On the cusp of autumn

On our return from two weeks away, during which time only a fraction of the usual number of buckets of flowers were picked, we found the garden just heaving with a spilling abundance of glorious garden flowers. The roses had been pruned before we left, and they are now mounded with fat buds to make flowers for September; a rainbow of dahlias greeted us in the hot borders; towering seedy fennel waves its feathery leaves above the old vegetable beds; panicum and China asters and perennial phlox and tall white cosmos have all ripened and are rich with flowers. Still to come are the dusky autumn-tinted hydrangeas paniculata, which are now still fresh and creamy white, as well as the bursting into flower of the green mounded Michaelmas daisies and (incredibly exciting to me) garden chrysanthemums. The big fat florist chrysanthemums have received extra support for their heavy stems, and are tentatively trying out one or two central flowers, like lovely sea anenomes amidst a tangle of twigs. We love this time in the garden, where summer and autumn meet, in a happy fanfare of flowers and foliage.