Fall Flowers - Caryopteris Sunshine Blue

The Autumn Equinox began September 22, at 10:44 in the morning. In poetry, this time of year is called the crowning time for our gardens. Only the daffodil season is better according to the poets.

Fall Equinox is noted for having exactly 12-hours of daylight and 12-of night at the equator. Therefore, in many myths, it is a time of balance.

It is a time for rituals of protection and reflection. The Greek goddess Persephone even returned to live with her husband Hades.

Everywhere you look in the fall flower garden, there are brightly colored blooms.

Summer annuals are tall and crowned with flowers. Zinnias, castor beans, 4-O-Clocks, coleus, petunia, alyssum, cosmos and marigolds are at their peak bloom time.

Perennials such as Canna lilies, phlox, and Sedum Autumn Joy are covered with butterfly nectar flowers. Dahlias have huge buds about to burst open, asters and salvias are sprinkling bright spots of lavender, pink, red and purple in all the flowerbeds.

Goldenrod, Joe Pye Weed, Eupatorium, Passion vine, and others will keep blooming until Halloween.

In the herb garden, the basils and sages are blooming. Even though the oregano and thyme’s flowers have passed, they have spread to carpet all the ground around them.

The milkweed pods are bursting and remind us to continue collecting seeds for next spring’s garden.

Collect the mature seeds of blackberry lily, zinnia, Mexican sunflower, and seed heads of your other annual favorites. Once they are completely dry, store them in marked envelopes. Put the envelopes into a storage container in a dark, cool place. If you have any of those little moisture-removing, silica jel packets that come in medicine bottles and many other products, put one in the container.

Other seeds to collect in a month or so: Purple hyacinth bean vine, Snow-on-the Mountain, annual salvia, marigold – whatever you have that you like. The germination rate might be lower than fresh seeds from the store but you can’t beat the price!

The fall flowering shrubs are showing off now, adding to the colorful celebration that should last until the first hard frost. Gardens have lots of purple, white and pink from Crapemyrtle, Beautyberry bush, Butterfly bushes, Chaste tree, Rose of Sharon, and the Blue Mist shrubs.


For striking fall beauty, Caryopteris Sunshine Blue is a standout.

The lime green leaves and blue, scented flowers combine to attract even the casual garden visitor. The flowers attract honeybees, butterflies and skippers. Because of its scented leaves and flowers, deer are not attracted to this shrub.

Its botanical name is Caryopteris incana 'Jason' PPAF. Its common names include Bluebeard, Autumn Blue Spirea and California Lilac.

Caryopteris is a member of the Lamiaceae plant family along with other scented garden favorites such as Catmint, Lavender, Thyme, Sage, Monarda, Oregano, etc.

All the 6 species in the genus Caryopteris are medium-sized woody shrubs with aromatic foliage and usually blue flowers. They were originally from the Himalayas and East Asia.

The Caryopteris Genus includes Bluebeard, Blue Mist Spiraea, Bluebeard Dark Knight, and First Choice. They all have blue flowers, but the leaves range from silver to dark green. In stores and catalogs, they are all called Blue Mist Shrub.

An earlier yellow-green leaf Caryopteris, Worcester Blue, is also beautiful, but is said to be less vigorous over time.

The leaves of Sunshine Blue emerge gold-green in the spring and persist on the 2-to-3-foot tall shrubby plant all summer.

Planting it in full sun near deep green shrubs such as boxwood provides a complementary contrast for the brightness of Sunshine Blue. (I put mine in south facing, part shade and they did not flower and thrive until they were moved into bright light with plenty of water.)

They must be watered during drought periods and cannot have their roots standing in water over the winter. Well-drained soil will protect the roots.

Prune in the early spring, to shape and remove broken or dead branches. Flowers grow on new growth so stems can be cut back to less than 2-feet to stimulate a fresh growth spurt and heavier flowering.

Fertilize in early spring with shrub fertilizer according to package directions.

Hardy in USDA zones 5 to 8. Northeast Oklahoma is zone 7.

