End of November

As the active growing season settles down, the mood in the yard has shifted, with the view of the Bay opening up as trees lose their leaves, and the dominant color is no longer green.

Relationships between plants and sections shift, as the evergreens grow in prominence, the bare branches of the deciduous shrubs become transparent, and herbaceous perennials shrink down to the cluster of leaves at the base or disappear altogether.

The view from the path circling around to its end in the center shows some of the changes.  There are only a few leaves left on the Katsura, while the crape myrtle directly ahead is still dark green with leaves.  The very dark green of the Japanese cedars appears almost black, while the blue-green leaves of the false indigo at the bottom/front of the photo are losing intensity.  The two evergreens behind the crape myrtle are shifting.  The Dawn Redwood, just to the right of the crape myrtle is shifting color from green to bright brown, soon to a golden brown before the needles are dropped for the winter.  Then further to the right, the Franklinia has yet to move into its dominant winter role as the only large evergreen visible in the view to the Bay.   So, as the trees that block the view of the Bay during the summer become bare branches, other trees step forward.  Soon much of the foliage will need to be cleaned out, creating an openness that is refreshing.

Turing to the right, the mixture of shapes and colors of the border hedge along our neighbors yard attract much more attention.  The yellow-green of threadleaf false cypress, the narrow vertical shapes of the Sky Pencil hollies, the irregular masses of the Chesapeake hollies, the red berries of the Winterberries are all playing against each other.  The Osmanthus, which are still small and cannot be seen in the spaces in front of the white fence on the right side of this photo.  Eventually they will fill that area in with a mixture of green, white, and red accents. 

I will end with the view over the heather garden toward the Bay.  It is a mixture with a sprawling rosemary in the front, grasses, spirea, clethra, and all of the trees.

Katsura and Viburnum

The Katsura "Heronswood Globe" has now reached its peak color for the fall, a brilliant yellow that glows with the sun coming through the leaves.   This is almost the same color as Ginkgo leaves which are also changing color at the same time, but it is a much more manageable sized tree, only growing up to 15 feet.

I found it at the National Arboretum sale, like so many others, but it is commonly available in many nurseries.  In the five years it has been in place, it has grown a substantially thicker trunk and is now about 8 feet tall.  Some scale of its height can be determined by the Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass on the right edge of the photo, which is about 5 feet tall.

I irreverently call it my lollipop tree, because of the round ball on top of the stick of a trunk.  It is the only tree that will be planted in the labyrinth, and provides shade for the center.  Soon there will be a chair under it where people can sit in the shade and look at the Bay.

To the right side of the photo, in the back, there is a large, dark green leaved bush.  That is a Viburnum rhytidophylloides Alleghany, which was developed and introduced by the National Arboretum. 

It has deeply indented veins in its leaves, creating shadow lines when the light is right.  The flowers come both in the fall and the spring, and sometimes, as in the photo at the left, berries have already developed before the rest of the cluster of flowers begins blooming.  It is unusual.

This is a very tough shrub, that was bought just after buying the house, and temporarily planted on the north side.  By the time it was moved into its current location a few years ago, it had already grown quite a bit with a large root system.  Digging it out, one root was particularly hard to cut off.  Then a few weeks later when the oil furnace and water heater seemed to have run out of oil, the technician discovered the copper supply line running twelve inches deep alongside the house has been cut!  Oops!

Because this shrub holds its leaves through all but the worst winters, it provides an important screening for the center part of the garden.  It blocks the view into the garden from the houses behind it, and further up the street, offering some sense of privacy.  Here is another view of a cluster of berries and flowers.

Going back to that chair under the Katsura, you may be wondering where is this view of the Bay?  Why is this blog called the Labyrinth by the Bay, when there have been no pictures that showed any kind of view, water or otherwise?   So, here it is, when you turn your back to all of these details.

Continued Fall Color

While the native trees are just starting to turn colors in Southern Maryland, one tree is already showing its stuff in the front yard.

This Parrotia persica, or Persian Ironwood, started changing color two weeks ago. Like a parrot, it is flashy and a show-off. The leaves first fade from green into yellow, like those at the top of the photograph at the left.  Then, the yellow transforms through shades of orange to a deep red.  Since the leaves start changing at different times, there is a full range of colors that can be found once the process begins.  This particular tree was bought at the Friends of the National Arboretum Garden Fair several years ago at a 30 inch sapling.  As you can see, it is now over seven feet tall, and has a distinctive shape.  There is no central trunk, and if pruned differently it would have multiple trunks.  Side branches start growing out horizontally, then bend upwards, somewhat like an umbrella that has been blown inside-out.  At first I was worried that there was something wrong since I could not find any good pictures of the trunk-branch shape.  But I like it now.

