If you notice a lovely fragrance out back in the White Garden area, it's not the Sweet Autumn Clematis, which is past its major bloom.  Keep on walking around back of the White Garden and beyond the long cut flower bed until you are at the border of informal large grasses and shrubs.  There are three very large Osmanthus in full fragrant bloom.  They are evergreen shrubs that look like a very well-mannered holly with nonspiny leaves.  Other species of Osmanthus will follow suit soon.  Give your nose a treat (but watch out for fire ants!  It's that time of year again).

The Fearrington Gardeners

Bulbinella alert!  Look both under the tree next to the obelisk near the Granary and at the front edge of the bed inside the Granary gate on the left. You will find a cluster of succulent foliage that resembles a skinny leaved aloe.  It has sent out blooming stems with small yellow flowers.  These racemes will continue to elongate with new buds and will bloom until it becomes too cold for this South African grassland native.  We think it's Bulbinella cauda-felis, which is hardy in zones 8 and 9.  Ours spend the winter in the greenhouse.  They grow like weeds in partly shaded areas and divide easily.

The Fearrington Gardeners

The fall asters and goldenrods are beginning their displays.  One aster of special note is Aster tatarica.  It has just begun blooming in the bed next to the outdoor dining area at the Granary.  The basal rosette is lettucelike most of the year.  In autumn it sends up a tall (5-7 feet) blooming stem that carries many small lavender flowers with yellow centers in a plumelike head.  The blooms are long lasting and make quite a show whether massed or poking up through other plants.  In fact, they are nearly always seen massed since they spread easily and rapidly.  The other bed of Tatarian aster may be seen if you stand at the Barn entrance and look across the patio and up under the trees directly across from you.

The Fearrington Gardeners

Now is the time (before late September) to direct sow seeds of cool season annuals such as cornflowers/bachelor buttons, larkspur, breadseed poppy, corncockle, love-in-a-mist (Nigella), and Chinese forget-me-nots.  These will sprout in place in your beds when the time is right, during late winter and early spring.  Don't clean up the bed too much - leave the seeds in place.

The Gardening Team at Fearrington