Each Little World

Wordy Wednesday

It's been a sunny and chilly week here and that pattern continues in our 10-day weather forecast. It rained a bit Monday night and turned into wet snow by morning but it quickly melted away. My rain gauge is plastic so it's been put away for winter and I am left guessing about how much moisture the garden actually got.

This weather is typical for this time of year, so I am not complaining after the summer and fall we've experienced with its clear signs of climate change. The Weeping Beech is one of the few trees in the garden still holding its foliage. The color has gone from deep gold when I took the photo last week to a rusty orange. 

Mark recently decided what types of photography most interests him and what cameras he wants to use longterm. Thus he sold off a number of cameras, lenses, film developing equipment and more. That was after doing a major clear out of his bookshelves. I caught the bug from him and took two loads of books to our local library sale and a big donation of all kinds of items to St. Vinnie's.

It's a drop in the bucket when we look at all the books and art we own, but it felt freeing and a good way to prepare for a few months mostly spent indoors.

We're going to relatives on the other side of town for Thanksgiving. It's an easy drive and we were assigned an easy dish to bring. So it will be a relaxed holiday. Hope yours is as well. 

Ferns in mid-November

There are no flowers still blooming in my November garden other than Helleborus niger. At the same time, there are a number of ferns that still look very good despite a number of nights dropping into the high 20°F temperatures. A few are completely brown, some are green and have fallen over, but the ferns below look almost as good as they did in September.

Polystichum ringens aka rigid fern was planted in 2022 and has made it through its first winter and a hot, droughty summer and still looks lovely. It is growing slowly but is a little more than one foot wide. 

Polystichum setiferum 'Divisilobum' is also a year old, but is only about 7 inches wide, despite how big it looks in this picture. 

Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern) is evergreen until it's buried by snow. 

Like the Christmas fern, my Lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina) is still standing proud.

Asplenium scolopendrium (Hart's tongue fern, left) and Asplenium scollopendrium angustifolium (Ruffled Hart's Tongue Fern) are both still upright though their bright green summer color is fading. 

Parsley fern (Dryopteris felix mas 'Parsley') is as beautiful as it's been all season. 

I always find the name "Autumn fern" (Dryopteris erythrosora 'Brilliance') rather confusing as the autumn coloration appears on the new fronds in spring. It's solid green in autumn.  

Dryopteris wallichiana 'Jurassic Gold' supposedly emerges golden orange in the spring; but I don't really remember seeing that. But I am loving the color it is showing now.

Polystichum retroso-paleaceum (Narrow Tassel fern) is one of my favorites and is holding its own nicely.

With 4 Polystichum and 3 Dryopteris ferns in this group, it's clear which fern families can take cold weather in their stride.

IVOM: Lasting lovliness

I've never been a big fan of the Chrysanthemums one sees to buy at this time of year. Dense plants of brightly colored flowers that somehow always feel fake to me.  So it's no surprise that when I saw Chrysanthemum 'Sheffield' in the online shop of Avant Gardens in MA, I fell for it hard.

I planted it in August, 2021. I got enough flowers last fall to get a sense of what it would look like this year: Glorious. I cut these stems on Oct. 27th on the assumption that a frost would kill it. Most of the flowers were still in the bud stage and I just left them to their fate in the garden.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered they were continuing to open and bloom despite some pretty chilly weather. I cut more stems and added them to the original group which have now been looking perfect for 10 days.

Front or back, I'm in love with these flowers. So I ordered another one from Avant Garden called "October Glory." Can't wait for it to bloom next year.

Nothing nicer than having enough flowers to cut that you can put them in multiple places indoors. With an equally long-lasting leaf from Heuchera 'Fire Alarm.'

How did I miss these beauties?

I clearly only wandered through a narrow swath of the garden before I posted my November report on Monday. Don't know how I missed these beauties.

You may not think this image of Peony foliage is anything special. But this is the first time I remember having a Peony whose foliage is still green, upright and disease free in November. Amazing.

Not far away I discovered my Helleborus niger, aka Christmas rose, was up and blooming. I've been growing this plant for a dozen years and it surprises me every time. Its partner across the path is barely visible so I just buried it under a pile of leaves. I don't think it will make a show before spring.

This Larch (Larix laricina) is so blindingly bright that it seems impossible to not see it from everywhere in the garden. I think it must have just turned color quickly because I know I could not have walked past it without seeing it.

On the downside this autumn:

Our paperbark maple which is the last tree to turn color — an intense red — just lost all its leaves in the last two days without seriously coloring up. 

