I am in love with PeeGee hydrangea.

The one I have is about six years old. At first I thought it was a lost cause — it died to the ground each and every winter and would start all over again in the spring, never making a bloom

I should have tried transplanting it, maybe it needed a different location, but just never got around to it. I am ever so thankful for that lack of time. It has ceased dying to the ground and is establishing itself in the deciduous border. Come the first week of September it bursts into glorious bloom.

As a matter of fact I am so impressed with this plant that I think I’ll plant a couple more of them. I just need to find the patience to wait for them to bloom

Hydrangea paniculata/PeeGee/Grandiflora is a zone 3 shrub with an expected mature size of five to six feet high and wide. It will need a protected spot and plenty of moisture. The blooms start out green, mature to white with pink accents. In milder climates it will continue to change color to pale pink, rose and rust but mine stops at the white with pink. The only care it seems to need comes in the spring and then I just clean up the branch tips that seem a bit tattered.

This fall I am disappointed that the whole shrub is sort of laying on the ground after these heavy rains, somewhat like a peony will do without support. I was a bit flummoxed until I cracked open Lois Hole’s book “Favorite Trees & Shrubs.” If you have never read one of her books you are doing yourself a disservice. Lois is a Canadian and her advice strikes near and dear to the Far North. I turned to her to see if she had any insight on the drooping PeeGee. Sure enough, she instructs all of us hydrangea neophytes to install a peony ring in the early spring. I have these rings on each and every peony and have been grateful for my foresight and investment. They do not come cheap, but the blooms are visible and that is what a peony is all about. Same goes for the PeeGee. Next spring PeeGee gets its very own peony ring.

Lois also has excellent advice on drying the blooms: “Cut flowers for drying after they are fully open. Place them in a vase with about an inch of water in it. As water evaporates, the flowers dry slowly. They keep their color better with this method than by air-drying.”

I am serious about this hydrangea. You need a couple of these, maybe three. Give up on the idea of big-leaf hydrangeas with blue flowers that we all grew up with somewhere other than here. I know of someone who keeps one in a pot and moves it inside every winter. That is just asking too much of me, especially since the PeeGee is proving such a winner.

I have spent the day reclaiming another section of our “slate” walkway. This stone comes from the side of the road heading to Hope. I don’t know if it is really slate but it is sort of flat and seems to be holding up quite well. But everything loves to grow in-between the rocks. Any and every dianthus that I have ever planted will self-sow here, along with the countless forget-me-not seedlings. I have a hard time removing plants that are blooming. But here we are in September and the bloomers are looking more like seeders and the less seeds I have making a home between these rocks the better so I got after it in a most serious fashion.

There is also the phlox subulata (creeping phlox, moss phlox) that is among the first plants to bloom. It is a gorgeous shade of blue. This low growing plant with needle-like leaves is just the thing for a spot that needs a ground cover. Unfortunately, I don’t need a groundcover anywhere in this garden. I thought I did, but I don’t. And I am paying the price.

Phlox subulata loves Homer. Plant a mere sprig of this lovely and you will have a carpet in no time. It is spilling over the rock path to the point that there is no longer a path. It has crept its way under the lilies and I am worried that it will choke them out. Not good.

So, today, I took a good look at my predicament and decided that it wasn’t all that big of a deal. Because this phlox blooms very early action needed to be taken this fall. Keep this in mind with any plant you have that blooms early and needs to be divided, or moved. Do it now.

I put my tools aside and just started pulling at the foliage. Sure enough I now have a much smaller patch and I didn’t disturb the root system at all. I am feeling a bit smug and we all know where that can get us: I am crossing my fingers that this coming spring will find a tidy planting of phlox subulata in full and glorious bloom.

Last year I planted garlic the first week of September. Never again. I lost the entire crop.

We took a trip and upon our return the garlic was up about four inches. I thought: How interesting, I wonder what will happen to it. It died. So, this year I will wait until later this month or early October (I will need to watch the weather) and then mulch after the ground freezes. You just be sure to plant garlic.

Speaking of frost I have my tarps at the ready just in case a frost decides to kill my pumpkins (Trickster) and acorn squash (Cream of the Crop and Heart of Gold). All are bearing but they need more time. Frost has a way of coming the middle of September and then we can have some really lovely weather that the plants that did not make it through the frost would have really benefited from. If you have old sheets, light tarps, a blanket to throw over whatever you would rather not lose than now is the time to break them out. If you think a frost is on the way throw some protection over the plants at night and then remove in the morning. All will be well.

Note: Homer Garden Club will be holding its annual Harvest Dinner at 2 p.m. Sept. 25 in the basement of the Homer United Methodist Church. Teena Garay will present a slide show “Plant Combinations in the Garden.” Come one, come all.

Rosemary Fitzpatrick has been gardening with gusto in Homer for 27 years.