Look carefully and there are still flowers giving of their all in the autumn garden with others gearing up for winter flowering…
A before and after
This bed is to the right of our driveway gate. The penstemon in the centre of this bed has been annoying me for some time. It was too big and unkempt. I’ve been waiting for it to stop flowering but fellow penstemon growers will know they’re the duracell bunny of flowering perennials. This week I could wait no more and it was whipped out and sent to the compost heap. 
The resulting tableau is much more balanced, opens up a good view of the budding Edgeworthia which will be in flower after Christmas. This also provides some space for bulb planting. I did take some cuttings first though as this is quite a lovely penstemon and planted somewhere else will do just fine.
Doting on a dahlia
Each week I have a different favourite dahlia. This week it’s this peachy ‘American Dawn’, presumably named after its sunrise colouring. I love the fact that the petals have pink on the underside but are peach on the uppers, leaving a pretty two-tone effect.
The other thing to recommend this dahlia is how garden-worthy it is. It’s stems are strong and upright and survive well even if not staked so it’s easy to care for as well as being a great cut flower.
Lewisia cotyledon ‘Elise’
From the buxom bloom of dahlias to a dainty alpine. This Lewisia flowers pretty well outside but really does enjoy this airy spot in my greenhouse sand box. I do have some in my rockery but flowering has finished there for the year. As winter approaches, I’ll celebrate any little flower that keeps giving me something to smile about.
Anisodontea el reyo
Earlier this week I paid a visit to one of my local Alpine Garden Society friends. I was delighted to spot that she has a shrub I’ve been meaning to identify for over a year and she was able to give me a name. Anisodontea is a bit of a mouthful but the common name African Mallow is a bit easier to remember.
This plant is probably on the edge of hardiness in my garden so was in a pot until June. I decided it was looking a bit sick and spindly and needed to get its roots in the ground, which was probably a good call as it is certainly hardy in my friend’s garden anyway. Now it’s looking so very healthy but has gone a bit pudding shaped. I’m tempted to do a bit of pruning and shaping to give it a slightly airier feel. Regardless of its shape, I’m keen on the leaf form and also the very delicate veined mallow flowers.
Acacia dealbata
This plant, often called Mimosa, featured in one of my earliest garden diaries. A wall of sweet smelling loveliness greeted me on a visit to the Princess of Wales Greenhouse at Kew one February. I tried to grow one from seed but they failed to germinate. I then found this lovely specimen unexpectedly at a local garden centre. It’s been enjoying the sunshine on this patio and has many wonderful buds swelling amongst the ferny foliage. I’ll be moving it to the greenhouse soon.
Lampranthus cuttings
This plant has become one of my rockery favourites. I’ve featured it before when describing some of this year’s rock garden successes and it’s more than tripled in size this year.
Lampranthus hail from the semi-desert areas of South Africa and are hardy in milder areas. I don’t think they like wet weather but mine is fairly well protected and growing in very gritty, sandy soil. I’m hopeful it’ll see out the winter. As insurance I have taken some cuttings which still look perky in the greenhouse.
This seasonal diary is part of a weekly link-up of garden bloggers from around the world, called Six on Saturday. For more information and links to other blogs crammed with gardening activity, check the blog of host The Propagator.
I love reading your work, Teabreak- you write so well with so much knowledge!
Thanks Anna – I’m here to inform and hopefully entertain.
A lovely blog for a Saturday morning. I think I’ve got that mallow. Looks familiar. We shall see.
Hi Julie – lovely to hear from you. I can imagine that mallow in your garden so maybe there is one tucked away somewhere.
I always like a before and after shot! Funnily enough I have a penstemon that has been annoying me; a Sour Grapes that has got far too large and hasn’t flowered much. That dahlia is a beauty.
Sour grapes – a very apposite name. Let’s vow to do more before and afters in our garden diaries!
It’s good to move plants about or remove them when they get too big. Most garden owners are nervous of removing plants even when said plant has got too big. That’s a very pretty mallow
I learned my lesson in my early gardening days tip-toeing around a huge pudding-shaped Hypericum that I dared not cut back because I was scared to kill it. I now know never to be held hostage by a plant and ease my guilt by taking cuttings.
American Dawn is very stylish! Love the flowers on your darling little Lewisia and the African Mallow flowers are rather lovely close up too. And like your vintage boxes for alpines!
The boxes are old wine boxes. My husband likes a tipple and buys in bulk so I get the old boxes!
The name of the African mallow plant is easier to remember … but the flower is obviously very beautiful whatever the name.
As for the mimosa, mine was the same size as yours (my parents gave it for my 40th and 6 years later it’s about 4m tall and as much wide! )
A huge and fast growing with a magnificent flowering. The first years, I did not have many flowers : normal because I left it outside, even if it was covered with a double fleece but the last 2 mild winters allowed it to bloom. (It’s of course in the ground, I only kept it in a pot for a year) : good luck for yours and your greenhouse will be perfect !
Hi Fred, you and I always seem to talk about plants that could be in or could be out. We should call them hokey-cockey plants. I’ll definitely keep it in the greenhouse this winter but then who knows?!
The African mallow certainly looks healthy now it’s in the ground. Judging by the nearby kniphofias it’s grown quite big too. You’ve been very industrious taking all those cuttings. It’s a job that I shouldn’t put off any longer!
Hi Hortus – you’re right, the mallow is really tall now. The cuttings were fun to do. I have a nice new horticultural knife to make the cuts. Fingers crossed they all root.
I love Lewisia, I just can’t find the right place for it to be happy. I’m glad to hear you saved some of the penstemon, when I read you composted it I nearly fainted!
Glad you didn’t faint – the penstemon lives on.
American Dawn stands out, Katharine! Those with reverse colors appeal to me. Enjoy your week in the lovely garden.
Glad you liked American Dawn. Whilst others have flopped with insufficient staking this one is bolt upright on strong stems. Highly recommended!
Nothing quite like a good clear out this time of the year. I had to look up the difference between Lampranthus and Delosperma which I do have. The one you have is a lovely shade. I like the view of your sand box, which has given me an idea to start a small one.
Lampranthus and delosperma are indeed similar – the leaves in particular. I can recommend the small sand box. I doubt it’ll have the structural integrity to last forever but is so useful as I can water the sand rather than the plants and they take in what water they need through the terracotta pots. It’s pretty too, a bit like assembling jewels in a display case.
I no longer have qualms about removing a plant of plants that are creating problems in a bed or border. But my husband wasn’t happy today about having to dig out, what he called, ‘a really good plant’. He couldn’t see what it was going to look like in a couple of years time. Too large, wrong colour, wrong place. It’s nice to see an area breath again, isn’t it. You thought to take cuttings beforehand – I usually forget that!
American Dawn is a pretty Dahlia, I like its pink and peach colour tones – and the African Mallow appeals to me – lovely.
Yes it’s sometimes difficult to visualise what a change will look like. I sometimes have the opposite with my husband – he’s keen for change when I can take some convincing!
That Anisodontea is a favourite here and can be guaranteed to have a flower open on every day of the year.
Thanks Paddy. Any plant that delivers 365 days a year is worth having. Have you any tips on pruning by any chance?
Very pretty dahlia. Love colour fade out from the centre.
The Acacia at the garden centre I was working at earlier in the year had seeded into everything around it. So if you bought a tree fern you got an extra stowaway in the pot.