Late Summer in Sharon’s Garden

Today we’re visiting with Sharon Danovich Lupone in Pittsburgh. We’ve been to her garden before (Sharon’s Pennsylvania Garden, Part 2 and Sharon’s Pennsylvania Garden), and today she’s sharing some views of the garden is it moves into fall.

As summer winds down, the blooms of the panicle hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata, Zones 3–8) take on rosey hues.

Comfortable chairs invite you to sit and enjoy the garden.

A pot of coleus (Coleus scutellarioides, Zones 9–11 or as an annual) gives season-long color next to the front steps. The russet hues of the foliage complement the house perfectly and seem even more appropriate as autumn approaches.

Hydrangea flowers in a vase and a flowering stem of sedum (Hylotelephium spectabile, Zones 3–9) laid across the plate help to make a beautiful garden table setting.

The late summer sun streams through the garden. The hosta leaves are still fresh and green, though soon they will transform to golden yellow.

The neatly trimmed hedge gives a sense of order and formality to the wilder, more informal growth habit of the hydrangeas.

A spot to sit in the shade offers a place to look out at the lush green lawns and flowering borders beyond.

In this pot full of summer color, the large plant in the back with a white flower is a gardenia (Zones 8–11). Gardenias have some of the most powerfully fragrant blooms of any plant.

Red spider lily (Lycoris radiata, Zones 6–10) blooms in late summer, the flowering stems popping up before the leaves emerge a little later. It’s easy to see where these flowers get their common name!

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening!

Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here.