Flowers of Late Summer

Cosmos

Summer is drawing to a close: the days have a crisp, clear quality; the vegetable harvest is peaking; the trees are showing some autumn color as their chlorophyll begins to disappear. But in the garden, some flowers come into their full glory at this time of year. The annuals in the vegetable garden add bright color to the fading plants around them. The cosmos dance about above delicate foliage.

Lavatera

Lavatera forms a dense mound of color, almost tropical in feeling.

Sunflower, Red Sun

Although some of the sunflowers have finished blooming and are producing seed (which a local gray squirrel is finding very attractive) some are still showing brilliant color.

Shirley Poppy

Poppies bloom most profusely in late spring into early summer, but there are some popping up now, like this frilly double, pink alongside the red of tomatoes. 

New England Aster 

The cultivated New England Asters have escaped the formal flower borders and now bloom alongside their wild cousins around the pond. 

Cimicifuga racemosa Atropurpurea

Most late flowers are saturated reds and yellows, violets and pinks, but Cimicifuga sends fragrant white spires seven feet in the air. They are deliciously attractive to insects, and to me.