AND WHAT ABOUT THE CALLA LILIES?

Just leave them in the ground?

Our country is now enduring it’s warmest year on record and the
13 warmest years for the ENTIRE PLANET have occurred 

since 1998. That is 13 out of 14 years.  And this according to the

NYTimes based on data gathered since 1880....

Thank God Wind Power and Solar Energy are getting cheaper
 and renewable energy use is rising…but
in the meantime  -
What are we gardeners to do?

We're already getting used to
adapting to the new seasonal calendar,
but should we just consider the Eucomis eternal?
I mean,  leave the all Pineapple Lilies in the ground?
Here see an over-wintered one bursting forth and full blown.

 Do I dare expect another so-mild-you-can-hardly-call-it-winter?

What to think?  Because on this very day
(it is September 3rd as I write)
I have just spotted THREE HELLEBORE BUDS!

Lespedeza and Beauty berry in nearly full flush –
Pinky Winky already High-autumn pink –

Isn’t it unimageinable?  What happened to autumn?

SO TIME IS FLYING

I like to chitchat with you every month but as one month slurs into
the next -- who can keep up?  Though last month was exceptionally eventful – starting with a grand birthday party
for Jack Larsen at LongHouse -
Seating 75 people  in the amphitheatre
was, of course, his idea...

and it was wonderful...

Punctuated by 2 very different weddings:

My stepdaughter Wendy’s wonderful wedding on a Sonoma
precipice at twilight.

This is just a little taste of the Australian civil ceremony,
the real thing in the next issue.
Hold your breath...

In her brothers’, Marc & Charles, gorgeous sprawling garden
that put on a special show for the event:

Hairy cactus.

Cactus about to bloom.
Cactus in full bloom.

A towering yucca stalk.

And subtle modulated desert colors...
Blues that are really blue

and color combinations
that are too chic for words.

Peach trees.

And gorgeous tomatoes, this black one
called Indigo Rose.

Bountiful and wonderful.

Then a few weeks later were the nuptials of
Rufus Wainwright + Jorn Weisbrodt
right here on Long Island in their Montauk garden.

These big events mixed in with Lobster Bakes and Circus
Parties ( Big Apple Circus is the circus that gives back -
to schools, to hospitals)- and a trip to Baltimore to
celebrate dramatic old friends in new times - some
more theatrical than others.

So, I am a little late in getting
this summer's end DIRTIER
out to you...

To read the full text of this issue of DIRTIER click HERE.

There  Are  Painted  Ferns And then there are really Painted Ferns.

This one is particularly white, it is amazing  how they stay pure and white in this intensely Hot Summer Heat . 

It’s called ‘Ghost’ and it came from Plant Delights.

Though most are already finished, there are still

some Clematis scrambling,

and Calla Lilies

and my Voodoo Lilies.

Note that the ganesha (Remover of all Obstacles)is almost 3 feet

tall, so you can easily calculate the towering stature of the

Voodoo Lily that umbrellas him/or is it her/I think

maybe it’s an ‘it’.

The gorgeous leafhead of Arisaema consanguinem.

The significant tripartite leaves of other Arisaema:

The lower one is Arisaema costatum, the bigger one – I think – is Arisaema griffithii var Pradhani – the bronze bird was once an andiron.

The reason I don’t know exactly which one it

is – well…. just guess…. because I didn’t use my

Plant Markers!

And the seed pod of Arisaema sikokianum.