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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you count all the leaves on the ground, then we have lots of fall color on the lowest level.
I don't have a lot of perennials that get great fall color but there are a few that never fail to look good as cooler weather arrives. The star must be Bergenia, most likely 'Bressingham Ruby.' Its shiny leaves stand upright again at this season to make sure you don't ignore it. Plus they change from bright green to red and bronze to almost black.
Growing right next to it is Bergenia ciliata aka Himalayan Bergenia. This one has large leaves that are very fuzzy, similar to African violets. Not quite as attractive as the prior image, but enough fall color to be noteworthy.
Bergenia cordifolia 'Pink Dragonfly' has long skinny leaves that again aren't very noticeable during the growing season. But I stop to look at them now, each time I use the front stone steps as they are located in the bed right at the top. The thin green leaves are Muscari making a brief autumnal appearance.
The cooler weather has all the Huechera looking good, especially those with strongly patterned leaves.
The same is true for the Tiarellas like this one, T. 'Crow Feather.'
It also has brought out the markings on my Geranuium phaeum. Those dark splotches often seem to get much less obvious in hot weather.
Surprisingly G. phaeum 'Sericourt' has sent out new leaves which are the lovely golden golden color this variety is known for, but which my plant has rarely displayed. In fact, I have moved this plant multiple times trying to get it to survive, let alone look the way it does in the catalogs.
Geranium macrorrhizum usually has a lot more red and orange leaves than anything I'm seeing this year. The lively green leaves belong to lemon balm, Melissa officinalis.
Not typically what one considers fall color, but I was thrilled to discover all these bright berries on my Ilex verticilata 'Berry Poppins.' This was just planted last year and came through our bad winter beautifully. If it looks this good its first year, I can't wait to see what it will look like once it achieves some size.