Another warm week has gone by with showers and sunshine, its been more like September than November and the grass has kept growing and the leaves keep falling. I am spending most of my time raking leaves to rot down in a corner of the woodland and make wonderful leaf mould. I look at my huge trees and see that there are still so many leaves to come down, I will be at it for a good few more weeks. In the meantime, lets see what is standing out in the garden at the moment.
No 1
I’ll start with a tree that I have by the front drive, which I think is a cross between and English oak and an American beech, each year we get lovely orange leaves before they fall.
These leaves have now fallen on the drive. I think I read somewhere that the cross was made at the wedding of Winston Churchill to his American bride, Clemantine. The leaves are like small oak leaves but for the rest of the year they are the colour of a copper beech.
No 2
Mahonia Charity is looking good in various parts of the garden.
No 3
At the side by the field, Viburnum bodnantense Dawn will now be flowering on and off all winter.
If I can find flowers at nose level, there is a most beautiful perfume.
No 4
Waiting to be planted in the new Acer glade is this lovely dissected variety. Purple leaves all year then suddenly they turn to fuchsia pink! I thought I had lost this one in a pot during the summer when we had the drought as all the leaves dropped, but with a bit of TLC, they all returned thank goodness.
No 5
The last of the Acer Osakazuki leaves, the others have all dropped on the back lawn and been raked away to form leaf mould. There are lots of seeds on the tree so I must try sowing them and see what I get.
No 6
A little shrub of Ruscus aculeatus or Butchers Broom in the woodland has lovely red berries at this time of year. I wonder how long it will be before the birds find them.
There we have my six for this week, we did have a frost last night, it will be our first for this winter, a month later than usual.
Thanks go to Jim at Garden Ruminations for hosting, do pay him a visit to see gardens from around the world are showing this week.
Lovely colour of the Acer and I am becoming fonder of Mahonia as the years progress.
The colour change get there in the end, just took a bit longer this year! I wouldn’t be without the Mahonia, just love its winter flowers.
It’s nice to see those Acer varieties. I’ve always fancied a Osakazuki and you’ve captured the leaves beautifully in your photograph.
I think Acers are so beautiful at this time of year Katherine, I can recommend A. Osakazuki, it never lets me down, the autumn colour is amazing!
Those acers really light up in the low winter sunshine and add that extra colour pop.
Some years the colour is better than others on the acers Noelle, I thought this year was going to be a disappointment, but they got there in the end. Two lost their leaves early due to the drought, but hopefully they will be ok next year.
A lovely Six and a great photograph of the Acer leaves. I think the park has a few Viburnum bodnantense Dawn shrubs – the fragrance of the flowers is really noticeable on a sunny winter’s day.
Thanks Graeme, the Viburnum certainly does have a lovely perfume when the sun is shining, well worth its space in a garden.
The Acers are wonderful: your number four is particular thing. I don’t usually get good colour on my only one as autumn can be so hot and the leaves tend to simply turn brown. Last year was an exception as we had a cool autumn.
I am very fond of my Acers Jane, so much so that I have just planted another 7 small ones in a new area that I’ve been doing! We seem to get the best colour when we have cold nights and sunny days, some years are better than others.
Interesting story behind the cross between the English oak and the American beech. It must be a lovely tree Pauline. The little shrub, Ruscus aculeatus is very pretty, and useful providing food for the birds.
The Oak/Beech cross has made a lovely tree Denise but stupidly I planted it too close to the house. I should have realised with its parents that it would grow rather large eventually, which it is now doing, I think its days are numbered unfortunately.
Yes, I was intrigued by the oak cross too, Pauline, and by the ruscus, which I have not heard of and will look up. The second acer is particularly striking. Happy leaf sweeping!
The Ruscus is renowned for growing in shade Cathy, very happy where I have put it. My back needs a rest from leaf sweeping, I’ve been planting Acers yesterday and hopefully will get the last two in today.
Lovely autumn tones. That is a beautiful acer. I will be brushing leaves for months too, thankfully they are nearly all down thanks to recent winds.xxx
Thanks Dina, I don’t think the Acer leaves will last much longer as we have gales forecast for the next few days! I love all our trees but at this time of year, they do cause so much work, just a few morw weeks though!
Such nice colors on the maples! It will be fun seeing your new area fill with these, and it sounds like you still can’t resist trying a few more from seed 🙂
The colours came eventually Frank, they took their time with is being so warm for this time of year. I have collected the seed of A. Osakazuki, must sow them soon then will have to wait and see what comes up, will any of the seedlings have colour to equal their parent?