Fall Color in the Garden

Gardens take on a special look in fall. With leaves falling and plants turning brown, the landscape looks more relaxed.

Shorter days and the end of the blooming season make each flower more appreciated: the final roses, the ubiquitous chrysanthemums, a wild-card zinnia, a dahlia.

Fall-blooming camellias flower profusely like final fireworks.

After the harsh cold of last winter, the mophead hydrangeas did not bloom in spring. Now, in November, orbs of deep pink and blue are seasonal anomalies on turning foliage.

The flowers of ‘limelight’ and ‘little limelight’ hydrangeas, no longer their  limey-white, glow in shades of pink.

I am thrilled finally to have an oakleaf hydrangea whose leaves look like big red hands.

Foliage is the star of the season. Hostas, Amsonia hubrichtii, and ginko trees turn gold.

Maples of all sorts flame.

I don’t remember the Kousa or the native dogwoods ever turning such a brilliant red.

Virginia Creeper glows like a little gem within the vines of vinca and ivy.

On a late afternoon walk, leaves carpet sidewalks in color. At home they give a mosaic look to the grass that shines greener in fall.