Most of my annuals still look good. The mandevilla's color is more intense in the cooler weather. It was a late starter so I'm glad it had time enough to really shine. 2 different anemones, 2 Rozanne geraniums look great. A few daylily blooms here and there. Some reblooms on perennial foxgloves, a few stems on a phlox that the rabbits had nibbled early in the season.

Goldenrod is at peak now.

Asters are all blooming. Most of the asters are volunteers that found there way into the garden much like the Eupatorium hyssopsifolium. They are primaily panicle asters and frost asters and they are prolific.

The aromatic asters are better behaved, and can get overwhelmed by their neighbors in my chaos garden.

I have some echinacea doing a late season encore. I suspect they are srlf sown seedings and this is their first bloom.

Andropogon ’Black Hawks’

my yellow garden, potentilla, goldenrod, Russian hollyhock, etc

Closeup of the fireworks goldenrod, it survives amongst the chaos of spring

Last time I had tech problems I just had to wait it out.

lat62, What kind of Joe Pye Weed is that. It's beautiful.

Thanks, I believe it's called Baby Joe, it's very reliable but blooms quite late for me, so it's nice to see something fresh as most flowers have succombed to autumn.

peren.all, you have my sympathies ! My photos weren't showing up on my laptop for awhile because my icloud connection from phone to laptop had stopped syncing (phone changed automatically to low power mode or something) So I had to fiddle with that ... I don't try to post from my phone.

Hmmm, it's always something with this technology... as an old data analyst, I am currently lost with the 'smart' technology

I've gone ahead to sync mine and even that fails me at times... I guess privacy is the cost of semi-functionality... sorry for the jaded viewpoint , haha

indianagardengirl - your two Painted Ladies reminded me of a recent article from Butterfly Conservation that said Painted Ladies' numbers in the UK were up 335% over last year, apparently due to the UK's unusually warm weather this year (but the heat and drought could result in lower overall butterfly numbers next year). Based on my observations, it seems like PLs are also doing well here in the Midwest - in Ohio yesterday (9/26/26) I saw at least two dozen PLs on a short walk through a field in a nature preserve where small white asters were blooming in abundance. I also encountered at least a dozen or so Buckeyes there.

The day before, at a public park (also in OH), I was surprised to find a late season Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillar, plus a Monarch cat on swamp milkweed:

At that same park, a Question Mark was sunning itself on a dogwood leaf:

Checkered Skippers are migrants from the south that typically show up later in the season at my location:

What I first thought was a 'WoolyBear' is now in question?
Extra long hairs and found on the Hollyhock seedlings.

BillMN - the parasitoid laid its eggs on the caterpillar before it became a chrysalis, so moving the chrysalis wouldn't have been an issue.

I haven't seen a monarch locally for the last 10 days, although I did have one fly over my vehicle on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago this past weekend. Also checked out a nature preserve in SW Michigan and saw a Buckeye and a Red Admiral:

There was a Painted Lady on a Zinnia at the township office today (10/5/26):

A couple of Bronze Coppers were visiting the asters in the field across the road earlier this week. First one below is a female, second a male:

A Brown Hooded Owlet caterpillar was feeding on asters in the backyard this week:

@O.F. - thanks for the story. The one I show above is prb'ly near 90 ft tall & the other mentioned about that same height. There are pics of gigantic ones like this one in Ohio. They are one of the few trees that have some brown in the mature trunk bark instead of the usual varying shades of gray.

@OF: The pic above had no description of the exact OH location, but I have another cucumber magnolia pic that is in Colonial Heights, VA.

UPDATE for July 2026 with this year's "Strawflower" (with an Asarina wislizensis 'Red Dragon')

I grew the Australian strawflower Rodanthe chlorocephala some years ago and I'm growing Pearly Everlasting now. All these strawflower species are in the Gnaphalieae tribe of Asteraceae and they all would be host plants for the American Lady Butterfly. The name has been changed Bracteantha bracteata to Xerochrysum bracteatum.

Pearly Everlasting, Anaphalis margaritacea.

Rodanthe chlorocephala

Today:

@Jay 6a Chicago, I love those pics of the white and pink varieties. I will search them out for next season.

7 weeks later for the first picture I posted:

Clean & crisp. Someone is keeping it beautifuly maintained. Yes woody would approve!

Lookin good! A great surprise in an unexpected place.

Sherry

My heptacodium is blooming. i thought of her.

Last night I planted Clematis durandii behind the Peony Sorbet I has put in the day before.

In the previous day in another redo bed I also planted a Clematis Multi Blue that I moved from too much shade. Then added a Peony Catherine Fontaine along with 3 each of Pycnanthemum virginianum, Stachys o. Rosea, Achillea p. The Pearl, Penstemon hirsutus & Linum perenne. So happy to have this done.

A whole bunch of native perennial plugs plus 6 native small-ish shrubs (2 Kalmia latifolia, 2 Ceanothus americanus and 2 Itea virginica). It is all for the front yard. Can't wait for spring even though the drought has been hard on some of the shrubs despite watering.

A "Fall in Love Sweetly" anemone and divided a daylily to share with a friend.

Photos from today. Once again, apologies for the harsh lighting.

Tallest are 5'. I'm growing them for the dramatic foliage but the flowers are pretty striking as well.

I started late but all the rain later in the summer saved me! A few were tucked out front, were neglected, and barely made four feet (still a nice look though!) while the rest were stuffed into the daylily bed out back because the daylilies were mostly done and looking kind of boring. They found something they liked and are over 8 ft tall now and full of blooms!

Has anyone else noticed that the fruit clusters are excellent for cutting? They

last a long time and add contrast to more typical cut flowers.

I say there is nothing not to like about wax begnonias. If in doubt I plant a wax begonia ;).

Here are some pics I took today of begonias put out by our town on Main Street:

So all 7 Spigelias made it through last years very cold winter just fine and this picture taken today shows one of them giving a good rebloom. Love this plant.

(@Jameszone7a Philadelphia, I am curious as to how your Spigelias did this past season)