A gift from gardener / photographer / beloved commentor Satby:
Fall is my favorite season, and though the drought this year made the color forecast dismal, some late heavy rains came in time to perk up the trees that hadn’t started changing yet.
The first two pictures are taken from my front yard, looking across the street at the silver maples…
And down the street past my 9 year old red maple to a distant sugar maple on the next block.
Streetscapes around South Bend. Maples predominate here, though different varieties.
A red maple (middle tree) next to a sugar maple (larger tree) behind. Not sure what the small front tree was, maybe a flowering crabapple.
We usually don’t get nice colors on the oak leaves, but the trees along the river were reds and golds, not the usual brown.
Also, got a young baldy cypress turning a beautiful bronze.
Enjoy!
***********
I believe the Midwest is about to get its first snow of the season, but here north of Boston we haven’t had a killing frost yet…
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
bjacques
Lovely!
In Paris the leaves are turning on the giant maples along the Canal St-Martin. Yesterday the weather was mild and everyone was out walking or playing.
Nelle
I expected a muted color year here in Iowa. Really, no rain since the end of July. But it has been spectacular. My favorite is when the ginkgo goes shimmering gold. We had snow yesterday, heavy and in fat clumps, but not sticking. Now the temp is 25F with a windchill of 13.F. It’s my sister’s birthday. She lives in Kinshasa, DRC, so I’ll hear about the just started rainy season on our monthly sister call. And we’ll be caring for our grandchildren, ages 8, 6, and a very hyped up 3, for two days. We’re 81 and 74. We’ll take prayers, from believers, agnostics,, and atheists, all.
Jeffg166
Got out of Philadelphia yesterday to the suburbs and the tree color was better out there. More brighter reds than I have seen in a number of years. Still not like it used to be like.
MagdaInBlack
The maples have been glowing this week (northern chi suburbs) but this morning I woke to a wee bit of snow
satby
@Nelle: prayers and good thoughts sent. I get exhausted just thinking about childcare now and I love kids.
@MagdaInBlack: Woke in the middle of the night to snow here too. It’s exactly 32° now, and the ground is too warm, so it’ll melt off. My begonias were still blooming yesterday and I’ve been waiting for enough of a frost for everything to go dormant so I can lift and store the summer bulbs. I have at least 10 pots of canna lillies and begonias to work on before a hard freeze.
MagdaInBlack
@satby: Last night Ruby the Giant Geranium came in for the winter. She has 11 huge red blooms, now gracing my living room. She will get pruned back when she’s done, and she will get dressed with flamingo mini lights for Christmas.
p.s. the Thanksgiving cactus has lots and lots of buds, and should pop just in time. It loves its summer on the balcony and always rewards me.
CCL
@satby: We are into the browns and russets also. Way behind in the fall cleanup…still have spring bulbs to plant…hopefully will get that done this week.
I still have my experiment of fall peas growing under fleece. Might actually get a few this week. I am also holding out that the last few peppers on the plants in containers that I moved to inside a protected space will ripen.
Otherwise, dahlias still need to be lifted, peonies cut back, veg garden put to bed, etc. etc. Fingers crossed that it can all get done before the ground freezes
ETA: Thank you for the photos of all the lovely autumn colors …I especially like the top and last ones with the river peaking through the leaves
HinTN
We are expecting the first freeze here tonight. The colors have been spectacular. The oaks have not been red like that beauty by the lake but they have been vibrant russet gold. The maples have been brilliant and the ginkgos are just getting right. Thanks for the tour of South Bend.
delphinium
@satby: Lovely photos! Fall is my favorite time of year as well. We had nice fall colors here, but with the high winds and rain that past week, most leaves are now on the ground.
My gauras and hydrangeas still have blossoms on them but don’t expect those to last much longer with the cold weather moving in this week.
