October Plant Favorites

I'm joining Loree of danger garden in focusing on the plants that are putting on a good show this month.  A few are the usual suspects, the plants that reliably bloom at this time each year.

Barleria obtusa (aka bush violet) is making the biggest splash in my garden right now.  The plant shown in this photo is about a foot tall and 3 feet wide.  One in a nearby bed that has only just started blooming has stretched 4 feet or more and would be larger still if I hadn't hacked it back last month when it started climbing on its neighbors.  However, with blooms this pretty in autumn, I can forgive it a lot.

Senna bicapsularis (aka Christmas Senna) is as floriferous as the Barleria but much taller.  I foolishly placed it against a fence, which interferes with its natural tree-like shape, but at least it screens our neighbor's house.  It has bare legs, as you can see in the middle photo but, in another setting, it could be trimmed to a shorter, bushier height.  It serves as a host for the cloudless sulphur butterfly (Phoebis sennae) but my camera was unable to capture one of those flighty creatures.

Asters seem to be growing everywhere I look in blogdom but I haven't been so lucky with them in my garden.  Symphyotrichum chilensis seems to be faring better than the other species I've tried.  As it's commonly known as Pacific aster and California aster perhaps that's to be expected.  I wish I'd bought more.

The next one took me by surprise.  It's reported to bloom in winter and spring but it seems to march to its own internal drumbeat.

This is Correa pulchella 'Pink Eyre'.  It's been in my dry garden for years and occasionally throws out a bloom here or there but this month it's positively dripping in flowers.

There are also some foliage standouts.

I usually make a fuss over Ageratum corymbosum when it blooms in early spring but I'm quite happy with its healthy foliage alone right now.  In spring the leaves generally turn purple but at the moment they're bright green edged in purple, which I think is very attractive.  As you can see clearly in the photo on the right, it's also produced one multi-variegated leaf.  This is probably a one-off phenomenon but I like it.

I bought a fancy but rather fussy pot at a succulent show back in June but then couldn't decide what to put in it that would complement it without making it fussier still.  I finally planted it with a few plugs of Graptosedum 'Vera Higgins', which is very happy there (and seemingly safe from the raccoons who are prone to breaking Graptosedums apart with a swat of a paw).

Ordinary Santolina chamaecyparissus has done very well in a dry area of my back garden.  It asks for little and provides a nice contrast to all the green around it.

I started this post with a photo of Barleria obtusa.  When I was looking into methods of propagating Barleria obtusa, I unexpectedly turned up a connection to another favorite plant in my October garden.

I originally purchased this plant as Pseuderanthemum 'Texas Tristar' but I've also found it labeled as Strobilanthes.  In researching Barleria obtusa, I found this same plant labeled as variegated B. obtusa 'Purple Gem' and 'Purple Haze'.  Last night, I also found it listed as Pseuderanthemum 'Purple Dazzler'.   As the foliage has little to nothing in common with the B. obtusa I grow, I'm going to refer to it as Pseuderanthemum species and be done with it.

Sometimes plant identification drives me crazy.  Don't even let me get started on succulents.

Visit Loree at danger garden to see what she and other gardeners have on their favorites lists this month.


All material © 2012-2016 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party