Mid-October - The Show Continues

The deeper we fall in Fall, the more I'm pleased with how my garden is performing. Plants that shine at just this time of year continue to prove their worth.
The foliage of oakleaf hydrangea 'Sike's Dwarf' is brighter than ever, slowly turning from deep burgundy to flaming red.

Next to it, Fothergilla 'Mount Airy' is now golden with purple and scarlet highlights.

From the back steps, the view takes in Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate' with its fuzzy white flowers and the still-blooming Aconitum 'Arendsii' behind it. Dying peony leaves, fresh growth on lovage (Levisticum officinale), a few rose hips on Rosa gallica 'Versicolor' and a second crop of flowers on a globe thistle (Echinops ritro) fill the foreground. (Wait! Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate' has now been reclassified as Ageratina altissima 'Chocolate'.)

Wisps of mosquito grass still fill the urn, flanked by a clipped silvery sage and Aster lateriflorus 'Lady in Black'. (Wait! The aster is now Symphyotrichum lateriflorum 'Lady in Black', thanks to those clever taxonomists who never settle for a two-syllable name if they can change it to a five-syllable one.)

There's even a single flower cluster on Astrantia 'Roma', reminding me to add some fall interest to the bed it's in, where it is the only contributor right now.

The front garden is more sedate, although Japanese maple Acer 'Waterfall' is doing its best to add some interest, backed by Sedum 'Autumn Joy' whose flowers, as I've mentioned in an earlier post, have struggled to maintain their colour in this year's unseasonal heat.

An echoing bright spark across the path comes from the last leaves of Begonia grandis rising over the polished dark green of Beesia calthifolia, which will remain shiny and fresh all through the winter. The splash of red comes from the underside of one of the begonia's fallen leaves.