New This Week: September 20th

The arrival of fall may be imminent, but that doesn't mean NOTHING new is going on in the garden. Thankfully!! Perhaps the most exciting new arrival is the blooming of the fall crocuses. Until last year, I never knew that crocuses bloomed in the fall. Imagine my surprise when these beauties popped up! I was exceptionally excited to see them this year because I had to move them earlier this spring right in the middle of their growth phase. They were right in the way of the new raised beds, so I had to either try and re-home them or get rid of them altogether. They spent all spring in pots while the new beds went in. Once the leaves faded, I went ahead and planted them out in the border of the bed, hoping they'd be ok.

It looks like they're doing just fine! The winter will be the true test, but here's hoping they come back just as strong in the spring. For those who, like me, aren't familiar with this crocus, they come up in early spring with very wide green leaves. They look somewhat like corn plants, but they only get about 10" tall or so. They don't bloom at all in the spring. Then in the fall, the flowers emerge. Just the flowers, no leaves at all. Very unique! I'm so glad they made it through the summer ok in their new home!

From a planting perspective, there have been a couple of new additions. On the left you'll see the new Gencianas that I just put in. I've never seen this little annual before, but it's a late fall/early winter bloomer here in zone 6, so I'm excited to see how it holds out. It will be nice to have a bit of a splash of color still going as the rest of the summer annuals die back. The photo on the right are the recently started cabbage, lettuce, and spinach seedlings. I think I was pretty late getting the cabbage going, so we'll have to see how they make out. The lettuce and spinach is just now sprouting and that should be on schedule for a good fall crop. We'll see!

Lastly, one of the plants I'm most excited about! While we were on vacation two weeks ago we went to the NY Botanical Gardens. Needless to say, I came back with a list about a mile long of things I wanted to try out. This little guy is Anemone Robustisima. A Japanese Anemone. It turns out that these get planted out in the fall here in the Northeast, so I had a perfect window of opportunity. It was a bit difficult to find, but I ordered a three pack online and got them in this past week. I put two in the back yard and one out front. I just learned this evening that they can take up to two years before they bloom, but I guess like many things you have to wait to get really amazing results. The photo below is what I have to look forward to in a summer or two:

Beautiful single pink flowers on delicate airy stems. (This photo taken at the NY Botanical Garden.) After the trip I also picked up a beautiful little painted Japanese fern that just came today and I'll be planting this week. I also stocked up on a ton of seeds for next year for plants that I was inspired by during our visit, but I'm not going to give away any of those secrets until next spring. That way you'll have something to look forward too as well!