Fall's come early this year

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Not much to say here, snapped this picture of this maple today showing some nice late fall colour relatively early this year. Can't see it so clearly here but many of the leaves have already dropped. This tree us usually early compared to other maples, it's in a dry spot on a steep slope in clay soil with baking sun.

November colour pictures

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Wandered around at work today taking shots with my phone of things that caught my eye. Problem with writing a post after a day away from work at this time of year is that you can come back to find plants that looked great have now lost their leaves but new plants will usually be there to take their place. Sorry for the crappy shots but as mentioned I was shooting with my phone. They get the point across though.



Malus (Crabapple) 'Red Jewel'

Very nice Crabapple - stays fairly compact and has nice white flowers & green leaves. A refreshing change in a world of dark pink on purple crabapples. There are few plants that can compete with a mature crabapple in November, especially one like this.



Hamamelis virginiana (Common Witchhazel)

I'd never been a huge fan of these. Noticed some wire-basket sized shrubs maybe 6' tall in full flower though and they certainly got the point across fast. Nice plants.



Cornus alba 'Elegantissima' (Silverleaf Dogwood)

Very common variety but I'd say it deserves to be common. You've got true 4 season interest from this plant - variegated leaves, flowers in spring, berries in late summer, nice fall colour and red stems that will look great all winter.



Cornus alba 'Bud's Yellow'

More dogwoods. What can I say, I'm a fan. This is slightly less exciting through most of the year but looks great through winter.



Acer platanoides

Again not a huge Norway Maple fan and was disappointed this morning to see that almost all of them actually had dropped their leaves... Found this one on my way home from work though - I guess maybe it's a little more sheltered from the wind than many others?



Euonymus fortunei 'Emerald N Gold' (and sometimes hot pink)

Nice colour. Don't like this one during the summer (more a fan of the larger leaved varieties like 'Canadale Gold' & 'Country Gold' but I've yet to see them come close to the colour of 'Emerald N Gold.' Apparently these are delicious for deer.

More pictures to come later in the week probably of more similar but fewer leaves. Maybe Friday. Things are winding down outside and I can't say I've got much going on inside either right now so I'm going to pace myself a little more but still aim for a decent number of posts.

November!

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Well I suppose this will be a brief update but something anyway. It is November now and some strong winds a few nights ago have knocked the leaves off almost all trees and a good number of shrubs are looking pretty bare now too.

A few trees and shrubs I've noticed still going strong for leaf colour:

Pyrus calleryana (Ornamental Pear) - Will get a picture tomorrow.

Quercus robur Fastigiata (Pyramidal English Oak) - some have already turned their winter brown but others are still showing off their yellow fall colour.

Acer platanoides - (Not a fan of this tree) Norway maples are still holding onto their yellow leaves while most of the more attractive A. rubrum, A. x Freemanii, & Acer saccharum have already dropped theirs.

Viburnum spp. - Have noticed good colour on V. plicatum 'Marisii,' V. lantana, V. judii, V. x juddii & V. x carlcephalum (Fragrant Snowball). V. trilobum is slightly more confusing - at work they all dropped their leaves long ago but one planted near my house has barely changed colour but when it does it will be great as well. Most Viburnums seem to look great fairly late into fall.

Juniper spp. - Mainly spreaders such as 'Blue Chip' (Blue spreader turns blue-purple in fall/winter - most blue junipers take this colour on to at least some degree which looks good on spreaders but not so great on upright junipers) and 'Compact Andorra' (Green spreader turns reddish in fall).

Euonymus alatus (burning bush)/E. fortunei ("Euonymus") - The former may or may not have lost its leaves depending on how much wind they've gotten but the latter should (being mostly evergreen) still have their leaves... in their case though they may or may not have fall colour. Have seen some nice pinks and purples on some of these though.

Spirea spp. - depends a lot on variety but most are looking their best now - 'Thor' and 'Snow Storm' which I wrote about earlier have list their leaves but others are still going strong. Recently added to my personal favourite list for Spireas is 'Snowmound' for its upright/arched branching and good fall colour.

Will follow up with pictures + Plants with berries & bark.

Fall highlights

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Mostly the classics here. I may have missed the boat on some of the less common ones which have already dropped their leaves - I'll see what I can do for something more interesting for another post.



Spirea betulifolia 'Thor'

'Thor' Spirea is a fantastic plant. Grows about 24" tall by 24-36" wide, white flowers on moderately large blue green leaves through the summer turning intense orange/red in the fall. Similar but larger is Spiraea x media Snow Storm™ - also has white flowers on blue green leaves but turns slightly more purple in the fall but gets around 3-4' tall, 4' wide. Probably my prefered spirea but with limited space 'Thor' is an easy alternative.



Acer sp.

Honestly haven't taken a close enough look at this tree to figure out what type of maple it is... I'll basically though just use this space to say that if you want a maple it's not a Norway Maple! Here at least they rarely get any fall colour to speak of (sometimes yellow-brown) and are always plagued by Tar Spot. Instead look for a nice Acer rubrum cultivar, Acer x freemanii 'Autumn Blaze' is always stunning, or Acer saccharum for a slower growing but also beautiful tree.



Miscanthus sinensis 'Graziella' & Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster'



Miscanthus sinensis 'Huron Sunrise'

Ornamental grasses are not only great in fall but some such as Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' are really nice during the summer as well. Most will look good through the winter as well. My Miscanthus purpurascens did not turn red last year or this year or I'd love to say it's nice but so far it's been a disappointment. Nicest Miscanthus in my books probably goes to 'Graziella' for nicest texture, 'Morning Light' wins for best leaves in general having a similar texture to 'Graziella' but with white margins on the narrow leaf but has been moderatly slow to establish and has not yet flowered this year (the flowers are very nice on it so I wish it would bloom!), 'Huron Sunrise' is my favourite for flower colour, though there are many others with similar colours. Mostly I'm just not a fan of Zebra-type or broad leaved variegated Miscanthus cultivars ('Cabaret' etc).



Sedum

Not sure which one this is. Don't really care. They're generally nice and new varieties are popping up all the time. I use them in landscaping but don't know that I could dedicate that much space to one... Maybe a more dwarf purple leaf one like 'Xenox' (I've grown and really like this one!). Biggest thing I like about them is that unlike some of the fall plants like the hot season grasses Sedum will be one of the first plants growing in the spring.