Last Leaves

In comes November  - and in comes the rain. 

There was a last burst of glory just before month's end, mostly leaves but with a few late flowers adding contrast.

Always proving its worth at this time of year, Fothergilla 'Mount Airy' kept getting more vibrant every day.

Oakleaf hydrangea 'Sikes Dwarf' beside it wasn't quite able to meet the challenge but had its own brooding beauty.

Silvery lavender foliage in the background chimed in with a more restful note.

Silver Vein Creeper (Parthenocissus henryana) continues its transformation from gold to red. It's really too rampant for this small garden but fortunately it is quite tolerant of drastic pruning. I want to keep it as scribbles of colour like this, rather than a solid sheet.

Corylopsis pauciflora has already set buds for its early spring display, but it is also a show-off now with its bright golden foliage. It needs pruning to a more graceful shape, which I will try to do while it is dormant.

Although I like a lot of the ornamental grasses, I think they look better en masse in larger gardens than mine. However, I do enjoy the airy presence of a mosquito grass, Bouteloua 'Blonde Ambition'. In the ground it would be lost among bolder plants, but raised in an urn it catches the low sun's rays when most of its companions have receded into the shadows.

Thanks to our warm and sunny October, the fall display in the front garden has never been better.

Royal azalea (Rhododendron schlippenbachii) has been particularly colourful, darkening from a soft, blush pink ...

 

... to a stronger hue.

Under its feet, some Heuchera are enjoying the cooler weather.

This area is gradually getting better, although there are still gaps where I'd like to find the right companions.

I'm hoping that Enkianthus 'Red Bells', a fairly new addition, will eventually fill the foreground, where its golden fall foliage is already making a modest contribution.

Back in spring I posted a photo of its delicate little flowers that look like red lily-of-the-valley. 

Behind it in the upper photo are the russet leaves of Japanese maple 'Waterfall', which looked better a week earlier, when it was still echoing the Royal Azalea foliage

Giving some height to this bed, Disanthus cercidifolius also colours well.  Although its leaves don't last long on the branches, they dapple the ground under the maple and make bright splashes among the remaining greens of low-growing ground-huggers.

To my surprise, an unknown pink peony that I installed without much hope in the dry, depleted soil of the roadside beds appears to be thriving and is also adding to the fall display. I'm already curious to know how successfully it will flower next year.

There are nevertheless some failures. I knew the front was a challenge for being shaded most of the year and then subject to hot sun in the middle of summer, but I thought good old Sedum 'Autumn Joy' could be relied upon to cope. This year showed me the uneven results.

On the east side it has been fine.

On the shadier west side, where sun is blocked by both the street tree and now my spreading silver dogwood, the results are less successful. The peony whose foliage is visible in the foreground has already gone to a more suitable home and the Sedum is about to follow.