What’s in Bloom

As our horticulture staff walks the Greenway each week for phenology tracking, they are continually stunned by how quickly things change.  What was in full, glorious bloom last week isn’t there anymore; fruits which were hard and green two weeks ago are dull red and even starting to drop, or shining, orange and glistening, tempting the birds.

Rosa Red Knock Out

The roses love the cooler weather and rain, coming around for their second strong bloom. The Rosa ‘Radrazz’, from the Knockout series, is in full force in the Fort Point Channel Parks, with rich, dark, new foliage, and both the Carefree Beauty Rose and the small Rosa ‘The Fairy’ carpet rose are full of blooms and buds.

Carefree Beauty Rose

There are some wonderful, combined textures and colors you can look for now. A walk past the new plantings near the Rings Fountain offers surprises and special finds, even late in the season. White Echinacea purpurea ‘Virgin’ with the orange fruit of Rosa virginiana, and Mountain Mint, Pycnanthemum muticum is set off by the sprays of Prairie Switchgrass, Panicum  ‘Rotstrahlbusch’.  Heading south in the park you’ll find Geranium Roxanne mixing it up with Symphyotrichon x frikartii‘Moench’; that’s an airy blue aster and a very reliable, hardy geranium, that look like they were made for each other.

Echinacea purpurea ‘Virgin’  & Mountain Mint, Pycnanthemum muticum

Aster Frikartii Moench & Geranium Roxanne