THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, OCTObEr 25, 2024 Page 15 Saugus Gardens in the Fall Here’s what’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable By Laura Eisener M y family has been working on our bucket list for Fall: picking apples in Peabody, sipping cider and choosing pumpkins from the “patch” in Saugus center and various farm stands in nearby towns, then back to the pumpkin patch again! Walks after dark reveal some interesting decorations and light displays. Fall color is wonderful everywhere in town. The Saugus Iron Works gift shop and museum will only be open until Halloween, with the last tours of the season being offered that day, although the grounds will still be accessible after that. Wallace, the Iron Works pumpkin – named for Wallace Nutting, who owned the Appleton-Taylor-Mansfield House and sold photographs in the early 20th century – may sit comfortably on the house steps for a few more weeks. The sugar maples (Acer saccharum) and other trees have been in their autumn splendor, and several portrait photographers and their clients have been taking advantage of the seasonal atmosphere. In recent years “goth gardens,” featuring flowers with moody hues of dark purples from eggplant to nearly black, have become a popular style. Breeders have been busy developing new dark hued flowers and all kinds of dark foliaged plants. Dahlias are popular summer to fall flowers that bloom from midsummer through fall, right up until frost. They grow from tubers, like a potato, although they are often grouped with other geophyte plants, such as tender bulbs, in the garden center in spring. In climates below zone 8 (ours is 6a), they cannot be left in the ground for the winter, but must be dug up, stored in a freezefree area until late May and replanted. They must be kept in relatively dry conditions to avoid rotting over the winter. Basements are not ideal because of moisture, and plastic bags or other containers are not as reliable as a paper bag or other “breathable” container. New tubers are available from nurseries in late spring. Dahlias are displayed every year in the flower barn at the Topsfield Fair. The dahlia pictured above is one of several in Sandy Mears’ garden and is one of the increasingly popular dark purple varieties. Sorbet Black Delight pansy (Viola williamsii ‘Sorbet Black Delight’) has nearly black petThis purple dahlia in Sandy Mears’ garden is still blooming. (Photo courtesy of Sandy Mears) The perennial monkshood is a late bloomer with purple or blue blossoms on tall stalks. (Photo courtesy of Laura Eisener) This Halloween vignette includes Montauk daisies and zebra grass from the garden in a vase wearing a pumpkin costume – as well as seasonal gourds and a black cat witch. (Photo courtesy of Laura Eisener) als with light purple and yellow “eye” in the center of the blossom. It is a cross between a pansy (Viola wittrockiana) and a horned violet (Viola cornuta), which has narrower, non-overlapping petals. The hybrids look a lot like a small pansy or like the old-fashioned Johnny-jump-up (Viola tricolor) and may have multicolored petal or solid colors. One of the most cold and heat tolerant of the pansy types, it can be expected to bloom well into winter if planted in the ground rather than kept in a container. Like many pansies and pansy hybrids, it is a biennial, which means that it has a lifespan of two years from seed but does not usually bloom the first year, so most pansies you find in garden centers are already in their second year, and while they may continue blooming for several months the original plant does not return after its blooming season is over. However, these plants do tend to self-seed so you should not be surprised to see their offspring coming up nearby in other parts of the garden. Other breeders have produced some pansy relatives with similarly dark flowers like ‘Black Velvet,’ ‘Black Magic,’ which has a slightly larger flower and ‘Bowles’ Black,’ which has a larger light purple “eye” radiating out from A Halloween display in my driveway of pumpkins and squash seems to have frightened a Halloween cat. (Photo courtesy of Laura Eisener) This nearly black pansy will bloom until late in the fall in a container, but even longer if planted in the ground. (Photo courtesy of Laura Eisener) the flower’s center. A tall mid-fall perennial that used to be more widely available is Chinese monkshood or wolfbane (Aconitum carmichaellii) in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). The flowers are often blue to purplish, and they look somewhat similar to their relative Delphinium except for the hooded shape to the upper petals. The plant is very toxic if eaten, and a few people experience a rash from handling it. However, it is a very striking plant for part shade and is one of the handful of species that can have true blue flowers. Montauk daisies (Nipponanthemum nipponicum) are currently blooming in many places in town. I brought in a few flowers from my garden and paired them with ornamental dwarf zebra grass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Adagio’) in a hyacinth jar. In keeping with the Halloween season, the vase wears a pumpkin outfit originally sold as a pet costume for a bearded dragon. The Velcro straps of the costume fit well around the container and allow it to be quickly removed for a different look later. 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.
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