Each Little World

A Pattern Language

Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language" is a book about architecture, community and design solutions that came out of UC-Berkeley in the 1970s. I own a copy and have skimmed it over the years. I love patterns and recently kept noticing them, no matter where I was or what I was doing. So this is my "pattern language."

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.

An autumn vignette

A friend who stopped by to see the garden last weekend took this photo. I think it perfectly captures the moment: Flowers still opening, foliage turning color and fading away.

GARY TIPLER

IVOM: Compositions for company

Mark's book group met at our house last night. These guys start their meetings with pie and ice cream before they dig into the book they've just read, so I got a treat as well.

I decided the meeting was a good excuse for me to cut some flowers for indoors. The overnight lows are creeping downward and I want a chance to enjoy anything that is flowering before they get hit by frost. 

I brought in this Begonia boliviensis 'San Francisco' to see if it's anything I can overwinter. I cut it back a bit and did an early Halloween display with the prunings. I love its long drooping stems dripping with these big bright blooms.

My Monkshoods are dramatically tall this year and have just started to open in the last couple of days. I thought it needed a spray of equally dramatic foliage. This leaf is from Begonia 'Cotes de Cotillion' that I overwintered and am going to try doing it again. Currently it is an immense plant that make a gorgeous statement by our front door. 

These flowers are typically a very dark blue, so we'll see if that still happens once they're cut. They look a little pale to me. I love to watch the blooms open down the stem starting at the top.

The bench by our front door has a small orange pumpkin on each seat. But it's this big blue/gray/greeny squash that is my Farmer's Market prize. I love these subtle colors which perfectly echo the ceramics.

Early fall color

The leaves haven't started seriously turning color and most of my fall flowers are still in the bud stage. But the seedheads are looking great.

Diphylleia cymosa - American Umbrella Leaf. This has huge leaves and clusters of tiny white flowers in spring. But it's the autumn berries that are the glorious surprise.

When I went looking online for the proper name for this plant, I discovered it's been changed and now appears to Podophyllum  cymosum. Mine is getting too much afternoon sun due to the loss of a neighbor's tree. I am going to have to move it if I want to keep those giant leaves from getting fried. 

Paeonia japonica has small seedheads but I love watching them make their appearance. 

Even though they're small they make a bright pop of color in the garden. 

Paeonia obvata var. alba is the star of the show with its glossy blue seeds. They are the fertile ones, not the red ones. 

For the first time in the many years I've been growing P. obvata var. alba, it sent out a pod that only had infertile seeds. 

If it wasn't on the same plant as the more typical seedpod, I might have thought that's just how they typically were. I'm wondering if it did this because this big plant was grown from seeds that appeared in the garden. 

Every time I saw a recognizable leaf, I grabbed it and planted it with another baby leaf until I had a big, full-size Peony plant in only a few years. 

Still perfect

It seems like everywhere I look in my garden I see unfinished areas. It's been so hot that I haven't been able to make myself deal with most of them. Instead, I am luxuriating in the one area of my garden that is picture and pollinator perfect.

It took a number of years and a lot of loss and learning but I finally came up with plants that can take sun, poor soil, snow, winter road salt, massive summer road construction and never slow down.

Geranium wallichianum 'Crystal Lake' is a sprawler that needs companions to thread itself through. Beautiful markings and a color that is bright without overwhelming everyone else. 

'Crystal Lake' is growing with Alliums and Calamintha and hasn't overtaken either plant. 

This little bed has clumps of Penstemon 'Dark Towers'  at the back corners and blue Hostas (probably 'Halcyon') at the front corners. In between are three clumps of Allium 'Millennium' which is much pinker than A. 'Summer Beauty' which is also in bloom elsewhere in the garden. Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta fills the rest of the space. This garden always looks like a slight breeze is blowing but it's the movement of all the bees that create that impression. 

We're not losing our gutter here, so the big machines never get too close. They have never even broken a stem in this plot. 

They still do get close. Here they're digging trenches for storm sewer pipes and moving the dirt into the nearby dump truck. Note the workman down in the hole. (Double click the photo to enlarge it.)

You get a sense of the size of the bucket with Jake, one of the crew who's about 6'3" tall, standing next to it. Jake is covered with tattoos that he's had done by artists around the world. A very friendly guy.