FALL FOLIAGE AND BERRIES END OF SEASON PICS!!

Rose with a late flush of blooms.

Blanket flowers. What a fantastic re bloomer!

Sweet potato vines and EE.

My neighbor's hydrangea draping beautifully over onto my side. I'm not complaining. :)

Petunias still going strong!

beautiful!

Fall is still strutting down here at the Valley...

**Cladrastis kentuckea

**Viburnum dentatum Cardinal™

**Liriodendron tulipifera 'Arnold'

**Taxodium mucronatum

**Aesculus parviflora 'Rogers'

SS--Pic. #4 in the 1st set---

Your neighbor's Hydrangea draping over the fence is the one i so wanted to buy
at my HD and missed the chance. It is a "Pee Gee Hydrangea".

The bloom clusters are white earlier in the summer--then slowly start turning pale pink..
.then darker and darker--until you have this amazing, deep rose in all the clusters.

You can cut these and dry them for arrangements.

Lucky YOU!!! Gita

I will, once again, put out a plea here for you all using nothing but Horticultural
names of plants. PLEASE--add the common names....will Ya????

I know I am not the only one who does not know what you are talking about!!!

It would be nice IF--as you add your beautiful pictures--I could know what it is.

Thanks, Gita

Lovely sights, VV
Liriodendron that isn't just yellow, who knew? I think the common ones turn yellow around here
Make that Tax 'OH!' dium- striking!

That Cladrastis kentuckea is stunning! Gorgeous fall color, fragrant beautiful flowers, not too tall...in short, a perfect tree.

I want one. How would it do in our area, VV? I've never seen it growing around here.

This message was edited Nov 2, 2014 9:31 PM

Wow, another mystery busted!!! My Dad always told me the sumac along the road was poison! From what I read on Wikipedia on the 3, it seems that would be untrue. The sumac I see along the roads and highways, must be smooth sumac or staghorn. Ugh! I hate just now discovering that something I've believed for years is untrue. Oh well, he probably didn't know any better and it probably kept me safer by avoiding it all. Thanks for giving me info.

Yes, my neighbor has two very mature Pee Gee hydrangeas. One is tree form and this is the other one.

Do you know how to preserve the blooms? Is there a spray that I could buy at a craft store?

I'd never heard of Cladrastis kentuckea before. What a beauty!

ssg, I hope you get to enjoy all that color for awhile longer! It's supposed to get down to 35 tonight; I'm wondering what my annuals will look like tomorrow.

I'm impressed by your blanket flower's performance! Do you know which Gaillardia species it is? I bought a Gaillardia 'Mesa Yellow' this summer, and it was a huge disappointment. It might have been a little diseased when I bought it, but it did okay for a few months and then died.

Muddy, I think it's Gaillardia 'Arizona Apricot.' It was planted only about 2-3 months ago. Stays very short.

Sequoia, you're welcome! Maybe your dad grew up in an area where there was Poison Sumac. At a distance, it does look similar to other Sumacs.

I didn't know how bad Poison Sumac was until I read this: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/3940/

Sumacs have such beautiful fall color. I would keep the 2 volunteers in my yard if I had a large sunny area to let them spread in.

Seq, I feel bad correcting your dad. But like you said, he wanted you to not suffer.

Poison sumac sounds really bad. I don't think I've ever been exposed. But I used to play in woods including swampy places where we found tadpoles, and have had some fabulous poison ivy cases, or thought poison ivy. I know I react to P I. But mangoes are no problem.

Cladastrus might not like our lack of limestone, our acid soil...?

Man, if only I wasn't so afraid of sumac when I was planting our large shrub garden!

Re Cladastris (Kentucky yellowwood) for Mid At-
I tried checking the National Arboretum State Trees planting. They used Coffeetree which used to be the KY tree, then KY switched to Liriodendron (Tulip poplar) KY legislators aren't giving any love to Cladastris!

I think you're right; it probably doesn't do well in our area. The sites I looked at made it clear that it was native to just a few areas in the U.S., all in Kentucky as I recall.

Oh well, I don't really have a sunny area large enough for it, especially if I want to be able to see the other things I've already planted.

Seq, did I hear you say that you would love to have the Sumac volunteers from my yard??

Spell Czech on sallyg - I think you're up to at least six different versions.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/177894/

Here is the extremely displeased "I wish I was somewhere else, entirely" Cladrastis kentukea in May 2014 at the State Arboretum of Virginia in Winchester VA - not entirely unlike some of your growing conditions in the Mid-Atlantic region.

haha clearly I am not familiar with cladas...cladras... Yellowwood! I'll stick with my Cornus, Cercis, and Calycanthus. Two of those volunteer easily for me.

Ok then, I can see why our local garden centers don't stock Cladrastis kentukea!

