Each Little World

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.

GBBD:10.15.2023

Mark and I took a mini vacation to Milwaukee from Thursday to Saturday which led me to forget the date until late yesterday afternoon. It was chilly, very rainy and windy in Milwaukee and the state of the garden and the rain gauge suggest the weather was the same here. We haven't had a killing frost but the weather hasn't quite moved the late bloomers into the mass of flowers the buds are suggesting. Despite the rather sad look of the garden we got almost 2 and 1/2" of rain and more is forecast for midweek. 

The Aconitum were giants this year with some towering over my head. They all came down in the storms but are still flowering. 

The 'Chocolate' Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium rugosa 'Chocolate) also got beaten down and is resting on top of a newly planted Fillipendula 'Red Umbrella'.

Anemone japonica 'September Charm' is a gorgeous charmer but quite rampant. Hoping I won't regret planting her. The weather also took a toll on her. 

Anemone japonica 'Whirlwind' got moved this summer which really cut back on flowers and stem height.

Tricyrtis formosana is a low grower with arching stems. The flower buds are nicely vertical on this variety for a great display. Unlike the T. hirta varieties, this one is very hairy.

The rabbits ignored T. formosana this year . . . 

but not T. hirta. I have a number of this variety with different foliage but somewhat similar flowers. This clump, in deep shade, is loaded with flowers, has mid-green foliage and was blowing in the continuing wind.

The same plant has brighter foliage in the sun. Last year this plant made such a huge, tall clump I broke it up and moved it around. It was so big it blocked the view of the shorter plants growing behind it.

I grow T. hirta 'Lightning Strike' for its striped foliage.

T. hirta 'Tojen' has large flowers that are strikingly different than its relatives. It has alway been a floppy plant in my garden, so I re-planted it next to the Stripe Bark Maple hoping that will help to hold it upright.

In recent years there have been a number of new T. hirta introductions with gold-edge foliage and different color combos in the flowers. None of them have done well in my garden.  They've just stayed small and languished which suggests I should try  moving them before I decide to kiss them goodbye. 

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.