Why I Oughta...

I've long proclaimed myself to be a foliage gardener.  That's partially because I'm a shade gardener and partially because flowering plants have always been a little bit outside of my comfort zone.  But, I'm starting to think that I'm also *another* kind of gardener:  a Fall Gardener.  Or at least a late Summer + Fall Gardener.   The September and October Dahlia blooms this year have taught me to love that part of the growing season.  And now....as things are going dormant in our yard and garden, I'm struck by some things that are happening in Fall.   What are those things?  Here's one - below.  The EYE-SEARING gold that is coming from our Butterscotch Amsonias in our backyard that are contrasted by the dark green foliage of some Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas.  This color is borderline shocking.  It is a little hard to see, but if you look closely, there are a couple of other things worth noting in this photo.  First....the small Emperor 1 Japanese Maple (Acer Pa

Last Fall, I planted a singular cypress conifer called Lemon Thread False Cypress in the backyard by the Hornbeam trees .  It has mostly just gotten along without much attention, so I decided to add something similar to the front yard - IB2DWs - Conifer Garden:  a Golden Mop False Cypress.  Chamaecyparis pisifera.  They're similar...but I'm learning they're different in some ways.  From Oregon State  University, I'm seeing that Golden Mop is a 'true dwarf' : ‘Golden Mop’ - it is a mutation of ‘Filifera Aurea’ and a true dwarf, to 1 m, with more intense yellow. I've planted in a full sun, so I'm sure hoping that we get some of that 'intense yellow' and based on what I'm reading (below) in Midwest Garden Tips, I think we have a winner with Golden Mop.  From MGT: The dramatic foliage of the ‘Golden Mop’ is bright yellow green with a feathery, almost stringy appearance. The glowing gold foliage creates a lovely accent to deeper green conifers.

Another post for the [ fall show ] file here on the blog - but this one features a native tree that I've grown really fond of over the past few growing seasons:  our large Catalpa tree.  I last posted about this tree this past Summer , but when I was out on a walk around the garden recently, I noticed that the tree was putting on a nice, yellow show.  See below for the leaf color in early November 2021: Our Walnut trees have mostly dropped all of their leaves, but this Catalpa is still holding on (for now).  I've begun to look around the Web to try to figure out how to sow some Catalpa seeds and it seems that I need to leave the pods on the tree - have them cold stratify outside on the tree - and then pick and plant the seeds in the Spring.  Just like I did with the Kentucky Coffee tree seeds this Spring .

Some of our hostas - that the rabbits haven't gotten to yet - are putting on a nice Fall show of yellows and oranges.  First...below...you can spy the Christmas Tree hosta that is planted by the large Northern Red Oak tree swing tree.   Interesting combination of orange, yellow and green that shows the perennial in a state of transition.  Really like how this one looks in late Fall. On the other side of the backyard, a different hosta is going from green to yellow underneath the Greenspire Linden trees that are espalier'd into a horizontal cordon. After reading this piece in the NYT from Margaret Roach entitled: Take A Walk In The Garden Before It's Too Late - I've done just that:  gotten out and walked around most mornings to simply observe the changing season.  One of my 2022 to-do's is to focus on a four-season garden with Fall being one of the seasons I *know* I need to focus on if I want to extend the garden past the hot Summer season.

Depositing a photo here in the [ garden diary ] of the mid-bed-planted trio of Amsonia Butterscotch that I planted earlier this Spring after buying them from the Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale.  These three plants are planted in between a row of Fanal Astilbes and some Oakleaf Hydrangeas.  These are/were billed as being "garden stars" during the Fall , so I thought I'd share what they look like in early Fall.  You can see them below: They're just starting to turn from green to yellow, so we're getting to that 'show', but the fine-nature of the foliage is certainly striking.  I'm excited to see these continue to grow up and out.  I planted them widely spaced , hoping to see them each get about 24" tall and 2-3' wide.   Excited to tuck them in for the Winter after they put on their show and sure hope they come back in Spring for year two.

The past few days, I've added some entries to my garden diary showing off some late Summer growth on  our Dawn Redwood tree ,   our front-yard Bald Cypress tree  and most recently the hedge of Hicks upright yews .   The Summer has been hot and dry.  And, therefore, it hasn't been all good news for the yard.  In the photo at the top, you can see some of the foliage of our London Planetree.  It is clearly stressed.  A good portion of the tree is going yellow - and it is just early September.  The history of this tree - which I call the Grampy tree: Bought in April (during lockdown) on an early am run to Home Depot with some birthday money from Nat's Gramp y. Got around to planting it in May.  And it was immediately stressed due to the transplant .   It recovered and leaf'd out again this Summer.  I've tried to water it a bit, but have not paid nearly enough attention to this tree - and it shows.  Here, below, is another look at the yellow leaves.  Also,

Back in May of this year, I shared my plans to plant some Dahlia tubers directly in the ground in one of our landscape beds along the south property line.  That post is here .   In that post, I described the two varieties - one being a semi-cactus and the other being a dinner plate. Specifically I planted three Big Brother Dinner plate Dahlias . And, I planted three Color Spectacle Semi-Cactus Dahlia s. Please go click those links.  And make sure my eyes aren't fooling me.  They're both orange, right?  Like, totally orange.  The packages of both show orange flowers.  And...I love orange flowers.  Well, I like orange most things.  But, have a special soft-spot for orange flowers.  Now, scroll back to the top of this post.  That's a couple of the Big Brother Dinner plate flowers about to burst open.  And now, check out the photo below.  That's one of the Color Spectacle flowers starting to open up. They're, ummm, not orange.  Right?  Those are tota