October Colors and To-Do list

A quick post about What's Blooming This Week:

Asters, native and otherwise look just great. Knockout roses are still blooming. Wild ageratum is mixed in with some of the native asters. Muhly grass is a blast of pink mist. Butterfly bush still going. Japanese anemones look great in mass plantings. Burning bush, hydrangea quercifolia, and dogwoods look really nice, turning some rich reds.
And that's not even the tree color!

What to do, when there is a rare moment without rain?

LAWN: If you dutifully overseeded your Fescue lawn a couple of weeks ago, you might have a nice crop of fine seedlings. OR a lot of your seed may have rotted or been washed away and you can overseed again, maybe at half rate if some of the first crop sprouted.

PERENNIALS: We should be getting some frosts soon, so if this is your only weekend available for awhile, you can cut back your herbaceous perennials, trimming the monarda, hostas, iris, platycodons etc. to within a few inches of the ground. Leave your tall coneflowers and sedums and sages if you like their look; leave all your ornamental grasses for some eye appeal during the winter (cut them back in mid-February to early March).
P.S., you can divide many of these plants now if you need some space or want to give root sections to friends. Note on the bearded iris, you can divide them now, but next year immediatley after blooming is better. Dividing now will work, but they might postpone blooms for a year.

After a few hard frosts, you'll be able to see what softer tissue plants have 'melted' in the cold and you can remove any dead above-ground plant material.

Plant bulbs (tulips, hyacinths, crocuses, etc.).

SHRUBS: Don't do much pruning. Trim very lightly, if you must, the yews or laurels. Don't touch the forsythia, they have set their buds for spring. Of course, have a go at any overgrown Privet hedge. Really, do.

HERBS: Harvest all that basil now! Make pesto!

And you can always plant some pansies or if you dare, ornamental cabbages.

Thanks for reading, and here's to the sun predicted for next week!