Beauty At Casa Brokenbeat

Welcome one and all. This is a continuation of the high points of last weekend’s road trip to North Carolina. We have already discussed the visit to Christopher’s that was the first leg of our journey here. We next arrived at offspring Brokenbeat’s lovely cottage. He and Mrs. Brokenbeat are extremely busy at the moment. She with the running of the ice cream shop jointly owned with us, The Hop. Brokenbeat himself is immersed in the men’s and women’s soccer teams of the University of North Carolina – Asheville as assistant coach to both teams. There is lots of travel involved with his vocation, not to mention practices. This was a free weekend with no games so we had lots of time to visit. Since they became homeowners, a year and a half ago, they have found joy in digging in the dirt. There have been many visits since they caught the gardening bug, but the flowers blooming right now, as frost threatens, left me stunned with their beauty. The Salvia farinacea ‘Victoria’ (name of Mrs. B’s mother) with the dark sapphire blue backed by Salvia elegans ‘Golden Delicious’, gold leaf pineappe sage is a vision.This sunny border with a meandering path and backed by the house is a garden of delight. Lavender, dianthus,and other Mediterranean plants form the left side bed while  more large scale perennials are showcased on the right. The gold leaves of the salvia light up the back as the red sparklers add some zest. Midway is a patch of our beloved sheffies.  Some pink muhly grass is peeking out from behind the right side of the pineapple sage. Let’s take a closer look at some of the other plants living so happily here. What so far has been a hardy Mexican bush sage, Salvia leucantha ‘Emerald’, from Sandy Mush nursery sports darker than usual purple velvet with white icing flowers in huge numbers. Fronting the sage is the most luscious color of dahlia.What would you call this shade? Dreamsicle? Orange sherbet? Apricot dream? I admit to being smitten by this particular hue, aren’t you? Added, Brokenbeat says this is Prince Of Orange.Moving down the path we come to another dahlia that is loaded with bicolor blooms. Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’ joins in the fun along with a blue aster of some kind. Yes, BB admittedly is having an affair with salvias right now. Who can blame him?The number of full petaled pom poms on this dahlia is astounding. This is some rich soil. Added, Brokenbeat says this one is Mystery Day.They almost are too perfect to be real, but I can vouch for their authenticity. (By the by, my dahlias do not now nor have they ever looked like this.) We had a plant filled visit with stops at several of the local nurseries. There were some sale items purchased, no salvias found, much to the sadness of Brokenbeat. We scoured the displays for ideas for our future garden designs. I picked up a few more blue asters in addition to the wild asters from Christopher. Next year the Fairegarden should have a river of blue with all the new asters added this fall. Let’s see if I can list them for anyone interested, A. frikartii ‘Monch’, A. oblongifolius ‘October Skies’, A. paludosus ssp. hemishpericus / Tennessee aster, A. laevis ‘Bluebird’, A. cordifolia from Christopher and A. tartaricus from Gail. I know they have changed the name, but don’t care, like the mums, these are going to called asters by me. We ate some delicious food at local restuarants, Asheville is a culinary dream with lots of hidden treasures. I think I could live here.
On the way home from our plant foray Brokenbeat pulled into the metal artist’s studio that we wrote about here and here. We don’t know who built this amazing bird from metal bits and pieces but it is a masterpiece. Brokenbeat thought I might want to take a photo of it for the blog. Good thinking! As I was leaving town there was a truck backed up to this spot and the bird may have flown the coop. So glad that it was captured in pixels for you all to enjoy.  As with all of our photos, click the pic for more details.  Back on the road home there was one more adventure that I would like to share with you. Stay tuned.
Frances