Week of September 8

At the Keuka lakehouse, the summer progresses into autumn in the last week of August or first weeks of September.  The late summer flowers in Nonny’s garden at the lakehouse and at the TAProots barn hang in there and provide color and food for the bees until frost.  A mainstay in both gardens is the Black-eyed Susan, from the Rudbeckia family.  These put on a show of banks of yellow daisies due to their hardiness and ability to crowd out weeds.  Another Rudbeckia is the coneflower with many purple, pink, and white petals and a large brown center with pollen.  Our Russian sage is also a hardy bush which withstands the harsh winter winds at TAProots farm and creates a cloud of blue flowers attractive to bees and butterflies.  Another late summer butterfly magnet is the Buddelia or butterfly bush, with spires of fragrant flowers of many colors.  We have a white miniature variety at the lakehouse and a large lavender variety at the barn.  A recent addition to the late summer garden has been the butterfly weed or Asclepius, a member of the milkweed family.  We plant alot of this at our Florida home to feed the Monarch butterflies.  It is difficult to leave all this color behind as we migrate back to Florida, but we know the show will soon end with the coming frost.