Once established it has earned its common name of "ironwood" since it is very drought resistant, and shows no vulnerability to insects or disease.  It received little additional water this last hot, dry summer.  It didn't seem to care, while other trees suffered die-back.

Other plants that are continuing to bloom are the Agastaches.  The are two different varieties side by side in this photo.  The one on the left, which is shorter in size and a slightly grayer foliage color is "Acapulco Orange" while the other is "Orange Flare." I thought I was getting two different, though similar, colors between these two varieties, but the only distinction is the height and shape of each plant.  Let this be a warning to never trust a catalog picture to be accurate, especially if the colors in the photo have been increased in intensity.  I won't say which nursery these came from because I have not had a lot of success with the plants from it.  Part of the problem may be that the nursery is located in the Southwest, and the plants have not adjusted to the difference in climate.  I will be curious how these handle the winter, and come back in the spring. 

Fall Details

This last weekend was perfect for moving plants around, including three peonies and the dwarf smoke bush.  It was also time to plant a hardy hibiscus that had spent the summer blooming like crazy on the front porch.  However, there is no way to get an interesting photograph of chopped off stems sticking out of the ground.  Instead, it is time to pay attention to the small bits and pieces that are scattered around, underneath, and behind the usual display.

It was surprising to find one of the Sedum sieboldii is still blooming, though at the moment the variety is unknown.  Even more surprising were the yellow, black and white beetles feeding on nectar from the flowers, slowly working across the top of the flower heads.  I could not find any matching pictures of beetles in the short web search, so if anyone knows what these are, I would appreciate learning their name.

The two plants need a much more sunny location, now that the viburnum has grown out over them.  Along with the Sedum Autumn Joy, they will get moved into a newly opened flower bed by the road, where they can get lots of hot, bright sun.

Another plant that was a newcomer to the garden this year was the Black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata).  The plants arrived early in the season, and had to wait a bit before they were planted.  Two pairs were planted  at the base of a tripod of stakes, and one pair below a trellis in front of a clump of tall grass.

The plants needed to build up a clump of leaves and stems on the ground before they would start climbing up the various supports they were put beside.  The tendrils were somewhat weak and never got a tight grip upon their intended stepladders to the sky.  Yet, they did work their way up, and seemed to wrap round each other as they climbed.

There was never a big display of flowers, but a consistent sprinkling from the ground to the top.  Being at eye-level, the simple shape and elegance of each flower was appealing.  The pair that grew into and through the tall grass added a nice surprise of yellow flowers.

It is not clear if they did set any seed, and whether the seeds will come up next spring.  If we recognize the seedlings, we will let them grow, along with many other self-seeders.  But I don't expect to buy either new plants or seeds next year.
 

October Flowers

An ongoing challenge in selecting plants for a garden is finding those that will continue to provide color and interest while the rest of the garden is decaying with colder weather and frosts.  While there have not been any frosts yet, and usually this garden is spared them until the end of November, the options for color this year include two surprises.

This Gaillardia, Oranges and Lemons, was purchased through a mail order company and planted in in spring 2010. It was a slightly random selection, chosen for its combination of color and height, with no specific advice to be found about its qualities or virtues.

It was a very hard start for the two plants.  One almost died after planting, then seemed to resurrect itself. The other did not do much better.  I have had similar troubles with other Gaillardias, so maybe that is a common problem?

Then in the middle of the summer both developed good sized plants, started blooming, and bloomed continuously for the rest of the summer.  While I tried to deadhead them as the flowers dropped their petals, just like the one in the bottom left corner of this picture, the plant didn't seem to care and regularly put out new blossoms.

So, at least for the first year, this seems to be a keeper.  It still has to survive the winter and show its stuff next year, but I am pleased so far.

The other showy plant is actually blooming now because of delay and neglect.  It is a pink Gladiolus that came out of my mother's garden a few years ago.  I have no idea of the name or variety since I pulled these bulbs from the flower bed after it had been rototilled.  

The reason it is blooming is because these were never planted until early September.  While there was a good chance that none would have time to bloom, I decided to take a chance.  So, these came through, but few of the rest have any flower stalks.  I am not a big fan of Gladiolus, but since these were some of Mom's, I have tried to keep them going.  I had heard that these are a favorite of deer, but so far, no chomping has occured.

I have many other plants from Mom, that I will write about as they show their colors.