In my sunnier beds, the Alliums I planted in 2022 are popping up and growing as a result of our hot/cold/warm weather conditions. I think this means they will not flower come next spring. They put on a nice show this year so I decided not to add any more bulbs in that area. We'll see what happens come June.

Early November report

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! —
November!

— Thomas Hood

It's the beginning of the first full week of November in my Z5 garden in southern Wisconsin and that poem is all wrong this year. This morning it's 56°F as I am writing this at 8 a.m. Yesterday in the garden birds were flocking to the water bowl. The last stems of Aconitum (monkshood) and Chrysanthemum 'Sheffield' were still flowering despite some frosty nights.

There are colorful leaves on the ground and the roof but lots of green leaves still on ferns, assorted perennials and trees. Our Paperbark Maple hasn't even begun to turn color. Here's a sampling of what the garden looks like right now.

Hamamelis virginiana (Witch Haze) is in full bloom and has dropped its leaves so you can actually see the flowers.

Of course, it's not easy to see the flowers without a nice Yew hedge behind this shrub.

Dawn redwoods are deciduous. This one, 'Ogon', is a bright chartreuse all summer before it turns its needle-like foliage a gorgeous cinnamon. I love it when it's in the middle of that change-over and there are bright gold tips at the ends of many of the autumn toned branches. 

I have three varieties of Hackonechloa in multiple locations in the garden. H. macra is shrinking up without ever putting out their inflorescence.

H. 'All Gold' has "flowered" like crazy.

I always wait for a few frosts to put an end to the Hostas. Once that happens it's easy to just pull the foliage off the plant rather than having to cut all those stems.

Hellebores, Geranium macrorrhizum, Vancouver and many ferns, like this Dryopteris crassirhizoma, are still bright green. 

Winter lasts such a seemingly long time that I am not going to complain about this unusually lovely weather. A little rain would make it perfect.

Wordless Wednesday

PHOTO BY MARK GOLDBACH

IVOM: The goodbye bouquet

Last Wednesday, before the weather changed, I clipped a crazy assortment of foliage and flowers and made a giant bouquet. Partly it was a test to see what plants have the potential to last in an arrangement, but mostly it was just fun to grab a bit of everything. 

Toad lilies and Aconitum are the main flowers here, along with fading Agastache 'Blue Fortune' and Eupatorium 'Chocolate.'

I've never cut a stem of Podophyllum 'Spotty Dotty' for a vase as they make too important a statement in the garden to do that. But they were about to bite the bullet anyway, so I did it. And now I know it works well in a display. Here with Arum italicum and the underside of a yellowing Hosta leaf.

The view from the other side shows the beautiful red backs of the hardy Begonia foliage and the sori on the ferns.

I couldn't resist trying a big Rodgersia leaf which didn't last too long. Not surprising given how far gone it was when I cut it. The stems on Anemone 'September Charm' were so long they just wanted to keep flopping. So I let them.

When I brought the display into the house, Mark insisted on taking a photo with me to indicate what a large bouquet it was. I look like a woman who has spent a week fighting a cold and had to cancel her haircut appointment so she wouldn't pass on her germs. 

Just enough rain . . .

to give the garden a drink and provide some art in the driveway.

From one extreme to the other

Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny autumn day, so I took advantage of the weather and got the last spring bulbs planted. We met with our arborist about getting the big Honey Locust over the house pruned. And Mark cleaned the garage — after doing the same in the basement the day before. The high hit 79°.

The weather had the Crocus pulchellus in full bloom. It was a thrill to walk up the steps to the Tea House and see how they're finally spreading around. 

The rain forecast this week is mostly missing us. But I'm sure the overnight lows into the 20°s this weekend are not going to pass us by. So I walked around the garden in late afternoon clipping all sorts of foliage and a few flowers to make a goodbye to the garden bouquet. I'm definitely not ready to say hello to the next season.

Mushroom mania

Fall always brings mushrooms here and there in the garden. Sometimes just a stem or two and sometimes big clumps. 

I love the way these appear to be looking back at the photographer.

I don't remember "puffballs" in the garden in past years. When I first saw it, I almost kicked it thinking it was a rock.

A few days later I delicately brushed the dirt off of it. A couple of days after that I brought a ruler out to measure how big it was getting.

When we came home from Milwaukee, it was bigger still but it had split open. It looks like it did that on its own as the cracks are very smooth and don't have any evidence of critter damage. Wish I'd had a chance to see it one more time before this happened.