October Colours

Fall is coming, but the garden isn't ready to give up yet. I'm continuing to acquire late-blooming plants or plants with bright
fall foliage to keep the garden colourful for as long as I can.

Sometimes that means moving them to find just the right location for them to flourish. A case in point this year is Aster 'Anja's Choice'. (I know that the nomenclature people, who love to take a word of two syllables and make it an unpronounceable one of five have now decided that it is not Aster but Symphyotrichum. But I'm in denial)

'Anja's Choice' has had a couple of years of unremarkable bloom and I was close to giving it away. Instead I moved it up against the east fence where it gets the full blast of afternoon sun. What a difference!

It's the lilac shrub in the centre of the photograph. On the left is white Anemone x hybrida 'Honorine Jobert'; on the right is another aster, lavender-blue 'Little Carlow'. The red leaves belong to a blueberry and the yellow ones to Amsonia hubrichtii, the Perennial Plant Association's 2011 Plant of the Year. The Amsonia has very attractive pale blue flowers in May, but its late foliage display is outstanding. The blueberry yielded fruit for summer lunches before switching to its ornamental autumn role. The tree trunk on the right belongs to Stewartia pseudocamellia, whose foliage dominates the foreground of the previous photo.

At the far right is one of the electric blue flower heads  of Aconitum carmichaelii 'Arendsii', which dominates the centre bed at this time of year, not just with its colour, but also its 6 ft height.

 A few other, more subtle effects include the foliage and last flowers of Hydrangea serrata 'Beni'.

I've raved elsewhere about how much I like these small mountain hydrangeas that go through a kaleidoscope of changing colours in both flowers and foliage as the year progresses.  

Colour is also starting to saturate the leaves of  Hydrangea quercifolia 'Sikes Dwarf',

...and its neighbour, Fothergilla 'Mount Airy'.

A last couple of flowers on Clematis x durandii are elbowing their way through the Hydrangea.

Meanwhile in the shade of the old pear tree, Parthenocissus henryana, a close relative of Virginia creeper, is also transforming from green to red.

I'm hoping that all those leaves will gradually turn the same colour as this one sprig in the darkest shadows.

Against the house, leaves on Jasminum officinale are beginning to complement the colour of the siding.

At the other end of the garden, leaning over the fence from the
parking space, the Scotch Briar, Rosa pimpinellifolia, gives it stiff competition. This is truly a rose for all seasons. Dressed for autumn, it glows in the evening sun.