I don’t know if the leaves will still be on my Acers for Foliage Day on the 22nd of the month, so I thought that maybe I ought to photograph them for Friday’s Looking Good meme hosted by Gillian at Country Garden UK.
Acer Sango Kaku.
All summer the leaves are green, but gradually they change to a buttery yellow before they eventually fall.
Last Saturday the weather was absolutely wonderful, bright blue sky and lovely sunshine, so we made the most of it and went to The Garden House , Buckland Monachorum on Dartmoor, just 10 miles from Plymouth. The sun was surprisingly hot for the end of October, so coats weren’t needed nor umbrellas as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! We usually try to get to see a garden which is known for its autumn tints and I knew this garden had an Acer glade, say no more!
The car park at The Garden House.
Usually when we go into the garden, a general look around will show that the dominant colour is green. Not any more, the whole garden has a mellow, yellow look about it as plants finally change colour and start to die back ready for winter. I started my wandering this time, in the woodland and went anti clockwise instead of the usual clockwise, don’t ask me why, I’ve no idea!
Woodland, looking left.
What a difference a week makes, the green is rapidly disappearing from the garden, being replaced by yellow, orange and red. The little tree Prunus Kojo -no-mai is a good example of this, it really looks like a burning bush at the moment. The strong winds and rain are bringing lots of leaves down, but not on Kojo-no-mai, she is hanging on tight to all her leaves and making a wonderful show, I think this year is the best year yet.
Prunus Kojo-no-mai.
Looking at October’s photos yesterday, I found a few which don’t really justify a post to themselves, so I thought I would collect them together and show a mixed bag.
Starting with the wonderful sunrise I found the morning after the clocks went back 1 hour.
Sunrise at 6am.
I would have missed this beautiful sunrise if the alarm hadn’t gone off at 6am instead of the usual 7 am. The clock changes the time automatically, but doesn’t seem to change the alarm until after it has woken us up!
Sunny days and cold nights are the trigger for the autumn tints to start. Some of my trees and bushes are still waiting, I suppose the night time temperatures have to drop a little further before the chlorophyll switches off. There are plenty of signs though that changes are taking place, starting with the Amelanchier at the right hand end of the bog garden.
Amelanchier lamarkii
The other morning, I had to be very careful which path I took in the garden as they were festooned with cobwebs. It was a bit foggy and the moisture had settled on the webs, looking like diamonds catching the light as the sun tried to break through.
Weeds have their uses!
Books on garden design mention how to use a focal point in a garden, but they also stress that it shouldn’t dominate and take the eye away from the plants. You should also only be able to see one feature at a time so that it leads you through the garden. I wonder how we would all have dealt with the structure that we saw yesterday, what would we have made of this….? Continue reading
The flowers keep coming, but I think with our colder weather coming from Russia at the moment, they will now slow down. There is no doubt that it is autumn, the sun is lower in the sky, night time temperatures have dropped even though daytime temperatures are holding up. Today I brought all my plants in that have to come in to survive, we still haven’t had frost yet, but it can’t be long before we do.
Hydrangea
This Hydrangea under the kitchen window is still putting out new blooms, a few were cut for part of the decoration for church last week. Continue reading
What is looking good today, good enough to be linked to “Looking good on Friday” hosted by Gillian at Country Garden UK... Once again it turned out to be something that has been flowering for quite some time now, but is still putting out new flowers…….Colchicums.
Colchicums.
