Purple Mist!

    Late in October and on into November, the gardens around the hillside are left to wild abandon.  Whatever grows...grows.  Whatever blooms...blooms.  While most of the plants are wildflowers (better known as weeds to most folks), the gardens are at their prettiest, if you ask me.  I have no problem letting Mother Nature have her say in the matter of what is planted, what stays and what blooms.  The tall goldenrod bobbles its heavy heads with the bay breeze while wild ageratum carpets the lower parts of the patch.  It is that purple ageratum that is a fall favorite of mine.  Long ago while back on the farm, Pop would load the kids in the back of an old Studebaker station wagon and we would go on a grand search for wild flowers.  Pop was the perpetual head of the local school's PTA and always hosted a superb Halloween Carnival.  The wild flowers were used as decorations. (Yep, you could do that back in the day because there were no whiny people.  No one complained about their "allergies" acting up due to the blossoms.)  Pop would drive until he found a place where the "ditch daisies" and ageratum were thick, park the car on the side of the road and we were all out picking flowers.  (Again, no one complained about us raiding their fields or the roadsides.  People were good-hearted and were willing to help in any way.)  So wildflowers were a part of my childhood and memories hold strong whenever the plants start to show their colors.

  The ageratum plants that fill the gardens here are not those wimpy things that can be bought in garden centers.  Those things die out quickly and only provide a very low plant.  When  I say "carpet" the lower part of the garden, I am talking a good sixteen inch tall purple mist flowing in every direction.  These plants are not the annuals that the stores offer but are perennials that will return every year on their own accord.  They are hardy plants that will provide beauty until the first hard freeze. One bit of advice if you do decide to "go wild", cut the ageratum plants back to about ten inches tall two months before they are to bloom.  This will encourage thicker foliage and more abundant blossoms.  As an added plus to the wildflower gardens, critters love these plants.  Every day, hundreds of butterflies, moths, bees and other pollen-seeking critters visit the garden patches.  The ageratum blooms come in a variety of lavenders, purples and (rarely) white. Yep, I love the purple mist plants and I love the fact that Mother Nature is in full charge of my gardens!  She does a much better job than I do!