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Penny Carnathan

Penny’s a Nurture And Hold (NAH): Nah, I won’t pull that out yet, it’s still got a green shoot. She likes dragonflies, lady bugs and new stuff only after weeding, pruning and fertilizing.

Kim Franke-Folstad

Kim’s a Want It Now (WIN): Everything pretty, everything now. She will resort to full-spectrum insecticides in desperate situations, and believes it’s her duty and right to buy new plants every weekend.

Both advocate Plant Choice (SOMEthing besides crotons. Please!), lots of color and low maintenance. We don’t agree on everything, but we’re smart enough to learn from each other - and from you.

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Fall bloomers? We got fall bloomers! (“I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom ...”)

Posted Oct 24, 2009 by Loren Omoto

Updated Oct 24, 2009 at 09:33 PM

I realized while I was out clipping and weeding and watering today – and admiring my October bloomers – it was a year ago this month that I was moaning right here about having nothing blooming in the fall.

A year ago, I figured most plants just don’t bloom in the fall. My garden was a one-season wonder. I do most of my planting in the summer (I need the rain because my plumber husband STILL has not provided an irrigation system despite us living in this house for 19 years! But yeah, that’s a personal problem.)

One tends to buy what’s blooming so I had summer bloomers. Summer. When no one works outside, plays outside or even sits outside. When we do everything we can to avoid being outside.

So I was moaning about fall being a colorless season in Florida and Susan Gillespie of Riverview responded.

“I have fall bloomers. LOTS of them!”

Bragger!

This is Susan.

Her bragging led to a column about her fall bloomers in The Tribune, and lots of seeds and cuttings in Penny’s backyard. Thank you, Susan! (And yes, it also led to a new friend. Ain’t gardening grand?)

It’s fun to learn, and being an advanced beginner in gardening, I do a lot of that. Working in my garden today, I realized I’ve learned a lot in just the past year. And thanks to Susan, I have fall bloomers, too!

I adored her black-eyed Susan vines, and she actually bought me a packet of seeds and mailed them to me! I planted many of them, MANY, indoors and out, and couldn’t get the first one to even germinate. So she somehow dug up part of her plant, potted it and gave it to me. That worked.

It’s an energetic twining vine that needs only a little hand-holding guidance to move down along a fence instead of strangling its dreamy, live-and-let-live neighbors. It’s usually covered with flowers. Mine is looking a little bare because I’m a bad person. (But I still have blooms! As you see)

If you like this, I found a version called black-eyed Susan ‘Spanish Eyes’ sold by Renee’s Garden, a seed company. You have to buy the seeds on-line – I haven’t found them locally. Spanish Eyes has sunset-colored blooms—pinks, yellows and oranges with dark “Spanish” eyes. I planted two of the seeds a couple weeks ago in a pot outside and they’re already up and growing.

They’re $2.99 a packet and you only get about a dozen seeds, but hey, if they all sprout, it’s money well spent.

These guys, by the way, need a sunny spot.

Susan also blessed me with Philippine violet, a shrub. Hers (and mine) has white blooms. Some varieties have lavender. The first spot I planted it, in the ground, it lived but didn’t enjoy life. I moved it a couple months ago, and it got happy.

This one likes sun but seems to need a little break from the hottest parts of the day. It has a kind of narrow, upward growth habit.

I’ve mentioned them here before but I can’t say enough about datura – or devil’s trumpet. It’s SO easy to grow from seed, and it produces lots of seeds in thorny golf balls that some (Kim) might find unattractive. I love the flowers and only wish my three datura would get as big as the one I started for Janna Begole (another Friend of the Dirt.)

These guys tend to lean and bend and generally behave in an uncivilized manner. They’re not for the well-manicured garden, and probably not for the garden with the house full of teen-agers. (Parts of the plant—I don’t know which—are used as halluconigenic drugs. My college-age daughter knows people who were “strung out on datura” for months.”)

Reader Comments

Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on October 24, 2009

Your “fall bloomers” are doing lovely, Penny. But——-can I have a picture do-over? Yikes!

Posted by (Chip) on October 25, 2009

Beautiful Garden Susan ! I just love big flowering plant’s and you have a nice mix in your garden.
useing the old rake head for wine glass rack truly inspirational.There are a lot of plant’s that will bloom this time of year if you look for them. Diane and I mostly do veggies and in doing so must have flowering plant’s [to attract bee’s]. I can see having the bench as a nice spot to enjoy your garden and unwind from work have a cup of tea or glass of wine. Diane and I look forward to meeting all of you at the field trip next weekend can not wait! “Chip”