Color in the Fall Garden

Once again, I thought this plant was lost due to last winter’s hard weather, but it surprises with late season growth and buds. Opening even later than our last asters, it only started for us this year around the first of October and was still setting new buds last week.

Over six feet high, this plant is a great counterpoint to the shorter Rudbeckia that are fading in mid October and those asters we have in the back yard. During the shortening days, it’s a great plant to back light if you can find a place. In our garden, on those rarer and rarer sunny days that comprise late fall in Seattle, it is a stunner at about three in the afternoon.