Leaves

Every year about this time I go nuts on leaves. Coloured leaves, that is. Here is a collage of some:

And here is a shot of one of the perks of Autumn - something that re-blooms late, giving an unexpected bonus of colour: 

This is Campanula rotundifolia, Harebell. The background, although it is hard to tell from the picture, is an outcropping of pink granite. Harebells seed themselves all over, usually in better places than the gardener might have thought of. This particular plant has come through several nights of frost and is still going strong.

OK, there's a metaphor there and I get it.

The autumn colours have been spectacular this year.... there have been all kinds of surprise re-blooms (coneflowers in October???)..... I'm mulling over a whole range of changes for next year. Hard to do anything now, for one thing I can't see where anything is because of the fallen  leaves and the fact that some plants are completely dormant; for another, I don't want to spear too many daffodil bulbs. But, come Spring, there'll be a hot time in the ol' town....

United Colours of Autumn

The foliage colours this year are just amazing! These are the trees at the entrance to my Sampler garden. The Maples just glow against the background of still-green birches and oaks.

At the base of the Rock Garden one Maple is particularly red:

I always like the fall colours best when there is still a lot of green to set off the yellows and reds. I did quite a bit of driving around today, doing chores, and everywhere the trees were magnificent. This is still a farming area, so the country is a patchwork of corn and soybean fields, pastures and woods. Many of the trees are still green, making the yellow, orange and red ones really stand out.

 It occurred to me, looking across a rust-red soybean field to a line of yellow and orange maples, that this is the true Canadian Mosaic!