One Late Bloomer

"Bugbane" blooms - about to open today

Many perennials have now given their best for the year and have been cut back to the ground--except for those fall workhorses now seen everywhere: mums and asters, grasses and sedum. The bugbane above, with its many names both Latin and common along with a half-dozen or so popular cultivars, is a late season bloomer that is a little more exotic and does not dominate the September landscape scene like the mums and grasses.

One cultivar in my care which was gorgeous and died after a few years was 'Black Negligee.' The many views that photo received (on the garden blog) I suspect were not all for the love of the plant--as lovely as it was!