Late summer -- early fall bloomers offer a yellow and orange 'Fall Colours' preview at Brueckner Rhododendron Garden (Mississauga):
Helianthus "Lemon Queen" (yellow perennial sunflower);
Rudbeckia (Brown Eyed Susans);
Impatiens Capensis (Orange Jewelweed; and
Physalis alkekengi (Orange Chinese Lanterns).
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| Helianthus "Lemon Queen" |
Lemon Queen, also known as perennial sunflower, are the tall flashes of bright lemon yellow gracing the garden perimeter as well as making a show of themselves in the perennial beds near the main Garden entrance on Lakeshore Road West.
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| Helianthus "Lemon Queen" in Perennial Bed |
Lemon Queens are easy to care for and to transplant. Some plants grow up to six feet high, and provide a lavish display at the back of a garden for minimal effort. They are pest and disease resistant, and drought tolerant. Honey bees and hummingbirds love them!
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| Lemon Queen Close Up Flowers |
Here's a closer look at the daisy-like flowers with deeper yellow center. Note the clear lemon colour.
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| Rudbeckia (Brown Eyed Susans) |
Another summer into fall bloomer is the perennial
Rudbeckia, also known as Brown Eyed Susans. Like Lemon Queen, Rudbeckia is a hardy, prolific bloomer that is very easy to grow. If Rudbeckia has any faults, it's that it grows so well and spreads readily enough that it will want to take over.
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| Lemon Queen with Rudbeckia, Purple Coneflower |
But Rudbeckia's prolific growth is a bonus, as plants can be divided or split off and transplanted to other parts of the garden. In the picture above taken at the main perennial bed, tall Lemon Queen is at the back of the bed, Brown-Eyed Susan at the front, and a glimpse of Purple Coneflower (also a member of the Rudbeckia family) to the left center.
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| Impatiens Capensis ~ Orange Jewelweed) |
You know it's September without looking at a calendar when you see
Impatiens Capensis in bloom. Also known as Orange Jewelweed, jewelweed or Touch-Me-Not, the tall plants can been found along the naturalized areas in Brueckner Rhododendron Garden (BRG).
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| Annual Jewelweed ~ Native North American |
The North America native plant Jewelweed likes to grow along creeks and waterways, and can be found along Tecumseh Creek in both the East and the West Garden. This gorgeous plant in the photo found root at the BRG nursery, near a clump of yellow-blooming Goldenrod. See
this site for interesting facts and trivia about Jewelweed.
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| Physalis alkekengi (Chinese Lanterns) |
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A small grouping of Chinese lanterns (
Physalis alkekengi) are in fruit now near the south bridge across Tecumseh Creek. Also called Bladder cherry, Japanese lantern and Winter cherry, Chinese lanterns are a relative of Cape Gooseberries.
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| Wild Aster family ~ Blue flowered Chicory |
In ditches along roadsides, at the garden's edges, along trails and into woodlands, the pale blue
Cichorium intybus (wild chicory, in the Aster family)
complements the yellow and orange fall blooming plants. (See
Wikipedia for details.)
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| White Flowered Rhododendron September Blooms |
As if to remind us that this is, after all, a
Rhododendron Garden, this white rhododendron set forth a few blooms this week. Each fall, one or another of the rhodies opens a few flowers just to stake a claim.
In Bloom Now at BRG Port Credit
As well as Lemon Queen, Jewelweed, Brown-Eyed Susans, coneflowers, chicory and Chinese lanterns, look for these blooming plants:
- Roses -- still putting on a fairly nice display this late in the season
- Hydtangeas
- Russian Sage (feather fronds in light purple)
- Chrysanthemums all in bud and ready to pop
- Coleus
- Cleome (those tall round pink and white flowers in the annual bed)
