Wordless Wednesday - Happy Halloween!

October Colors...

The birch and  maple trees are now bare of their brilliant autumn cloaks but the oak trees are in their full glory. My favorite autumn colors are the rust, deep burgundy and oranges the oak leaves turn in the fall and they make a beautiful backdrop for all the lovely birds that visit my gardens here in the fall. 

Tufted Titmouse

American Goldfinch

Pine Siskin

American Goldfinch

 Some gorgeous color right now from my dwarf Fothergilla, what a beauty!

American Goldfinch in the wild crabapple tree

There are still some flowers on the Persicaria 'Golden Arrow'

The Hydrangea petiolaris  still has a few leaves left

Black-capped Chickadee in the Hydrangea petiolaris

Pine Siskin

Salvia 'Mystic Spires' with a Painted Lady Butterfly

We are expecting a large wind storm in the next couple days and that will be the end of the foliage season for 2012, so now I'm looking forward to my indoor gardening and bird photography until spring rolls around again.

A Most Superlative Vine -

Hydrangea petiolaris - every gardener should have one of these tucked into the garden somewhere. 

Seventeen years ago we removed five, mature, hundred plus foot tall White Pines from the back yard. That created lots of new gardening space and I was able to add the third terrace to our large perennial border on the hill. I'd seen a climbimg hydrangea on a garden tour and decided to plant one at the foot of our mature oak tree at the corner of the terrace garden. 

Well, it was pretty slow to get started in the beginning and didn't produce any flowers for five years or so but gardening is all about waiting isn't it?  As the years went by the vine went from creeping to leaping and now cloaks the oak (he he he, couldn't help myself) to a height of fifty feet! And it's such a beauty. 

In spring when the fresh leaves emerge and the blossoms smother the tree it can take your breath away but my very favorite time with this beauty is its fall glory. The leaves turn brilliant glowing yellow and add to the glorious fall colors of the season.

Bloom Day - October 2012

 

We had our first hard freeze here last Friday evening and there isn't much left in the flower department. I found it a challenge to stroll through the frozen, browned annuals looking for something pretty to share. I was acutally surprised to find a few survivors here and there and some last lingering perennials with flowers. Without further ado here is a sampling of the end of our 'bloom season' here in chilly New Hampshire.

Many thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this great eye candy bloomfest

Salvia greggii 'Desert Blaze'

 



Salvia 'Mystic Spires'

Agastache 'Blue Fortune'

Chelone with Persicaria 'Golden Arrow'

Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant'

Bonica

Actaea simplex ‘Brunette’

Actaea simplex ‘Brunette’

Persicaria 'Golden Arrow'

Begonia 'Dragonwing Pink'  ~ I have no idea how this and the impatiens survived the freeze when everything else died.

Impatiens 'Butterfly Salmon' 

Tricyrtis hirta 'Miyazaki'

Tricyrtis hirta 'Miyazaki'

Salvia 'Mystic Spires'

Phygelius

Fuchsia 'Firecracker'

Hakonechloa macra 'Albo-striata'

Phlox paniculata

Tricyrtis, this beauty has been blooming for weeks and was a gift from Sue of Idyll Haven

Yes I know, not blooming but look at those gorgeous leaves!Platycodon!

Abutilon 'Voodoo'

Miscanthus 'Morning Light'

Hybrid Tea Rose 'Fascination'

This lovely brugmansia spent Friday night int he garage

Echeveria

Aster

Miscanthus 'Morning Light'