So many people lament that the only way to get late season color in the garden is to plant mums. Of course that’s not true. As I showed on Monday (and the prior Monday) asters are a great native plant choice that are far more reliably perennial than mums, at least in northern climates.
And fall blooming bulbs are another great and totally unexpected choice that, while they may not help wildlife, will give great color and be fairly critter proof as well.
This is another great, late-blooming perennial. If you think it looks like a begonia, you’re absolutely correct. It is a begonia.
This is begonia grandis and I happen to have the white form (there’s also a more traditional pink form) so this variety is called alba.
I’ve read all sorts of things about hardiness–everything from 5a to 6 on the low-end to 7 up to 9 on the high-end. It just goes to show that plants can’t read!
I did lose a portion of my main clump last year but I suspect that had more to do with my dry summer than any cold winter. I lost a lot of things that should have been perfectly hardy for me. I don’t coddle my plants with moisture. I try to be thrifty with water. Sometimes that backfires.
Fortunately these plants readily self-sow. I simply took some seedlings and re-planted. So I–and the bees–are happy once again.
Gardendaze 