End of summer

   

​Where was the Indian summer we so often get.  Not this year - Summer came and went like a flash​, and the leaves are falling already

​AUTUMN IS HERE 

 The lovely weeds and grassy seedheads which I rely on to sparkle up my garden in summer are drying up and fading away already!!  So early!!
And the courtyard outside my kitchen and living room is already carpeted in golden leaves which have fallen from the Wisteria growing over the pergola above.
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Dying back in such splendour, the Hosta almost looks more stunning than when it's in its green prime.

When this fresh pretty blue plant starts to flower very late in the season, we know it's nearly all over.   Commonly known as Bog Sage, it's unflattering name does not do it justice.  It is a perennial which appears so lushly just when most other perennials are looking tired and dying back.  But it's botanical name Salvia uglinosa does it no favours either.  There is nothing ugly about it, as it's terrible botanical name 'uglinosa' suggests.  

​JUST A REMINDER OF WHAT SUMMER WAS LIKE WHEN WE HAD IT!!

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We may not have the Flower Shows any more which boosted up our flagging garden enthusiasm in mid to late summer, after spring excitement was over.  But we do have Wildflower meadows in Hagley Park and what a joy that is!   It is right up there with the newest naturalistic trends in gardens, so our Council who initiated these lovely meadows must be congratulated for being so 'on to it'!!   
I wish I had realised earlier rather than later that these meadows existed, as I would love to have followed the progress of the meadows from the outset.  But I know now - and I shall be looking from this coming spring to see the meadows progress from small green mounds at ground level to their tall majestic floral beauty in their mid summer flowering glory.   And then watching the  beauty of decay as they fade away.