September Bloom Day

Our long, hot, dry summer has given way to September's milder temperatures.  We're still short on rain, but the  cool nights and mild days, especially this week, have been welcome relief.

This overwintered canna has been blooming for a few weeks, making this one of my favorite spots in the garden lately.

Double impatiens and 'Diamond Frost' euphorbia are among my favorite hanging baskets this month.

'Rozanne' is my favorite geranium.  Here, she's seen with my favorite oxalis.

'David's Lavender' is one of my favorite phlox varieties.  Even during this very hot dry summer, this tall phlox kept all its foliage, and suffered no powdery mildew.  It was one of the earliest phlox to start blooming, and one of the last still going.

Seen with Agastache 'Blue Fortune,' this was one of my favorite coneflowers this year.  It had the most blooms of a single coneflower plant, and the goldfinches left its petals alone.

Sky blue aster, new last year, has upstaged the smooth blue as my favorite this month.

'Autumn Bride' is my favorite heuchera this time of year.  Amazingly, the bunnies haven't eaten any of the flower scapes (yet.)  Behind 'Autumn Bride,' 'Autumn Joy' sedum is just starting to color up.  They're my favorite sedums this year, since I remembered to pinch them in June, and they didn't flop,

(unlike the un-pinched 'Matrona' flopping into 'Autumn Bride' on the bottom right.)

Hanging basket fuchsias are the hummingbirds' favorites, now that the cardinal flowers are finished for the season (and maybe finished for good after the swale went completely dry for the first time since I've here.)

Gomphrena 'Fireworks' is my favorite new annual in the garden this year.

The last black-eyed susan still blooming, just behind Japanese anemones, and next to an upright 'Matrona'  I remembered to pinch.

Of all my favorite blooms in the garden this month, this is my very favorite-ist of all, shown at night when it's not only gorgeous, but amazingly fragrant too.  'Sunset' variegated angel's trumpet is in the midst of it's best show all summer, with two dozen blooms and as many buds yet to open.

There are a lot of favorites here during one of my very favorite months of the year.  I can't remember a time when the mild days of September were more welcome.

For everyone who survived one of, if not the hottest summers on record in the Chicago area, the United States, and around the globe, I hope you're enjoying a mild September so far, with plenty of rain, and cool, refreshing evenings.  Happy Bloom Day to all, and Happy Fall  (almost!)

For more Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts, please visit our host, Carol at May Dreams Gardens.