Hopefully this will work after a fraught time with my laptop being clogged up with photos. Thankfully my lovely daughter visited from Bristol yesterday and moved to a hard drive, would you believe, over 31,000 photos, no wonder my laptop was clogged up and I couldn’t do anything! I would think that 95% of which are photos of flowers, hopefully I will never get into that situation again. I know that I will have to bite the bullet and get a new laptop fairly soon, this one is 13 yrs old, but can put off the dreaded day for a bit longer now.
My six or so are all of autumn tints, which are looking gorgeous at the moment, I always say that November is such a colourful month, with leaves providing the colour instead of flowers.
no 1
This is where we left off last time, Acer palmatum Westonbirt Spreading Star looking its wonderful best, such a beautiful blend of colours. Then came Storm Ciaran and the next day all the leaves were lying on the gravel- thanks Ciaran!
This is Acer palmatum Sango Kaku at the far side of the woodland. The leaves are green all summer and then turn a lovely delicate buttery yellow at this time of year.
An extra plus for this variety of Acer is that the branches are a beautiful coral colour which is noticeable after the leaves eventually fall.
No 2
The Horse Chestnut or Aesculus, trees in the garden are taking on a lovely orange colour. The last 2 yrs when we have had droughts in the summer, the leaves have just turned brown and fallen very early.
With having such a wet summer, and autumn, there has been no problem with the leaves this year, they are hanging on much longer than usual, thank goodness.
No 3
I think this Acer is the straight Acer palmatum. It was here before we were so is now about 35 yrs old and I have seen it grow from about 3ft high to maybe 20ft now!
The branches that catch the morning sun change to a deeper colour than the rest of the tree and end up bright orange.
No 4.
Up at the top of the garden where I have been making my new bit, I have a large pot with Acer palmatum dissectum Atropurpureum in it. All summer it has been a purple colour but gradually it has changed.
Now it is a beautiful pink/red to equal A, Osakazuki, but this one will I think stay quite small, I will be planting it in the ground soon.
No 5.
And now to my all time favourite, Acer palmatum Osakazuki. All summer the foliage has been the usual green, then all of a sudden things start changing.
Day by day the leaves became more khaki coloured with just a hint of what’s to come.
Then eventually the leaves reach their climax and everyone just stands and says Wow! The window cleaner, the gardener, the handyman and my visitors. They all asked”How long will it last like that” but it is now in the lap of the Gods as to how long I will be able to enjoy the spectacle. The leaves survived the gales the other day, but we have more coming tonight into Sunday , but hopefully the tree is well protected where it is and they will last a bit longer before I have to rake them all up!
No 6 A few long views.
Acer palmatum and A. Osakazuki by the entrance to the woodland. A. Osakazuki is taller than me now.
Prunus Kojo no Mai in the foreground with Acers in the background.
Who can say that November is a dull boring month in the garden, with so much colour from the foliage, it is just as colourful as spring but in a different way. Here we have Viburnum plicatum Lanarth in the left foreground, Prunus Kojo no Mai in the centre, back left is the Horse Chestnut and then my 2 Acers by the woodland entrance.
Sorry, quite a bit more than the normal six, hope I will be forgiven for making up for a no show last week! Thanks must go to my daughter Rachael, couldn’t have done this post without you. Thanks also to Jim as usual at Garden Ruminations for organising, where we can see gardens from around the world.
Beautiful! Is it a particularly good year for colour? I think so, but my memory can’t be trusted.
I think the rain has had a lot to do with it Gill, the last 2 years the leaves were dried to a crisp, they are back to normal this year, thank goodness.
These are so pretty.
Thank you Rosie, such lovely colour is very welcome at this time of year.
A beautiful selection and wow to the Acer palmatum Osakazuki – stunning.
Glad you like Osakazuki Graeme, I agree she is stunning!
There is something special about Acers, their form and then their autumn colour. It is nice to see them in your garden so well positioned.
I was smitten after my first visit to Westonbirt Noelle, many years ago and saw such wonderful colours, just had to have a few in the garden here.
How lovely that the horse chestnut is putting on such a good autumn display Pauline. Glad your laptop is living to fight another day!
It is so lovely to see the Horse Chestnut hanging onto its leaves Denise, after the last couple of years, they are back to what they used to be. Yes, it is also wonderful to have the lap top behaving once more, it had got to the stage where I couldn’t do anything at all, never thought I would miss it so much!
Beautiful autumnal Six with all these acer… a colour patchwork today !
Thanks Fred, I think your description of patchwork sums it up beautifully!
Those are beautiful photos of Acer species in their fall regalia. We have had dry conditions in the American South the last several weeks. Many hardwoods have dried leaves rather than the usual colorful display. This is not been so for the Acer species. Your Acer osakazuki is particularly stunning.
Thank you so much Topdock. We are not used to such dry conditions that we had for the last two summers, we are well known for all our rain! It was dreadful seeing the plants suffer in spite of extra watering, thank goodness nature did the watering for us this year, it has made such a difference.
Nice autumn color. I love the display put on by your Acer palmatum Osakazuki. Daughters are wonderful people.
Osakazuki has done really well this year Susie and she is hanging onto her leaves well in spite of the gales! I agree, children are wonderful, my son did try to tell me what to do over the phone, it was me that got into a mess with that!
I’m as big a fan of external hard drives as I am of Acers. It’s too easy to amass thousands of pictures with a digital camera. Then you get so many that going through them to delete the bad ones becomes a massive chore. I’m still hoping for a bit of colour on my Acer Orange Dream; so far there’s nothing.
I’m sure that I will have to edit my photos at some stage Jim, no point in keeping them all, but it will have to wait for a bit. My Orange Dream is still green, just a tiny bit of orange showing on just one leaf!
That red is amazing!
Thanks Angela, I agree, the red colour is so bright, it certainly shows up in the corner of the garden.
31000 photos, Pauline!!! 🤣 I haven’t had my laptop quite as long, and some of mine are on a hard drive, but I do sometimes think that I probably don’t need to keep all my garden photos, especially as most of them are in the blog anyway! Your acers are glorious, and you have the space to show them off, which I wouldn’t – and my A griseum is certainly not as colourful as the Japanese maples, although my witch hazels have been really pretty this autumn.
I know that I will still have to go through my photos one day and edit them Cathy, but at least now they are safely tucked away out of the laptop.Not having used a computer until 2010, nobody told me that there would be a problem eventually! The Acers certainly brighten up the garden during a very dull time of year.
Goodness, what breathtaking foliage! Loving all your Acers.xxx
Thanks Dina, the garden certainly went out with a bang, so much lovely colour, most blown away now though unfortunately!x