Each Little World

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. 

 

(Not) In a Vase on Monday

Last Friday as I was leaving the gym, I ran into a friend-of-a-friend who said she'd been hoping she might bump into me there. The reason? She had an ikebana flower vase that had been in her family but it was time to send it out into the world to a new home. She wondered if I knew someone who might use it and appreciate it. Or perhaps, she suggested, it might interest me. She said she'd been driving around with it in the trunk of her car on the off chance of running into me.

The minute she opened the box and I saw the gleam of black lacquer, I was smitten. Moments later the box was being transferred to my car, making me the new proud owner of a beautiful vase and two narrow lacquer boards on which to display the vase. For Cathy's special charge this week (Not) In a Vase on Monday, I am using the two boards. The vase is staying in its box for another bouquet at another time. 

I decided that not only would I stay away from a vase this week, but I would not use fresh material either. These dried plants were part of other displays in my house. The pod is a Chinese lantern flower (Physalis alkekengi). The stem is from my new summer planting of Euphorbia palustris which can grow in up to two inches of water.

The cloth is a hand-stitched Indian Kantha that is draped over an upholstered chair in our living room. I took the photo with the lacquer boards resting on the seat of the chair. One more nod to (not) in a vase.

Cathy at Rambling in the Garden has been hosting this meme for five years. Stop by her blog to see what she's done to celebrate and to look at other vases from around the world who join in this meme every Monday. 

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. 

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.

Wordless Wednesday

Fall color lower down

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. 

Fall color update

We've had enough frosty nights that the Hostas and any number of perennials are down and done for the season and lots of trees have lost their leaves without much of a colorful display. But most of our favorites are suddenly putting on a lovely show.

This is Acer dissectum 'Viridis' which is planted right off the deck. Usually it keeps going until it is a glowing coral color which I am hoping it will still manage to do this year. 

If you look closely you will see that the Tea House garden contains a pair of Korean maples, Acer pseudosibodianum. The rather unsightly pole intruding on this scene is the bamboo stake I am using to try to get the tree in the foreground to grow with a single leader.

All of the Korean maples have great fall color and they seem less susceptible to the vagaries of autumn weather.

This view is looking down the slope with the second smaller tree now in the foreground. I am letting this one grow in its own wonky way.

I walked around the back of the Tea House along the fence and came around the side of the building to take this shot. The trees on the sides of the scene are both Korean maples of different ages. The one in the center with the yellow leaves is also a maple, Acer pennsylvanicum. Its common name is Moosewood and I first learned about it from the old Heronswood catalog, though we purchased it locally. Our stripe bark maples also get this kind of yellow fall display.

The same trees as in the photo above but across the stream and looking in the opposite direction.

Yet another Korean maple but this one turns golden instead of red. I just did a head count and discovered we have 9 of these trees! One reason is that they are much hardier for us than Japanese maples but have similar leaves and fall color. The other reason is that they were available as very tiny trees at very reasonable prices at the annual Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society sale for many years. Alas the invasive jumping worm's presence in Wisconsin gardens ended the sale along with Olbrich Botanical Gardens annul leaf mulch sale. 

Across the path from the above tree is a Stewartia pseudocamellia with a slightly different shade of yellow leaves. This tree often continues to color so I am keeping my eye on it.

Four Korean maples are visible in this view, though you really have to double click to enlarge the photo to find them.

The absolute star of the fall garden is this Korean maple in the front garden. It's 18 years old and its trunk was bolted together when it split during a winter storm a number of years ago. This one is visible from the window above the kitchen sink. The trees just starting to turn yellow in the left foreground are Witch Hazels.

All in all, I don't think I can complain that we haven't had any fall color this year!

Ginkgo color variation

Among the four Ginkgo biloba trees that are in the garden are two dwarf varieties. That's G. biloba 'Spring Grove' on the left in the picture below. 'Mariken' is still so green it's barely visible in the background to the right. 

Ginkgos are famed for dropping their beautiful leaves all at once in the autumn. But I've found they are quite variable in when they color up and how quickly they drop their leaves. My oldest and biggest one typically loses its leaves in two or three days rather than overnight. 'Spring Grove' is way ahead of its neighboring dwarf Ginkgo as well as the big one in turning color. 

These two little Ginkgoes are twelve years old which means they are a significant size. I've caged them every winter to protect them. I don't know if the rabbits would munch on them but I've always been too nervous to take a chance. 'Spring Grove' is fairly narrow so caging is not a big problem. But  'Mariken' (below) is a widely spreading little gem and caging it is always a chore I dislike as it is an awkward and frustrating job. Still I will probably continue to cage these two as it would not take a much damage to be noticeable on dwarf specimens. 

I snapped the above photos and wrote that section of this post last Friday. Saturday we had high winds, snow flurries and cold temperatures. This is what I saw when I looked out the window Sunday morning. Those lovely yellow leaves on the 'Spring Beauty' were all on the ground.

Alas G. 'Mariken' and our big Ginkgo also lost their leaves — though they had not remotely begun to turn yellow. But clearly it was an overnight sensation — just like the tree books say!

This is the second year in a row that the Ginkgoes have lost their leaves while still green. Last year it happened a week later, but it was still October. We'll see if more deciduous trees drop their leaves again this year without coloring up.

The Ginkgo leaves are so thick on the ground that you have to look closely to see the stepping stones in the foreground.