It does pay off to continually prune and deadhead as I still have an abundance of color in the garden. (I am writing this post as of Sept 24, 2014).  The flowers of the hydrangea paniculata have now turned into an array of various pink colors and this shrub is definitely a source of great conversation with neighbors and visitors to the park.  I am always looking for good color combinations and I love the echinecea with the backdrop of rudbeckias as well as those that are flowering in front of our fir tree with a few branches of my purple leaf sandcherry bush (prunus cistena) interwoven.

In my rockery garden the brown/maroon red euphorbia gives another dimension to the garden as it contrasts well with the white spirea, the variegated euphorbia and the silver leaves of the alyssum, lavender, dianthus and iris.

The chrysanthemums that are in bloom right now are always a great choice for the fall season.  The orange blend is my favorite.  My variegated fuschia is still going strong in the front basket and I was amazed to see a humming bird hovering around the basket this morning.  

 Now is a great time to assess your garden and divide perennials if needed.  Look for plants that are becoming too invasive.  Going back to one of my previous blogs, you do have to be ruthless sometimes.  My asters tend to overrun into other areas of the garden so I do not have any qualms at pulling them out.  The tall aster that I planted earlier on in the year has started to bloom.  There are not many flowers at the moment, but usually with young perennials, it does take a good year or so until you get a good established plant. 

There is one large perennial that is in bloom which I believe is a perennial helianthus related to the sunflower family.  It emerged among the rudbeckias I started from seed a few years back and has grown into quite the large plant and blooms this time of the year.