Van Buren
Spent many hours yesterday bringing all the outdoor pots into the garage for the winter. Picked up one pot and a mouse ran off. Bummer to have to relocate in November.
satby
@CCL: I sent Anne Laurie a follow up email with the oaks Friday, because the vivid red and yellow to orange has been rare the last several years! I was just so delighted to see other than maples turn great colors 😀 Good luck on cleanup before a hard freeze, I’ll be racing right along with you in my yard.
@HinTN: Thanks. It’s been a brilliant fall and I feel so lucky to have enjoyed it for practically a whole month of color.
prostratedragon
Opinions differ on snow forecasts around here. Weather Channel says 3–5 inches tonight, while NOAA says 10–14. There’s a light dusting right now for the official first snow. The old bur oaks in my neighborhood in Chicago turned a lovlier gold than usual this year.
satby
@delphinium: I’ve never tried gaura in my garden, but looking it up, it’s native and will work in my zone. I’ll have to try some! My hydrangeas struggled this year even with supplemental watering. So they stopped blooming last month. Still need to prune them though.
O. Felix Culpa
Beautiful pix, satby! Fall is a magical time.
satby
@MagdaInBlack: @prostratedragon: Winter storm warnings for all our areas until Monday evening posted. The lake isn’t frozen, so lots of moisture to turn into snow.
J.
Those trees! Gorgeous!
jlowe
Heh. Closed up for the season. Lavenders have all been pruned back. Garden fabric over all of the raised beds and areas of turf we dug out this year, to keep the weeds down. Local cats are pissed that their awesome litter boxes are denied to them. Two years ago, we put down blue tarps to kill the grass and bindweed (fiercely competitive stuff) so the ground can be turned up next season for other uses. The microplastics in our dirt must be fierce, but lawns are invasive species! Everyone should be killing theirs and planting something more useful! Support your city parks if you want to touch grass! So, it’s not terribly pretty right now.
MagdaInBlack
@satby: Right now, from my 3rd floor perch, its very pretty. I’ll have a different opinion tomorrow morning drive time.
Trivia Man
I was watching the phone’s weather app and decided yesterday was a good day to take in my bulbs. Glads, dahlias, canna lilies.
I was very tempted to roll the dice but we just spent $120 on the dahlias this year so I’m being cautious.
They are set out to cure now, still haven’t decided where to keep them. I have no car hole, the shed will be too cold n Wisconsin winter, and no spot in the house stays below 60 all winter.
oldgold
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus
satby
@Trivia Man: Not even a cold spot in the basement? That’s where I put mine
Edit: if you have windows in the basement maybe in bages on the sill where the chill from the window will be cooler than the rest of the room?
Trivia Man
@satby: I do have a window that should be cooler, even though its the furnace room. How can i wrap them so they get no light? My plan was loosely wrapped in newspaper then in a paper bag.
Kosh III
Colors here were very nice but last weekend where I led a group hike on the Obed Wild and Scenic River National Park (100% protected) in Lancing Tn the colors were spectacular.
I have hiked there for years on the first Saturday of November and this year was the best colors in over 10 years.
Yesterday was clear, windless and 70+. I enjoyed sitting on the porch at 420 and enjoyed the mild weather.
Today, it was 54 at 6am, the high for the day, it’s windy AF and we expect 2 nights of a hard freeze and not above freezing until Tuesday afternoon.
They are also saying the dreaded S word.
MazeDancer
How beautiful! And just having to step outside is a nice bonus.
satby
@Trivia Man: My plan was loosely wrapped in newspaper then in a paper bag.
Sounds about perfect!
