Scenes from a colorful season

Just about everyone I know has said what an exceptionally colorful autumn this has been, and I agree. Driving around town has been jaw-droppingly beautiful. Here in my own garden there's not been that great of display however, it's just not something that's a priority when planting. Still, there are a few things worth sharing. 

This photo was taken on October 11th. The neighbor's dogwood provides a colorful backdrop, and the Fothergilla gardenii 'Blue Mist' (bottom right-hand corner) is just beginning to color up.

By November 9th it was burning bright. 

The Quercus dentata 'Pinnatifida' (cut-leaf Japanese Emperor oak) never does much of a color-up, instead going straight to brown (not that there's anything wrong with brown! After all I wrote a whole blog post on brown over on the plant lust blog. Of course you wouldn't know it was my writing, since my name was scrubbed). The variegated daphniphyllum adds a splash of color to the photo...

Back on October 20th I put together this small seasonal seedy arrangement in my garden to celebrate the fun I had with Jennifer Jewell at Powell's Books discussing her new book: What We Sow: On the Personal, Ecological, and Cultural Significance of Seeds. The large cone is from Clifford, our Magnolia macrophylla.

This cutie showed up in the Little Free Greenhouse in our hellstrip about that same time. I love seeing my neighbors sharing plants.

A welcome slice of evening light reminded me I needed to pull these aeoniums before too long.

Lovely lichen.

I shot this corner of the front garden looking southwest (poor sad Yucca rostrata)...

And then realized the "real" shot was looking north.

I moved the sarracenia into the driveway this year and was rewarded with a much more colorful show.

The spot they'd been living in on the patio was getting too shady.

Mushrooms on the base of one of my palms!

I am a big fan of Orla Kiely's stem pattern, and loved the way this Sophora prostrata leaf-segment recreates it on a bed of moss.

The Stachyurus salicifolius is already preparing for spring, longer days, and eventual warmth. I can’t wait to see those racemes start to swell and turn yellow in late winter.

Aesculus hippocastanum ‘Laciniata’ (aka cut leaf horse chestnut) on Nov 2nd...

And Nov 7th.

Leave the leaves? No! Removing them is an almost daily activity.

Lots of loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) blooms this year.

The photo of fallen leaves from Clifford (above) was taken on November 6th, this one on the 8th. So many more leaves to fall! Clifford's leaves were magnificently golden this year.

Nearby Tetrapanax papyrifer leaves on the same afternoon, Clifford is doing a slight photo bomb on the upper left.

I was cleaning up leaves in the front garden (from the neighbor's trees) when I looked up and saw this reflection. I love it when I'm here at the right time to catch this...

This photo is looking towards the area reflected in the window, and featuring the hardy orange, Poncirus (Citrus)  trifoliata.

In the backyard I paused to appreciate how the neighbor's dark-leaf maple had morphed to match the shade pavilion.

The Solomon's Seal (polygonatum) turn buttery yellow right before they drop their leaves.

Passiflora lutea is named such for their yellow flowers, but this year it could have been the yellow leaves—that's it climbing the palm tree.

This has been a great year for unusual flowers in my garden; from the over-performing red flowered noid epiphyllum (which Kris later ID'd as a Disocactus ackermannii), to the night blooming Epiphyllum oxypetalum, to the first ever bloom on my Nepenthes 'Miranda'—maybe this is FINALLY the year my Tetrapanx papyrifer blooms open before being zapped by a freeze?

Mahonia nervosa coloring up for the cool season.

I shared a couple close ups of the mossy bits of my wintertime hanging planters, but a couple overall photos are needed to appreciate the color-mashup of the unusual mix of plants.

Thanks to great drainage and a morning-sun location (if there is any sun) these plants can all thrive together over the winter months. A leaf from the neighbor's maple blew in to punch up the color.

Finally, here's a shot I took at a local nursery. I thought maybe if I loved these Euphorbia x martinii 'Ascot Rainbow' and commemorated the moment in a picture, then I could walk away and forget about them. Afterall I swore I would never again plant them in my garden because they just don't look good for more than a season. 

Of course that didn't work. A few days later I ended up buying a couple and putting them in a container by our backdoor where I can love them, and then toss them. 

I hope your autumn put on a good show too.

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