My acer put out the red carpet for Autumn earlier last week, but since then the weather has been dark, damp, gloomy – and very windy. And then, suddenly, mid afternoon, we got sunshine and clear blue skies. I rushed in from the greenhouse to grab my camera, as I fear it may be the last for a while, and besides, most plants have shed their autumn glad-rags and donned their more sober winter attire. I didn’t want to miss the last of the show!
In my garden the silver birches are usually the last to change colour and lose their leaves, something that they have just started to do. This year they have overlapped with the last of the blueberries.
More surprisingly, the Magnolia has only just changed colour, but is now also losing its leaves. I think it will be all over by the end of the weekend, although it is covered in fat furry buds, promising a magnificent show next Spring.
Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ has been another late developer this year. It was only yesterday that any leaves really showed signs of changing. Suddenly the normal deep purple of its huge heart-shaped leaves is giving way to shades of yellow and green, creating a beautiful tapestry of colour and shadow in the late afternoon sun:
I am grateful for this last “Hurrah!”, I’d been feeling rather low, a mixture of the reflective mood that this time of year puts me in and a cold. I have some hopes for even later colour, as the Oak leaved hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) still looks exactly the same as it did two months ago, with the merest hint of red on the edge of a couple of leaves. It also looks as if one of the roses is going to try to flower yet again, but I suspect the weekend frosts, if as forecast, will put paid to that!
So, as the garden chores are nearly over, bar the sweeping up of leaves and keeping the greenhouse ticking over, my mind is turning to winter projects to keep me going until Spring. Since I lost my planting plans and plant lists in one of the many “box up everything and store it” experiences of the past few years, I think I am going to have a go at using the various tools that WordPress makes available to document what I have and what I do when – or plan to do. Dave at The Home Garden recently mentioned the idea of photographing plant tags and storing the files on line, so I might try some of that. I also foresee many more bread and baking related posts, as not only am I at that “crying out for carbs” stage of the year, I have a new cookbook…
Check out Dave’s Fall Colour Project for more images of Autumn to brighten up your day!
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Don’t you think the seasons have “slipped” a bit? I used to think of Autumn as comprising September, October and November, but now it only seems to start in November. I think the Spring has also been a bit later in arriving these last couple of years.
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Hi Mark. I certainly think everything is a lot more unpredictable nowadays! My cosmos is still flowering…
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Last hurrahs are here too, more and more tree skeletons in evidence, thoughts turning to indoor pursuits. I’m finding that blogging has been a good way to force me to record garden happenings, as I’m hopeless at organized note taking.
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Hi Cyndy. Glad I’m not alone in being a lousy note-taker! I think I just need to make sure that I remember to use my blog as I need to fore keeping track. I find I tend to take “pretty” pictures more than useful – and possibly ugly ones – at the moment. I think a more “warts and all” approach may be required!
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Great post! Amazing pictures! As always, it’s a treat to stop by and see what you are up to!
BTW – I love how your blogroll links include a bit of site-specific information when you run the cursor over the link! You have some “mad skills” (a US teenage term, similar to ‘wicked-awesome’) with your blog! (I do know that you are a web-designer by trade, but the ‘cool factor’ is off the charts — and all web-designers are not created equal.)
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Shyrlene, you are always so wonderfully encouraging, thank you! Glad you like the blogroll “rollover” feature, but sorry, can’t take any credit for it, it is built in to the blogging platform I use! But glad you think the blog is cool…
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I was away for a few days towards the end of October and I was amazed by the changes in the garden when I returned. We had fun at the weekend trying to guess when the last leaves on our neighbour’s cherry tree would fall. Hope that the worst of your cold is well behind you.
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Hi Anna. Cold all gone now thanks, it packed up remarkably quickly in the end! I think this blogging lark has made me far more observant of the seasons. Some things seem to change over night (only a few crispy dull brown leaves left on the acer) while others seem to creep into winter. Who won the cherry tree challenge?
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This may be the “last hurrah”, but it’s certainly a lovely one, Janet! I love the red carpet of maple leaves. Until this year I didn’t realize that blueberry leaves also turned–they are stunning.
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Hi Rose, thanks for dropping by and commenting! The leaves on the blueberry bushes almost make up for the fact that the birds got most of the fruit this year…
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