Each Little World

Witch hazel shining out

The driveway still has a lot of color: red from the Epimedium rubrum and the leaves on the Korean maple tree and yellows from the clumps Japanese forest grass. The clump in the foreground is Hakonechloa macra, the plain green variety, while the rear clump is Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold.'

Now that it has lost its leaves my fall-blooming common witch hazel, Hamamelis virginiana, is clearly visible and looking lovely. Since witch hazel is an understory plant, I put it under an old silver maple tree where it has been very happy. 

In retrospect, I should have planted it with a dark background to show off the yellow flowers. But that's a concept that I didn't really think about twenty years ago when I planted it. It's rare that I can manage to take a photo of it with this many flowers visible. 

Peace and plenty and no politics today

GBBD: 11.15.18

It's rare to have flowers blooming in November in Wisconsin but it has happened some years. This November my clumps of Sedum 'Matrona' are the only flowers in sight. It was 20 degrees F. (-6.66 C.) when I got up this morning; not bad compared to yesterday when it was 15 degrees F. (-9.44 C.). Sun and temps in the high 30s F. are forecast for today so I will get out and get the fall clean up finished. 

 

Wordless Wednesday

The same but different

Location, location, location! That's the mantra of realtors but it's a concept that holds true in gardening as well. Obviously where you live in the country or the world has the major influence on your garden. But then it becomes very personal and intimate. Plants growing near each other can look or perform quite differently depending on soil, moisture, light — any number of factors.

This is Caxex siderosticha 'Lemon Zest' growing in rather dry shade under a Redbud. It is actually turning more yellow as fall advances. It typically turns a limey green in summer in this shady location.

Here is the same plant in more sun so it holds its yellow color through most of the season just starting to turn brown from cold weather and a few dry weeks. 

My newest patch of Epimedium rubrum are a bright green during the growing season and are turning a warmish red orange at the moment. 

The mother planting (below) is across the driveway from the group shown in the photo above. This group has been growing many years longer than the first group with much darker green leaves and more mahogany fall coloration. It has surprised me how different the two groups look even during the growing season. I would not have thought the amount of light they get was that much different as I am guessing that is the main reason for the variation. 

The foliage of Epimedium x youngianum 'Baby Doll Pink' has turned a lovely yellow unlike any of the other Epimediums I grow.

This group of three Epimediums, including E. 'Red Queen', are growing under a big old Arborvita tree and never color though they get plenty of flowers. 

 

Ferns for fall

My neighbor has a swath of fiddlehead ferns that always look stunning in the spring when they emerge. But let a whiff of cold air touch them in the fall and they turn brown and crumple over in a minute. But there are an amazing number of ferns that can make it through light frosts and some that will look good as the snow melts off of them at the end of winter. Autumn fern (Dryopteris erythrosora), Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) and Hart's Tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium) are all still looking quite good. 

The group below includes Dryopteris crassirhizoma on the left and Leatherwood fern (Dryopteris marginalia) on the right.  These are both growing in dry shade under a Scot's pine.

Leatherwood in another part of the garden

This is one of the first ferns I planted in the late 1990s but I am not sure what it is: Beech fern, Broad buckler fern or perhaps NY fern. These days I try to keep better records of what I've planted where. This grows outward in such a way that I have cut chunks off of it with no harm. It is a good 3 feet tall and stunning. Nothing seems to bother it. 

Look (between those two tree trunks on the right) at the statement the above fern makes when perennials all around it are already done for the season. All of the other greens in this view are evergreen shrubs like yew and box.

Adiantum venustum with Carex 'Bowles' Golden'. So delicate looking and so tough.

The Dryopteris and Polystichum fern families have lots of different varieties and are a good place to look for ferns that can stand up to rougher weather. 

Wednesday vignette

This may be my favorite color moment of the entire autumn display: Crocus pulchellus amid leaves from Acer pseudosieboldianum. The flowers are much more delicately colored and more fragile looking than they appear in the photo. They would look like they were done when it got cloudy and cold and then stand upright and open again in the warm sun. A pricey bulb but worth every penny. 

Look up, look down: Final fall color

Hamamelis virginiana, aka fall-blooming witch hazel, is putting on its annual show right now. But if you grow witch hazels then you know about their annoying habit of often flowering before they've dropped their leaves. Yellow flowers among large yellowing leaves are hard to enjoy when you can barely see them. I discovered these wispy blooms by accident when I glanced overhead to see if the big maples in the front garden still had any leaves left on them. Their show is over for the year; not so in the back garden.

Our paperbark maple (Acer griseum x nikoense) was aglow on at the end of last week. It is typically the last deciduous tree to color up in the fall.  

But it lost most of its leaves with an overnight cold spell. 

I have to admit I was rather shocked to come out in the morning to this scene.

Turns out the Moosewood maple did the same thing.

Moosewood, Acer pennsylvanicum, is known for it large leaves and butter yellow fall color. That's Carex socialis 'Coahoma' in the foreground. 

The yellow leaves at the rear are from one of our stripe bark maples, A. tegmentosum 'White Tigress'. These leaves are so large that I will try to rake them up as they will mat down in a way that can harm emerging plants in the spring. 

It rained on the weekend and this was the scene out the library window on Sunday morning. These sugar maple leaves all came from the tree in our neighbor's garden. Looking at this view I guess we do still have more leaves that need to come down; namely the curly willow and the old apple tree. 

But the weather is definitely changing and it looks like the last fall cleanup is going to be done during much colder weather. Ugh. 

IVOM: Final fall color

I've been raking and chopping leaves, cutting down soggy Hostas and blackened lily stems and generally getting the garden ready for winter. But there are still a few spots of bright color to bring indoors. Thalictrum sp. 'Black Stockings' is the only variety of the four tall Thalictrums that I grow that still has foliage on it and foliage that looks good. The leaves at the top of the stems  are this lovely soft yellow while the lower leaves are varying shades of green. I thought them too attractive not to enjoy their last burst of beauty indoors.

To see what other gardeners have put in a vase today, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts our favorite floral meme.

Still green

Despite plenty of cold nights, lots of plants are still green and great looking like Arum italicum 'Ghost'. This goes dormant in the summer, returns with cooler weather and will look this lovely until snow arrives and covers it up.

So many of my Hellebores suffered from last winter's cold and lack of snow cover. This clump of H. 'Royal Heritage' strain is a fraction of its usual size but is suddenly sending up some new leaves. 

Carexes are among the stars of my garden at any season. But I love them best early and late in the year when I am starved for green. C. plantaginea is one of my go-to ground covers for dry shade.

C. socialis 'Coahoma' looks delicate but is one tough plant.

I had a nice swath of C. morrowii 'Silver Scepter' that mostly died out last winter. I took the pieces that survived and moved them to a more well-drained location where they are currently doing well. C. morrowii variegated also suffered a lot of dieback last winter.

Digitalis purpurea 'Apricot Beauty' and Pulmonaria 'David Ward'

Milium effusum 'Aureum' has lost its gold coloration but still looks good along with a fall-planted Euphorbia x martinii 'Tiny Tim.'

Carex elata 'Bowles Golden' is similar in color to the above Milium but with much narrower foliage. Here it's growing with Adiantum venustum.

Berberis thunbertii 'Admiration' which has lost its bright summer color, along with a seedling of Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum' on the left and a candelabra primrose seedling at the rear.

Euphorbia x martin 'Ascot Rainbow' is another plant that is new this fall. It's growing on the right side of the same Berberis as above.

Rosa rubrifolia

Hedera helix 'Glacier'. All said, a lot more green that I might have expected to find at the beginning of November.