I thought at first that the 2 sides of the tree were in the middle of a geographic separation (I'm staying! Well, I'm leaving!!), but then I spotted the 2 large branch stubs in the middle.

Muddy, DM sent..

A deer destroyed one of my Ilex 'Sparkleberry' shrubs last night. I think a buck was rubbing its antlers against it. I don't understand why it picked that shrub instead of one of my 2" caliper trees, but I'm trying to be grateful that it did. I'll post a photo a little later.

I did my best to protect my young trees and other shrubs against another attack tonight because I expect that it will come back.

Any deciduous holly worth its salt (and at least a halfway established root system) will not be deterred by mere buck rubs.

Expect it to rebound with vigorous new growth next spring, fraught with fresh flowers from whence fabulous fruit flows forth.

Oh man, those darned deer! I guess his antlers itched....LOL

Hopefully it bounces back like VV says!

Jeff--

Have you considered trying Milorganite around your shrubs to keep deer away?
Besides--it is a gentle, organic, Eco-friendly fertilizer.

I know it won't help 100%--but may deter them a bit.

We did talk about this product a lot a way back. Right?
$12.78 for a 35lb. bag at the HD. In the lawn fertilizer aisle.

G.

Yeah G, I use Milorganite for the rabbits in the spring around bulbs until the daff foliage is large enough to keep them at bay. I don't have a deer problem though. I'm sure there are some about but I don't think I'd ever see one in our yard.

Thanks for your encouraging words, VV. The shrub is still rooted, but there is so much damage (on top of browse damage done last year) that I think I'll buy another Sparkleberry and plant it right next to it. Otherwise, it will look terrible for years to come.

I don't know whether the buck was just trying to rub against it, or was treating it as a competing male that needed to be destroyed, but whatever the case, it broke off most of the stems. Those piles of branches on the ground are the remains.

At least collect the "cut stems" for use in dried indoor holiday arrangements. Deciduous holly fruit can retain color and stem attachment for over a year in dry vases or laid on a mantle.

No sense crying over spilt 'Sparkleberry' - make merry instead.

Those berries are beautiful, Muddy, I see why you're disappointed.

I hadn't thought about using the berries as decorations. I could also put them in the backyard for birds to enjoy.

Let the birds enjoy the ones that will continue to ripen. You ought to take the dismembered parts for yourself.

Trivia info - bucks rub to remove the velvet from their antlers and to mark an area. Over the many years of living in the woods, they've pretty much left the trees and shrubs that I planted in the garden alone. They completely destroyed two things that I bought though - a native magnolia and a pretty yellow magnolia cultivar. Both were young first year in the ground specimens - so disappointing...

Oh that IS a bummer! Yellow mags are gorgeous!

I'm sorry to hear that, Aspen. I wonder whether deer particularly like Magnolias.
Here are before and after shots of a Magnolia 'stellata' that someone planted in the forest. I think a deer rubbed its antlers against or attacked it.

Fortunately, deer haven't yet gone after my male/female combo Ilex 'Apollo'/'Sparkleberry' shrub. I'm not sure I could find a replacement for it because it seems like a fluke that someone stuck some of each shrub in the same pot.

Does anyone here know if deer eat Fig trees? Or nibble on them?

I am asking b/c my neighbor Olga's son said he would take my 3' Fig
I grew from a cutting, but he would plant it on his, yet uninhabited, property
out in the boondocks. They will move there in a bout a year

I told him that it HAS TO be planted in the ground NOW--and he has to
protect it really well for the winter. He said he would put a fence around it.
I suggested he dump some straw of dried leaves inside that fence as well .

SO--do the dear chew on Fig trees????? Thanks, Gita

Here is the candidate. approx. 2 1/2' 'tall (without the pot) It is now 2 years old.

Did you see all the other Fig Cuttings I just started???? Like--17 of them!
I have 2 of these containers full.

Olga's cousin, Luis. from Spain was here and he cut the growth on her stump
back to two mail stems. Luis is an amazingly involved and knowledgeable
expert in gardening--mostly iris. He belongs to all kinds of Iiris Societies.
We had long, interesting conversations...re gardening in general,

Gita

ooops! I forgot the picture!

Here is one of the containers with the Fig Cuttings in them.

If they all make it--I will be in deep doo--doo.. Geesh! 17 of them!!!

Doing this just for fun. G.

Deer will eat anything if they're hungry enough. I say he should give it a try. There might be enough vegetation for the deer in the boonies.

I didn't like how sparse my Fothergilla 'Mt. Airy' looked, so I solved the problem by buying 2 new ones to fill in. They're much fuller than the others; here's one of them.

The new ones are just starting to change color. I hope all of my Fothergillas will change at the same time next year.

I think you will like how your Fothergilla will grow in and perform.

Here are examples from Brookside Gardens in late April 2013 when visited by a gaggle of MAF DGers...

boy, those are loaded with bloom!

Just beautiful.