at 12:57 am

    Hi Rhonda (Aug. 13),
    My ‘Herbstsonne’ has quite a varied community of buzzing visitors. We’re photographing them; nice to remember in winter.
    — Judith

    Reply
  2. Rhonda says

    August 13, 2011 at 10:37 am

    I like Herbstsonne growing under my second floor window. It brings the blooms…and butterflies and bees up close for observation.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Search

Events for gardeners

  • Tofino Winterlights
    • Friday, November 29, 2019 - Sunday, January 5, 2020 in Tofino
  • AGM, Elections, Potluck
    • Thursday, December 12, 2019 in Cheltenham
  • 'Picture Perfect - Snapshots to Admire and Inspire'
    • Wednesday, January 8, 2020 in Mississauga
  • Edible Native Plant Landscapes
    • Tuesday, January 14, 2020 in Orangeville
  • Monthly Meeting
    • Wednesday, January 15, 2020 in Maple Ridge
  • Chelsea Flower Show
    • Monday, January 20, 2020 in Montreal West
  • Galt Horticultural Society's 29th Annual Dream Garden Conference
    • Sunday, January 26, 2020 in Cambridge
  • 4th Annual Plant Symposium
    • Friday, February 7, 2020 in London
  • Practical Landscape Design for the New or Seasoned Gardener
    • Tuesday, February 11, 2020 in Orangeville
  • View all events

Shop for Garden Making magazines

  • PDF downloads of magazine issues
  • Magazine issues still available in print
  • Gardening Digital Library

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

We do not share emails. Your information will be used as outlined in our Privacy Policy.

Please look for our email. You must click on the link in the email to confirm. Check your inbox or spam folder.

Footer

Search

Reader submissions

  • Form to list your event
  • Submit photo to Garden Making

Garden Making magazine

  • Garden Making Shop
  • Garden Making list of magazine issues
  • Garden Making index of magazine articles
  • Advertiser list and links
  • Contact Garden Making

When you’re looking for

  • Books for gardeners
  • Containers in your garden
  • Design
  • Food to grow
  • Gardens to visit
  • Growing from seed
  • How to
  • Plant ideas
  • Tips for gardeners

Events for gardeners

  • British Columbia events
  • Alberta events
  • Saskatchewan events
  • Manitoba events
  • Ontario events
  • Quebec events
  • New Brunswick events
  • Nova Scotia events
  • Prince Edward Island events
  • Newfoundland & Labrador events
  • Form to submit your event

Copyright © 2019 Inspiring Media Inc. | GARDEN MAKING is a registered trademark | About | Service | Terms of use | Privacy policy

We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada. Government of Canada wordmark