The calendar says…
Oops, both of the wall calendars in my house said it was still July. Who forgot to flip them over to August?
Oops, I’m the one who forgot, but I flipped them to August yesterday so for the last 10 days of this month, it’s really, truly, and finally August.
We’re feeling it too, with what I consider to be our first real heat wave of the summer.
Sure, we’ve had a hot day or two here and there but not a whole week’s worth like we are supposed to get this week.
Welcome, August. Welcome, Summer!
So I go out to the garden on a hot August day and what do I see?
Toad lilies starting to bloom.
Which is the garden’s way of saying, “Welcome, Fall.”
Because we all know toad lilies bloom in the fall, or at least after Labor Day. They are a sign of fall, not summer.
What’s next? Is pumpkin spice everything going to show up everywhere? What else is starting to flower now that should be really be a highlight of fall?
Some mums.
Picture or it isn’t true.
Picture. It’s true.
So I went searching for the name of that mum—because it’s a named variety and not a generic mum I picked up somewhere—which I thought it might be “pumpkin” something or other. It’s one of the Igloo series, which are really Dendranthema, not Chrysanthemum. But no one cares about that except “haughtyculturists.”
Speaking of the Igloo series of “mums,” they are more cold-hardy, perennialize nicely, and are known for blooming a wee-bit earlier.
So it’s still August, in spite of the toad lilies and mums proclaiming, “Fall!”
At least the asters aren’t blooming, yet. They are quietly green still but I see flower buds. Same on the goldenrod. It won’t be long before they catch on and start blooming, and then it really will be fall.
If this has you all feeling like time moves too quickly, welcome to the club.
If this has you craving something flavored with pumpkin spice, you’ll be pleased to know that when I went searching for the name of my chrysanthemum-dendranthema, I found out there is now a mum that is supposed to smell like pumpkin spice. I’ll not link to it… you can find that on your own!
I’m about forty miles west of Chicago and have noticed that the starlings are flocking. Seems a few weeks early for this behavior. Good thing there’s no such thing as climate change, eh?
I notice some things earlier, but some things are later too. We shall see what this heat wave does to the garden!