October Blooms in my Georgia Garden: Mistflower

I love Eupatorium coelestinum for its showy bloom clusters in early fall. This plant is usually referred to by one of its common names which include Hardy or Perennial Ageratum and Mistflower. 

Eupatorium is a deciduous perennial native American plant in the same family as Joe Pye Weed. The bright periwinkle blue blooms of Eupatorium coelestinum attract a lot of attention in September and October, when most flowers have stopped blooming. Mistflower contrasts nicely with fall-blooming asters and the common fall mums.

The plentiful 4-inch flower clusters atop tall stems resemble the shorter annual ageratum, but Hardy Ageratum comes back bigger and better every single year.

With large clumps of bright blooms visible from a distance, Mistflower is a good candidate for a roadside garden.

Hardy Perennial Ageratum prefers full sun, fertile soil, and regular water, but this hardy variety can tolerate periods of drought. Like other varieties of Eupatorium, this one can grow in wet soil too.  We have a patch behind the greenhouse that has taken over a shady spot where the sprinkler keeps the soil evenly moist to wet.

This very showy and assertive perennial will reach heights of up to 4 feet tall, but it can be kept mowed to only a few inches. Just to give you a hint of its vigor, Mistflower is in the mint family.

This is a perennial plant that looks best in naturalistic informal gardens. It grows very well in my shade garden, where its blooms seem electrified in September.

Perennial Ageratum emerges late in spring, so be careful not to uproot it when doing your spring weeding. 

Cut back once or twice in summer to promote bushiness and more blooms, and to keep it from coming into full bloom too early.  I always want mine to wait and bloom in October.

August Blooms in my Georgia Garden: Chelone, Turtlehead

Georgia heat has been brutal this summer, but since I have a sprinkler with a timer, the Chelone is blooming on schedule. 

Chelone is an American native plant found in the Northeastern United States, but it grows nicely here in the Southeast if it gets enough water. Chelone is also known as Turtlehead. The flower spikes are made up of individual flowers that do resemble a turtle's head. According to Greek mythology, Chelone was a nymph who refused to attend the marriage of Zeus to Hera. As punishment, the gods turned her into a turtle!

Sometime in late August or September, depending on your climate, spikes of flowers ascend in either pink or white.

Chelone loves consistently moist or wet soil beside a pond or a stream. It is perfect for a bog garden. I have mine planted in a large tub that is my makeshift bog garden. Turtlehead can be grown in regular garden soil if you have irrigation. Chelone will bloom well in either partial shade or full sun, but if you put it in full sun, be ready to water it regularly. Amend your soil with a rich humusy compost and mulch with shredded leaves. A lot of shade promotes legginess, so if growing in shade, pinch the stems back in early summer to encourage stronger stems and more flowers. 

If you live in Maryland, Chelone is a necessary perennial for the butterfly garden, since it is an important food source for the Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly, Maryland's State Insect.

This plant can be grown in most of the United States, since it is hardy in USDA Zones 5-8.

When in bloom, Chelone makes quite a show at a height and spread of up to 4 feet. Plant a low groundcover beside it that will remain green in the winter, because Chelone disappears completely with the first frost.

Deer Resistant? Yes! Deer will not eat Chelone. 

Chelone blooms make great cut flowers too, so plant it in your cutting garden.  Like most plants I write about, Chelone is available from my favorite native plant source, Shady Gardens Nursery.

Xeriscape Gardening with Companion Plants

Georgia gardeners are becoming increasingly concerned about water conservation due to recent extreme droughts. But since lately we've received a little bit too much rain here in Georgia, I considered a practice we've tried to stick to here in our garden for a few years now: Companion Planting. Now I'm not talking about  what you might be thinking--companion planting as laid out in organic gardening books to promote heavy yields in the vegetable garden. What I'm talking about is simply planting moisture loving plants all together, to make watering easier with less waste. 

Shown in the photo above is Helianthus angustifolius Gold Lace, our native American Swamp Sunflower, with Colocasia Black Magic. What a striking contrast, and they both enjoy the soaking rains we've received lately.

Choose moisture lovers wisely and sparingly. Then place them in groups, preferably where the occasionally received rain water collects, but certainly where you can reach them easily with a hose.

For a list of plants that enjoy wet soil, visit Shady Gardens Nursery.