Gvg
They are predicting frost or down in the low 30’s doe 3 nights coming up. Unusual for Florida this early, so I wonder how the winter will go. It’s hard to believe. It was too hot for long pants and I changed to shorts when I went out to put the sprinkler on this morning. It’s been very dry, and rain predictions haven’t happened, so I have to water today. I have the house open for fresh air before cold weather. If we get the frost, then we may get some leaf change. I’ll have to do a drive next weekend and check. I used to think of ripening oranges as Floridas main fall color, but citrus greening on top of the earlier freezes have killed most of the groves. I miss them so. Shumard oaks and swamp maples are our best fall color. Some years the cypress trees are a gorgeous ginger color. There are also a bunch of hollies. The DOT has been planting lots of the Ilex vomitoria on the sides of roads and overpasses and the berries glow for about 3 months starting soon. They are just starting to color up and the berry set is so heavy, half the plants are red on good selections. I got a nice Holly for my birthday this year, a large on already5 foot high. It’s coloring now. I think it’s Oakleaf an hybrid with a lot of native opacity in it but not growing to the huge 30-50 feet that I don’t have room for.
The other fall color Floridians have discovered is a native grass called muhly grass. It’s not that common in the wild, but is now planted everywhere including highway medians. About 2 feet high with a nice texture when not in bloom, the blooms look like pink smoke or clouds and last maybe a couple of months. It’s really nice if you can plant it where the rising or setting sun comes through it. I love it, and appreciate that many other people do too including commercial landscaping. Much better than most popular choices. I wonder who made it popular? It seemed new 30 years ago and has grown in use, but I can’t find when it started. I know it wasn’t around before the native plant movement started. A lot of natives have been promoted but not taken off. This one didn’t seem to need promoting. It showed up, and worked so well that it was adopted everywhere and stayed popular.
StringOnAStick
@bjacques: My husband and I will be in Paris the first week of December, but I expect the leaves to be gone by then. The point of our trip is to go to as many gypsy jazz shows in the area of the Latin quarter as we can find in our brief visit, plus the musical instrument store north of town, an hour by train (they have a whole room of those specialized guitars). Looking forward to seeing your fair city!
StringOnAStick
@MagdaInBlack: My geraniums are still enjoying the covered porch, but they’ll be coming inside soon too. The multi shaded leaves of the Mrs. Cox variety are gorgeous but it can’t overwinter in the garage, too tender, so I end up giving over my craft/sewing table to 5 geraniums all winter because it’s the sunniest spot in the house. I put everyone in a bigger pot this year, so the table will be groaning, but I think the biggest one is going to get the Ruby treatment, what a good idea!
StringOnAStick
@satby: Gaura is a wonderful plant, those white blooms floating about everything else and they bloom for a very long time. Definitely get one!
StringOnAStick
@jlowe: We’ve done the “kill all the grass” thing several times now at each new house. It looks bad (and scares the neighbors) for a year or so, and then suddenly your yard is the talk of the ‘hood with all the flowering plants and hummingbirds.
Out city is trying to get people to replace the grass in their street strips with more xeric plants, and there are lovely examples throughout town now. It takes 30” of sprinkler water to keep grass alive here in the high desert of OR, and we don’t have the water supplies for that folly. No one plays on or uses street strips other than to look at, so it’s the perfect first step for cutting your water use. A well off friend is buying a new build in the fancy part of town, and sod is not allowed there, it’s all low water and native landscaping.
StringOnAStick
@Trivia Man: Do you have a crawl space you could store them in?
StringOnAStick
@Gvg: There’s a red muhly grass that is hardy here in Zone 5-6, so I made sure I got it in the backyard. I think I’ll get one for the top of the berm in the front yard too since I can now do custom water amounts based on the GPH volume of the emitter I give it. The watering system I removed and replaced in that area gives me a whole lot more flexibility without wasting a ton of water and encouraging weeds like sprinklers do.
Tehanu
Lovely! There’s a sycamore next door to us that has patches of red and yellow now and that gives me immense pleasure every time I open the front door. It’s just one tree, nothing like what you’re seeing, but we’re in Los Angeles so we take our autumn pleasures where we can.
Trivia Man
@StringOnAStick: sadly, no. Finished basement and I work from home down there so it is warmer than it might otherwise be. Unfinished attic but almost certainly too cold when winter hits for real. I put my thermometer remote sensor in the furnace room next to an old window, hoping it gets into the 50’s, despite being in the room with a furnace.