Pinks and purples

The end of the summer brings an imbalance to the garden's color wheel around here. A few lingering white phlox and hostas and a luscious yellow dahlia have tried to weigh in, but the balance is very much tipped to the side of pink and purple flowers. In addition to reblooming--in shades of pink, of course--roses and dianthus, this glorious pale fuschia dahlia from VPS, Sr., is going full throttle.



I never figured out how to stake these dahlias but they indulged my horticultural ignorance nevertheless and spralled into bloom.

Old reliable sedums, "Autumn Joy" and "Vera Jamison," stake out the structure of the fall beds. These have to be divided every two to three years and, beginning in early summer, supported with a metal ring--jeez, did I forget to do that, too?--or the plant flops wide open.



The sedum "Autumn Joy" mixes with blue--well, bluish-purple--Salvia farinacea. These annuals, which I bought just as filler for a container, have proved to be this year's miracle worker, making all their neighbors look better than they should.



Even a line of no-name hosta joins in. These fellows seem to have forgotten that they define garden-variety.



Okay, enough. I need to identify some late season acidic yellow flowers to cut through all this sugary sweetness.