Fall is around the corner... photos?

This is a small part of the backyard, showing the storage shed in back. The bush on the left is a Meyer lemon, you can see a few lemons ripening. Pelargoniums are evergreen perennials here; a variegated dark-leafed variety and 'Occold Gold' are both showing their red flowers along the gravel path. The rest is just foliage - a frothy coleonema 'Breath of Heaven' which will be in spectacular bloom by next April; a variegated euonymus that picks up the same yellow as the 'Occold Gold' pelargonium in front of it; lots of spikey bearded iris foliage, and a plain green pelargonium that has pure white flowers. They hide a purple blooming trailing lantana that remains in bloom all year long, every day. I like two things about this bed: it's totally xeric, living on runoff 6 mos. of the year, and it looks just as nice from above where I look down at it from my kitchen window.

I think I posted this in another thread but I can't remember which forum it was. I reworked this north-facing bed because the specimen Japanese Maple in it died during a severe freeze three years ago. I replanted the exact same variety because I love how the dark red leaves set off the rest of the bed. You can see how close our houses are - my neighbor is only 10' away, and that is their sidewalk to the back yard. A bearded iris is blooming, and the white narcissus in front of the calla leaves, has already sent up flower stalks.

Beautiful as always, jkom. You've probably said a few hundred times, but how long have you been working on these gardens?

Thank you, pagancat - we installed the garden in phases. Front yd and sunny side (where the roses are) was done in early 2002. The north shaded side yard was done late 2002. The first half of the backyard was completed in 2003. The last half of the backyard had its hardscape installed in late 2004 and was planted in spring 2005, so all of it is pretty recent.

Wow, it looks like it's been there forever; I guess it's the good California sunshine, huh? OH, and a little planning, maybe.... >smile< ...

jkom, very nice indeed

fall display

Our woods is almost done

its spose to be nice today

this is my favorite tree,it is just before our driveway,we drive under it everyday,it was not a bright red this year,we had early frost .Lots of people will ask is that maple tree turning yet,it is a bit of a land mark around here ,our road is a very senic drive,all our colors are mostly russets now,took this shot 5 days ago,tree is naked now

hoping to go for a ride today

Beautiful shots, huggergirl!

Pretty Bikes, love the colors on both.
Fall pic asre great, as usal.
My Iris is blooming. Took this awhile ago.
I think it is a Superstition.
Charleen

Thanks everyone,it was a pretty fall this year mild weather,was trying to get a christmas photo,too much sun, made me squinty eyes !!

Acer griseum with its bark showing!
The leave have not turned there true colour, lost a lot in the storm.
Regards.
Neil.

NEIL, that is beautiful.Heres a sunrise a few days ago,our leaves are all done now,still having mild weather,wet but 10 degrees above normal,spose to get cold soon,aarrgg !!!

Well I hope this one is not blurry,I hate that Iam not sure why they are not in focus ,better read the book,fairly new camera !!!

My liitle Acer outside rhe Kitchen door, through the Autumn sunshine.
Regards.
Neil.

very Nice,I love close ups !!!

We're still having mild autumn weather - can you believe it? I have 'Silverado' iris blooming on November 29!

My clematis is also still blooming!

And the leaf color on the Oak Leaf Hydrangea ("Snow Queen") is more brilliant than I've ever had in the past.

How pretty! I wonder if your Silverado will bloom again next spring.

I hope so, it's a heavy bloomer in the spring.

I'm having some strange occurrences here, too. This is a picture of my winter-blooming Camellia and in the background you see my Knockout Roses still going strong.

Here's a picture of a Hosta bloom taken yesterday.

I do hope your Silverado will get up from its Winter nap refreshed and ready for an abundant Spring!

Leawood ,we too are still having mild weather, a lot of things are still looking good,almost kind of scary ,I took this pic a week ago,still have red,pink,peach verbeena blooming

some more of the kale I planted

Wow, I can't believe you have clematis blooming still - that's amazing! Mine blooms once in the spring and then - pfffftt, it's gone until next year. A really puny show compared to the evergreen and wildly vigorous passiflora that sits across from it on the other side of the arbor.

We have been getting some chilly nights (although our days are in the 70's; the soil never freezes here although we get a few nippy frosts). I'm excited because I actually have some real 'fall color' photos to post this year! Some years it stays so mild I hardly get any color at all; the leaves just wither and fall off without any show. But this year the garden has put on a very nice show.

I love the dark red 'Emperor 1' Japanese maple. It has a graceful layered shape and is a vigorous grower. It also holds its color a bit longer than the traditional 'Bloodgood' variety. Here you can see how the dark red leaf color is turning into the more brilliant bright red from the cold nights:

I'm hoping as this tree gets older the shape will improve - right now it looks like a bad haircut day, LOL! This is the second year in the ground for this 'Sango Kaku' Japanese maple. Both years, warm temps in October/Nov have confused this plant into throwing out late green growth at the tops. But most of the tree is getting ready to pack it in for the winter:

We have a 'trash' silver maple in the backyard. They're not good trees for CA, for it seldom gets cold enough to spur the tree into turning those really vivid colors other regions get to enjoy. On the good side, we can grow plants outdoors like this jade plant, that are houseplants elsewhere! This year we got a few brilliant red leaves from the silver maple, and one of them got caught in the jade plant:

Although Liquidambars (sweetgum) are now discouraged as urban trees due to their 'pavement lifter' roots, I decided to try one of the few smaller varieties, Liquidambar styraciflua 'Variegata'. I've been very happy with this tree and its growth has been impressive. Because of the rich compost and regular watering it got early on, this specimen may well overshoot its average height of 35'. I keep my garden on very little summer water; so far it seems to have worked as the roots have grown deep rather than wide/shallow. In the 7 yrs it has been in the ground, there have been no seedlings, so it may be sterile.

Because many of the leaves stay green, the tree is very colorful right now. Cold gives a pink or red tinge to the leaves, which otherwise just turn a bright yellow before falling off. Here's a composite photo of the tree in its entirety, plus two close-ups of the leaf colors:

Jkom, those are some nice colors. I really like the rich red of the JM.

Jkom,very nice,the reason many of us that live in the midwest are experiencing some plants reblooming is because we had a cold snap that lasted a couple of weeks then it warmed up and stayed warm ,I have mother of thyme reblooming , it blooms early summer,also my red plox halfheartedly rebloomed also.Its going to be 50 and sunny today,but this may be the end of the warm weather.Here is shot of my $2 rose bush,it still has 30 buds on it ,been cutting them and floating them in a bowl of water.This crazy weather has everything confused

Winter Solstice just arrived (11:30 this morning). Here's a view of the border garden as we start the winter.

Wow that looks so nice and clean.... I would hate for anyone to see a pic of my gardens at this time
Veronica

Hahaha! Carpe Diem!

We had a day of 55 degree weather last Thursday, so I spent the afternoon cleaning up leaves and cutting back perennials so everything is ready for winter. Let's see, it was 18 degrees on Tuesday and 55 on Thursday - is it any wonder plants have trouble growing in zone 5b?

Lea,ABSOLUTELY ,it finally got cold here and has been for 2-3 weeks,we now have a bit of snow cover,I was lucky too and got of late clean up done.

Well the "blizzard" wasn't quite as severe as they predicted in the Kansas City area, but we still got several inches of snow overnight. Here's what my tree in the front yard looked like at 6:45 am Christmas morning.

Aw, what a cool photo!