The turning of the Year

It's that time when one season morphs into the next, there is an almost imperceptible change in temperature and length of day.   More obvious is the debris at the foot of the Horse Chestnut trees as the conkers are scavenged by small boys and girls for their beauty and to play conkers with.

Yesterday I saw this Sumac tree in the front garden of one of my customers, in his back garden he has another, but the leaves are still all green on that one.   It is an odd season, some plants seem to be fully in autumn mode while others are hanging on to summer.   Some of the bedding is looking very tired while the pelargoniums are very much in their full pomp.   I have some cannas, one has been blooming well the others have put on lots of growth but have yet to start flowering, I still hope to get at least one bloom out of them.

Of course the main extra seasonal job is clearing up fallen leaves, I have got out my trusty old leaf blower, but most of the summer jobs continue as well, the grass is still growing and as long as we keep dead heading we keep getting flowers on our roses and many other plants.

This "Betty" will work as a wallpaper!

With all this it is easy to forget just how dry the last few weeks have been, indeed here in the UK the first half of September was the driest on record,   because of this it is particularly important to water you Camellias, Rhododendrons and Azaleas, they are currently setting the flower buds for next spring, if they dry out the buds will not develop and the flowers will be lost, just remember to use rainwater!