Fall companions
While Nan Sinton is leading a tour in South Africa, our art director Lisa Newman will be offering her thoughts on her autumn garden.
by Lisa Newman, Art Director Asters appeared a few weeks ago and I realized that I didn’t like them. I thought it was because they were leggy and misplaced in the garden. They seemed to loom up dead center in the garden announcing themselves as a very unwlecomed focal point. I considered moving them but knew they’d have deep purple blooms soon and I could use them as fresh picked flowers. I put off moving them. Not long after that, my neighbor began a new garden. He said he liked asters so I thought I’d dig them up and pass them along. When I started digging, however, I began to resconsider, running down the list of virtues and that’s when I hit upon the reason I didn’t like this plant. It's not so much the plant but rather what it announces—the end of the gardening season. I started thinking about what I could do to embrace the season and even extend it. So I began searching out plants that would bloom in late September and early October. If the aster had some companions, then it would just be part of a new scene in the garden, not a reminder that the season was coming to a close. A Hydrangea 'Limelight' and an oakleaf hydrangea along with some big,bold dahlias (I plan to save the tubers for next season), Rudbeckia nitida, ruby-leaved heucheras, a few sedums are now providing companionship to the aster. This morning while gathering a bouquet of fresh-picked flowers from this new assortment I noticed, tucked way back under the robust hydrangea, the most beautiful crimson bloom of a salvia (an annual in my part of the world) that I had forgotten I’d even planted. So bring on fall now that I see this new world of new possibilites.
Read Meg Lynch's blog Read Sara Begg's blog
10/31/2007 4:42:45 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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