Caryopteris Sunshine Blue was bred by an English plantsman, Peter Champion. Caryopteris is named from the Greek karyon (a nut) and pteron (a wing) referring to its winged fruits.

Mail order sources include Bluestone Perennials (http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/ and 800-852-5243) and Sooner Plant Farm (http://www.soonerplantfarm.com/ and 918.453.0771).

Trillium Symposium April 2008 in Delaware

News from the online Trillium and Woodland Plants conversation is that the 2008 Trillium Symposium will be April 17 to 19 and enrollment is limited to the first 200 who register. The workshops and seminars will feature the conservation and propagation of trilliums on the east coast of the US.

If you do not grow Trilliums yet, click on this link to see beautiful photographs of them.

The Minnesota nursery, Specialty Perennials sells seed and has dozens of links to more wonderful photos at this link. Once you see Trillium photos, you will realize how often you have enjoyed them in shade gardens.

Companion plants that want similar growing conditions include spiderwort, bleeding heart, green dragon arum, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, woodland phlox, columbine and Virginia Bluebells.

The Symposium is $195 if registration is received by Jan 31, 2008.

A member of the same plant family, Toad Lilies grow well in my shade garden. The ones I purchased as plants from Bluestone Perennials bloomed the first year.

End-of-Season Sales, Mulching a Path, Bluestone Perennials, Caterpillars

Blossom's Garden Center is having their end-of-the season sale Thursday - tomorrow. Go grab some bargains to complete your garden.

As the beds in the back yard have grown and the shrubs have expanded, it was becoming a challenge to get in between things. Three weeks ago my garden column was on covering a patch of weeds with newspaper and then topping it with mulch. The photo on the left is the end result. One less slice of the back yard has to be mowed.






Bluestone Perennials website has an easy to use online catalog where you can browse their half-off everything sale.



The front of the bed in the photo is lined with Nepeta Walker's Low from Bluestone.This year I ordered several dozen plants from Bluestone - for my garden and for a few friends. One type of plant arrived looking less than desirable and they replaced it. Everything from them has taken root and thrived so far. So, I'm impressed.

Here's the progress report on the tiny Spicebush Butterfly Caterpillar found on what else? the Spicebush. In the first photo I put up he was brown, tiny. Now, look at it. Six more leaves have chew lines and are folded over. Inside each damaged leaf there is a pencil line of a tiny, brown caterpillar.



If the rains stops and we get some sun, the tomatoes and blackberries will have a chance to ripen. In the meantime, the snow pea vines are producing a month later than usual - a great bonus for the rainy weather.

Seeds, Transplants and Planting

For us gardeners the past few days have been a flurry of ground work. We are outside as soon as the coffee wakes us up and back indoors only for water, lunch or a quick break. Sleep at night is disturbed by being over-tired, if anything.

Today alone, we put 40-transplants in the ground, planted some vegetable and flower seeds and added a few trees to the back border.

The shade garden has several things blooming and also now has Japanese toad lilies from Bluestone Perennials in addition to the Virginia Bluebells planted last month.

A friend shared some toad lilies from her garden and I have no idea what they will look like when they bloom. That same friend gave me a peony today to replace the ones that were lost to a fungal disease a few years ago.

Because of an obsession with iris that lasted a few years, we planted more than we can actually care for. Right now we are in the season of having 100 in bloom on most days in spite of the number of buds that were frozen off over Easter.


Photo: Dragonwing Begonias at
Blossoms Garden Center in Muskogee

Weeding is a big part of spring. Weeds come out so easily when the ground is slightly moist and soft. In the heat of summer, Bermuda grass in the beds will be trying to take every speck of water it can grab.

Most of our shrubs and vines are beginning to produce a second set of green buds or leaves. They will need a few more weeks' growing time to let us know where to cut.

The fullness of all these plantings will be the reward for this spring's work with shovel, trowel, hands and sprinkling attachments on the hoses. The vision of how the flowers will look and how the vegetables will taste keep us going. Our memories of the failures and insect infestations of past years rarely occupy our minds in the spring.