FALL FOLIAGE AND BERRIES END OF SEASON PICS!!

No Gita, I haven't submitted anything or looked at the pics at all. Just too much going on here right now. Have to try and check them out.

Sorry, it is way too time consuming for me to be interested in right now.
I understand it is fun for people to get their pictures into a contest. But I would rather have some sort of quality control. I'm personally not interested in looking through any old picture someone can send to find those gems that are there. I bet there are some fabulous pictures there like every year.
I did look at one category, forgot which.

I can understand the sideways and upside down pics. I had that happen to me a time or two when it looked right in preview but turned somehow when posted. But really you would think that blurry pics would be noticed before you post them. I don't post from a phone so maybe when the pic is smaller on the phone you think they look alright but when enlarged they aren't.

I like the option to see thumbnails of the whole category at once.. that way I'm not clicking on the blurry or obviously unappealing (at least to me) ones one at a time. Good reminder to enjoy browsing through them and picking my favorites over the next week!

Whenever I post pics from my Iphone, they post crooked. Yesterday I posted some and previewed, again crooked, then deleted them and re-uploaded them and they were straight. So weird...

I hate blurry photos though. You may as well not even post them if they are going to be blurry. Some people have shaky hands though so maybe that's the best they can do.

The Trumpet Vine is changing to yellow and putting on a nice Fall display.
One of the Chrysanthemums

Beautiful! The vine is so full that I thought it was a tree when I saw the 1st photo.

I've been going through all the contest photos and only have the annuals/perennials left, which is by far the biggest. Amazed to see snails in the insect category! I did notice the sideways and upside down ones. Lots of great photos, but also some that were not hard to pass on.

well, there's no "invertebrates" category, so "insects" might have been the next closest thing for snails. I also tend to look for photos that are a good size/orientation for calendar shots... really prefer landscape orientation for that purpose.

WOW has that trumpet vine grown!

Bottlebrush buckeye coming into its own agewise and seasonwise golden yellow. Amybody need a buckeye nut? I get embarrassed with them hanging from the shrub at a cetain stage. Local dogwood for red and a volunteer oak that placed itself to my liking behind them but is being a jerk with some weird thing going on in the trunk near the top. I cant get a decent pic so wont try for diagnosis.

Do furry animals enjoy the buckeye nuts? Why do you get embarrassed that the nuts are hanging on the shrub? LOL

Sally, does your buckeye sucker? I'm on the lookout for "understory" shrubs/trees, and that would be spectacular in bloom. Our VV posted a rave review in PF and mentioned its attractiveness to bees, BFs, HBs. :-) Comments in PF indicate seed should be very fresh (no drying out) and moist stratified over winter. Maybe I could ask you to stick a few in moist sand/perlite and put them in the fridge (or freezer?) for me (& anybody else who might want them)... ? Or if Mark will give you a hard time about that, you could send me some... a BE should keep them from drying out.

Nice fall color!

I'll take some buckeye nuts. Leaving them outside until seed swap time should be okay, shouldn't it, as long as the squirrels don't make off with them?

I enjoy the judging of the pictures.
I like to use the full-size approach so i can see all the details.

My deciding whether to skip or keep happens in a flash. I either
like it-or I don't. If anyone were sitting next to me ans I could speak the reason why I am skipping a picture, I could tell easily tell you.
Here are some of my "skip this one" reasons:

-not in the category
-picture sideways or upside down
--Out of focus--HUH? You submitted it? A big problem this year !!
-Woud you see this if the picture was not full size? ??
-It has your cute kid or pet in it...gone!
-Super Macros--like the inside of a bloom. Can't tell what you are looking at.
-Main topic objecis 'lost" among too much of something else
-Picture is not framed right--too much open space--too much space on top or bottom...
-Photographer had NO clue about formatting the subject in the field.
-Picture is too long...(I too think of how it could fit in a calendar).
-Picture has been, obviously, photo-shopped.
-last one--It just doesn't do anything for me! It has to "pop" in my eyes!

OK! Will go do a couple more categories to get this done...
The sunsets and sunrises are SO hard to judge. They are all pretty!

G.

Gita, you have written a nice complete guide to judging, I'd say!

Jill, Muddy- I'll put some nuts into a pot of moist soil and let nature take its course over winter. I had some potted from last year, but haven't seen any action- maybe I let them dry out.

But I also have two rooted stems already working for sharing. I've previously given one to Happy, and another to David. It doesn't sucker, not like the OMG-suckering Calycanthus, but it does make low stems that are easy to place under a rock for rooting.

As a young un, it is lanky and loose. It's taken years to fill out and start blooming ( but I barely fertilize, might have slowed it down.). Needs a BIG place. That is six feet tall and prob 8 feet wide, or more. I don't know if anything will eat the nuts. Too much tannic acid or something to be human-edible.

Thanks, Sally.

Sally, that should do the trick, maybe even use a "winter sowing" container if you have something handy to keep the nuts from drying out? if that doesn't work out, I'll get some nuts from you next fall and stratify them artificially. I know Greenthumb does a lot of stratifying in baggies in the fridge, whereas I try to get seeds into winter sowing containers... I'm pretty sure he has a more steady rate of success!

I stuffed a few wild plums (small whole fruits) into a pot last month... we'll see how that works out. The tree itself grew a root out the bottom of its pot and sideways (under the walkway)... we're going to try to pry it out of there once it drops its leaves.

I think I've read that squirrels, chipmunks, etc. like buckeye nuts... just as with acorns, guess they don't mind the tannic acid!

Boy, if I'd known anyone in the Mid-Atlantic Forum was interested in Bottlebrush Buckeye, I wouldn't have given away the 300+ seeds I collected this year, and I could've brought dozens of rooted stems to broadcast along the highways and byways of VA/MD/DE/NJ/PA while on my trip this past week.

I head your way again next late April/early May. Place your orders ahead of time...

Well, there ya go!

Should have noted, mine was under high shade of a Maple until last fall too. I see VV's is enjoying a place in the sun. Maple is gone so mine should prosper.

Hmm, maybe I can sneak some buckeyes into the edge of the stormwater containment thingy being dug behind Martina's house...

VV, just how many shrubs/starts are you willing to tote? LOL Maybe we should be talking about a group buy with you as the vendor, even if it means I have to trek out to KY (oh, darn). Do you have a website that you could Dmail me? I'd love to window-shop if nothing else, bet I could learn a ton just from your plant descriptions. (Actually, I'm not sure if you're really a nurseryman or just a really REALLY dedicated hobbyist, but I'm assuming you're in the business.)

You all have me interested in this buckeye! I have read online that squirrels and chipmunks do enjoy the seeds. I could plant it near the Calycanthus you gave me Sally. That would be a nice pairing I think. I would be interested in some starts VV.