If some of these photos look a bit washed out in the upper extremities, it's because we've had a lot of fog the past couple days. It tends to surround the gardens and hang in their upper reaches… I'm not sure why, but I love fog…. perhaps because it was very common along the river where I grew up in Vermont. One thing for sure is there generally is very little wind when there is fog… I'm not particularly fond of wind, especially when it cuts through you like ice. We have had an awful lot of wind with our cold fall and the couple days of reprieve is much appreciated…
There isn't a lot of bright color left in the gardens at this stage of the game…. the obvious exceptions are 'Mary Potter' and her neighbor 'Seven Sons'. What a wonderful long show they put on… Mary with her fruits and Seven Sons with his calyxes…
It's likely that there is yet to be some decent color… the beeches are barely starting to change… 'Purple Fountains' is never that exceptional but 'Asplenifolia' to the right below can be quite magnificent, especially laden with a small snowfall over its yellow fall foliage…
One of our neighbors (we are blessed with great neighbors here in farm country) and I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon moving rocks to the outskirts of the gardens… he on a skid loader and me hauling them the few miles to Oak Lawn and unloading them here… some of them are quite large… I need to remember to leave some space for plants in the new rock gardens!
Acer 'North Wind', one of the new crosses between the korean maple (pseudosieboldianum) and Acer palmatum has begun to color up for fall. I'm interested to see how it does as my straight Korean maple showed absolutely none of its brilliant fall color this year, choosing instead to go to an ugly brown and dried up appearance. My North Wind is pictured below…
This is a photo of a friend's North Wind from a couple seasons ago… dare I hope mine will show this well?
To my way of thinking, magnolias are pretty inconsistent in their fall garb from one year to the next… they can be quite lovely… other years less so.
Even the birch walk is a bit drab this season…
I can pick up just a trifle of the chartreuse tones that some seasons make these magnolias outstanding… the possibility of good color here seems attainable…
Another tree that can be quite beautiful is the 'Scarlet Oak' (Quercus coccinea)… I have high hopes and time will tell just how red/umber it will become…
Oh yes… there are a few blooms hiding amongst the falling leaves, such as this double Primula vulgaris, Bellarina 'Cobalt Blue'… it's been blooming for weeks already…
I like this time of year… it seems like I tend to obsess over insignificant details for much of the gardening year. I've said it before… autumn is a time when messiness is a good thing (or at least an ok thing) … for instance, the fallen leaves amongst 'Elijah Blue' fescues and Picea pungens cultivars… not that big a deal really. These fallen leaves are actually quite good insulation and will break down and improve the soil. All this acceptance of nature doing its thing leads to extra time for special projects such as the new rustic cedar arbor I started to build today…
I'll close with an interesting spruce cultivar that holds some resistance to the problems that plague other varieties of spruce. This is Picea engelmanii 'Bush's Lace'. It maintains a leader (although it needs staking when young) with pendulous branches that eventually will create a lovely gray/blue skirt. It will eventually get to about 15-20 feet according to the literature… do I believe this? (check out this year's growth on the leader)… it is very hardy to -60 degrees fahrenheit. After many years it will broaden out and become quite wide…. that brings me to my problem… it's definitely in the wrong place and needs to be moved; that is, unless I am willing to remove a Picea pungens 'Fat Albert' that will eventually get too big along side the Bush's Lace.
Now I ask you… which would you remove? 'Bush's Lace' gently cascading over a stone wall, or 'Fat Albert', plopped at the base of the same wall…
Hmmm…
Larry
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