Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for September 2025.
Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6a garden in central Indiana, we’ve entered that messy phase of the garden year.
Plants are flopping all over in various states of bloom and spent bloom. Butterflies and bees are scrambling from one flower to the next. I saw what may have been the last hummingbird of the season when I opened my blinds yesterday. They are heading south as we speak.
But there are still lots of blooms to see, if you don’t mind the messiness of the garden at this time of year.
I don’t.
First up is the planting around my mailbox. My favorite Signet marigolds are putting on a great show. I started them from seeds I collected last year. I’ll collect more seed this fall. Growing up around them is Verbena bonariensis ‘Vanity’ which just comes up all on its own now. At one time, there were some pale yellow petunis in that bed, but they got crowded out a few weeks ago.
In the back garden, colchicums are coming up in several places.
They are a delightful reminder of that “perpetual spring” that we all seek in our gardens, having new blooms throughout the year. I think next spring I’m going to dig some of these up and plant them in the front garden somewhere where passersby will see them and wonder again about “just what is she growing over there.”
Even though it’s past its prime bloom time, I have to show you Barnardia japonica, another unusual late summer/early fall flower.
I watch for it every year and am pleased my little clump keeps spreading and growing a bit bigger every year.
Did I mention I bought some pansies and violas for fall? I decided yesterday to pick a few blooms to display and post on social media.
I put them in my giant dictionary—six inches thick!— to be pressed and dried. I don’t know what I’ll do with the dried flowers, but it seemed wrong to just throw them in the trash after I took the picture.
Out in the vegetable garden, the marigolds and zinnias are all blooming like crazy, the sunflowers are fading, and I noticed that the fennel has put out some new blooms. But what I’ll show you is some nasturtiums that made it through the heat of summer.
Nearby, some asters came up on their own and are showing me the first of the last blooms of autumn.
They’ll probably be bloomed out by mid-October, but I’ll get a good month of enjoyment out of them, and so will bees and butterflies and other pollinators. And that’s reason enough to let them come up in odd places here and there and over yonder in the garden.
And now it’s time for you and your garden. What’s blooming in your garden as we reach the middle of the month? Join in for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day and show us. It’s so easy to do. Post wherever you are online about the blooms in your garden on or around the 15th of the month. Then put your link in the Mr. Linky widget so we can find you and leave a comment to tell us what you have for us to see.
“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” – Elizabeth Lawrence
Carol, I love the flowers around your mailbox, such an artistic combination of colors! And your Colchicums–you inspired me to plant some in my garden last fall; which variety is yours?
I don’t know the variety. They are passalong plants!
Your blooms are beautiful, especially the colchicums and of course the collection of pansies and violas! September is one of my favorite times of the year as the garden transitions. Happy Bloom day and almost fall!
Yes, September is a great month in the garden. And it would be better if we got some rain!
I love the Colchicums! They’re another plant that’s difficult to grow in my part of the country. Regardless of what the calendar says, fall is still a long way off here. I can – and do – grow pansies but it’s much too early to plant them as they could easily be incinerated by an untimely heatwave – and there’s still no rain in sight.
Yes, we are experiencing a tiny heat wave so I’m watching my pansies and violas closely!
I love your pansies and viola flowers. I didn’t buy any this year but I think back to the spring and how Ilove seeing all the varieties in bloom at the nursery. There is such a variety! I liked your mailbox collection, too. Yes, I guess “messy” is a good description of how some of our late summer gardens look as they sense the onset of fall although, in my case “life got in the way and it just got neglected” might be a better way to describe mine.
Love those asters! And the pansies and violas are so pretty too. I’ve given up on my porch pots for this seasons.
Hi Carol, I’m also enjoying the Colchicums and wishing we could get some rain for the rest of the garden. In the greenhouse I grow a Scilla maderensis which is like a giant version of your Bernardias. I’ll have to try the Bernardia again. I know they used to grow here (something that keeps happening 🙂
I feel the same way in September — time to let things fall apart gracefully or ungracefully! Unfortunately we had to tighten the ship this year for the camera crews visit, but now that thats done (on the 15th no less) I am looking forward to fall apart with a sigh of relief!
I have never heard of Barnardia japonica! or at least do not remember it from previous years, as you must have posted it before? Its lovely and I will be looking it up. Thanks Carol!!! <3