Page 16 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, SEpTEmbEr 20, 2024 Saugus Gardens in the Summer Here’s what’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable By Laura Eisener In Dee LeMay’s garden near J ust before Founders Day, the town planted new fall flowers around Town Hall and at the entrance to the library. Rows of red, white and almost blue fall flowers grow in front of the Richard Devine monument and the time capsule to the left of the Town Hall lawn. The red color is just starting to show as the chrysanthemum blossoms open, while the white and purplish blue are varieties of aster. Since both are in the aster family (Asteraceae) and have somewhat similar flower heads with radiating petals, people sometimes wonder how to tell them apart easily. An important clue is looking at the leaves – aster foliage is narrow and pointed, while the chrysanthemums have lobed leaves. Either plant may have daisy-like flower heads with conspicuous disk florets, like the white asters in the Town Hall plantings, or “double” flowers that look as though they are all petals, like the purple aster and red chrysanthemum. Both asters in the Town Hall gardens look like varieties of New York aster (Symphiotrichum novi-belgii, formerly Aster novi-belgii), a native North American species. Far less familiar than asters and chrysanthemums is the Indian pink (Spigelia marilandica) blooming in the garden of St. John’s behind the church on Central Street. This North American native grows wild in the southeastern United States, not only Maryland, as its species epithet suggests, but surrounding states as well. It likes moist woods and is very popular with hummingbirds. The tubular flowers are red and yellow, with five-pointed yellow petals that radiate outward like a star at the top. These flowers usually bloom off and on in summer but depending on weather may also bloom in early fall, as the local flowers are doing right now. Cliftondale, there are three new blooming stalks on her delphinium (Delphinium sp.). “What a surprise that it’s flowering again!” she said. She got some beautiful flowers on the same plant earlier in the summer. For a flower known to be somewhat finicky, it is very nice to get a second blooming in early fall. It is flanked in the picture above by a pink gaura (Oenothera lindheimeri ‘Siskiyou Pink’, recently renamed from Gaura lindheimeri) on the left and dark purple leaved coral bells (Heuchera sp.) on the right. Julia Aston’s ‘Autumn Joy’ stonecrop (Hylotelephium ‘Autumn Joy’, formerly Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’) in Saugus Center is beginning to flower, and her purple flowering butterfly bush (Buddlieia davidii) is still blooming and attracting butterflies behind it! The pink and purple combination will be effective for several weeks, and once the stonecrop is finished blooming it will have a long lasting seed head that may remain until the following spring. While many people call these plants by their old scientific name, sedum, they are also known as stonecrop since they can grow in rocky or very shallow soils on rock ledges and outcrops. The adaptations to this kind of environment also make them drought tolerant once established, and like other succulents they can store moisture in their leaves. For long periods of drought, these are among the best performing plants, but they will also do well even if the weather is rainy. Squash and pumpkins are popular fall decorations and foods, and the plants that produce them have very attractive and showy flowers as well as the tasty fruits. In addition to being one of the prettiest flowers on a popular vegetable plant, squash blossoms are edible. If you don’t want to wait to see if a fruit develops from the The unusual Indian pink is flowering in the garden behind St. John’s Church on Central Street. (Photo courtesy of Laura Eisener) blossom, you can always stir fry the flowers themselves. This one is blooming in a large pot on Joanie Allbee’s balcony. At the St. John’s garden, there are four acorn squash (Cucurbita pepo) fruits growing, which will be brought to the food pantry in Cliftondale when they are big enough. These attractive and tasty ribbed squash are usually dark green on the outside when ripe, although there are also varieties that are gold when ripe, known as golden acorn squash. We will soon be seeing some of the fall color that brings tourists to New England. While most trees are still completely green, a few trees are developing early color, mostly on red maples (Acer rubrum) turning red or orange and a few honey locusts (Gleditsia triacanthos) turning yellow around town. The small tree above – pointed out to me by Laura Taglieri – is on Jackson Street, and another red maple Dee LeMay’s delphinium near Cliftondale is reblooming with three stalks of true blue flowers. (Photo courtesy of Dee LeMay) that has turned mostly orange already is on Hamilton Street. We had a beautiful view of the harvest moon, a supermoon with a partial eclipse between 10 and 11 p.m. on Tuesday. This coming Sunday, the autumn equinox will occur. We will be seeing more fall color as the evenings lengthen. Editor’s Note: Laura Eisener is a landscape design consultant who helps homeowners with landscape design, plant selection and placement of trees and shrubs, as well as perennials. She is a member of the Saugus Garden Club and offered to write a series of articles about “what’s blooming in town” shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was inspired after seeing so many people taking up walking. This squash blossom in bloom is on Joanie Allbee’s balcony. (Photo courtesy of Joanie Allbee) Red, white and blue fall flowers have been planted in front of the Richard Devine monument in front of Town Hall. (Photo courtesy of Laura Eisener) This young red maple in Cliftondale has fully embraced fall with its leaves already at peak color. (Photo courtesy of Laura Eisener) Summer meets fall in Julia Aston’s garden as ‘Autumn Joy Sedum’ begins blooming while summer phlox and butterfly bush are still going strong. (Photo courtesy of Julia Aston)
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