Thanksgiving Day garden walk

Still no hard freeze in sight around here. It's hard to believe that I can still find a lantana flower. Even some pumpkin seedlings have come up in the grave of one gourd that was dessicated by stink bugs.

It's raining and chilly right now and the pecan trees are starting to send down their leaves...unfortunately they are not as bright yellow as last year. But I can't complain.

look out below.

I just checked the NOAA weather summary for the last 24 hours at RDU. The wind was blowing pretty good last night ...10-17mph from the west.  A lot of newly grounded leaves, like these maples, were beating the tree canopies all over town in the looks department.

If you are still interested in buying some campernelle jonquils, I haven't sold out yet. Feel free to stop by Fullsteam on Friday from 4:30-6:00pm. I've changed my mind about not taking walkup orders. I won't have a sign or anything but it shouldn't be too hard to spot the dude with a box of flower bulbs.

morning slideshow: from today's commute through Sarah P. Duke Gardens

before the raking begins..

Of course there will be that first Sunday in November when we tell ourselves that a whole extra hour in the day is great. We will use it to sleep in or put mink oil on our boots. That luxury only lasts one day.  Personally, I would give up an hour of sleep every night if I could have the sun shine until after I finish washing the dinner dishes.  But I will have to wait a while for that. Unless we get a hard freeze, I will spend the next week or two denying autumn and enjoying what I would rather call late-late summer.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a fall grinch.  Once the maples and Chinese pistache trees are engulfed in color, you might just catch me nostalgically mumbling about apple crisps and the smell of pipe smoke at football games...... Until then  here are a few pictures from my home garden of things that look good without a loss of chlorophyll.

the coarse-leafed but beautiful Mexican sunflower

Asteraceaceae oblongifolius 'October Skies'... this clump originally came from the  2005 Pinata Anchor of Hope public art/seedling project

perennial favorites

I purchased a gallon-sized Ruellia simplex last weekend at the Sarah Duke Gardens fall plant sale. It has been showing up in more and more gardens lately...probably because it blooms late in summer and is pretty carefree. A common name for this perennial is Mexican blue-bells. 

Ruellia simplex has simple needs: sun and room to spread...

I am sure if you were to pinch it back it would grow much shrubbier and less lanky. Last fall while visiting the incredible perennial border at the JC Raulston Arboretum, I noticed a clump growing in front of a tall patch of swamp sunflower- Helianthus angustifolius  Not only was the yellow and violet color contrast a nice one, but the Ruellia shielded the lower 1/3 of the swamp sunflower which was looking pretty ratty at the bottom. The picture below is of the swamp sunflower that was planted alongside Ellerbe Creek in Durham’s Northgate park as part of a state funded stream restoration project. I took the picture yesterday...so drive or bike by soon if you want to see this native wildflower at its peak. Hell, you could probably fly over in a light plane and see it just fine.

swamp sunflower in bloom alongside Northgate Park's Ellerbe Creek

Speaking of plant purchases and the JCRA, this Saturday is their famous Plant Distribution Event where (I’m not making this up)....”thousands of choice and rare plants are freely given away.” You have to be a member of the arboretum to participate but you can pay your dues in person on the morning of.

that time of year

Until I can find some more time to write a post or post some pics, I will need to lean on other good stuff out there. Here is this week's front porch essay from the Independent. ... by the always-awesome John Valentine. He makes a lot of us say, "damn...wish I could have written that. "

fall in the flower garden

Last week's nor'easter dropped five inches of rain in my yard (and the rest of Durham County). Rain and wind and the time of year meant that this past weekend held a lot for me to do. Of course there were limbs to pick up and piles of leaves to shred for composting and mulch. But because we haven't yet had a hard freeze, I was pleasantly surrounded by a good many flowers.

These zinnias (pictured above) and at least two dozen orange marigolds still spark the front of my vegetable garden. I could have photographed the bright green lettuce and the perfect pansies that are happy in fall weather, but I am too proud of these summery blooms that have kept up their act ever since late June. They are ratty and tired looking but until the first killing frost, I will use my hands to keep the pecan and oak leaves from smothering their last gasps.

On a less mournful note, I am happy to see that the small grassy clumps of grape hyacinth bulbs have returned to their spot in the perennial border. The purplish blue flowers won't appear until mid-to late February, just before the daffodils I ordered are due to bloom. I expect to plant those next weekend, after I get up the fallen canopy from my maple tree that is dropping pinkish red and yellow leaves all over my backyard as I write this.

one of the best evergreen screens for the South

These photos were taken today in the perennial allee at Sarah Duke Gardens. Most of the visitors do not notice the sasanqua camellias 11 months out of the year since they form the dark green backdrop for showier shrubs, yuccas, vines, tropicals, herbs, and native perennials. But today, this utilitarian backbone is smothered in a galaxy of light pink blooms.
It is a shame we don't see more privacy screens made up of these wonderful shrubs, which are native to Asia but have been a part of Southern landscapes for well over a hundred years. Compared to the cold weather blossoms of c. japonicas, c. sasanqua flowers may not be as impressive, but they can take more direct sun and drought. This particular variety is called Maiden's Blush.

molten lava leaves

There are several excellent medium-sized trees that can be planted beside patios and near driveways and avenues in the lower South (zones 7-9) but the Chinese pistache is arguably the one with the most vivid fall color. Be patient if you plant a young specimen; try to train it to a central trunk. Until the lower branches are above your head, it may look a little gangly. This Chinese pistache sits beside the building where I work. Last week, I kept meaning to take a picture and finally got around to it on Friday's lunch break. I am glad I did. Today, almost half of these beautiful leaves were down on the ground and plastered to the cement sidewalk. Sunday's breezy and rainy pass from a cold front did a week's worth of stripping in one day. This tree is part of a row of three-- planted approximately fifteen years ago.

the last week of October and the first of fall's peak color

Today I had to walk a good bit on Duke's west campus. I made four trips to and from my car which I park on the far side of Sarah Duke Gardens and along the way I took about two dozen photographs. This week everyone will really notice the variety of trees, shrubs, and perennials in various stages of fall color all over the piedmont.

Left - fallen leaves from a Japanese cherry tree.
Below- a big leafed hydrangea starting to turn. Not pictured here are the dogwoods, redbuds, ginkgos, and Chinese pistaches which will be at their best over the course of this week. Be on the lookout. Our rakes and lawn mower-bags will be gathering much of this stuff too soon.

what's in bloom in my yard this week

SWAMP SUNFLOWER

CAMELLIA SASANQUA

AROMATIC ASTER 'October Skies'

enough light to work by

Late summer and early autumn kind of run together around here. I hiked through Sarah Duke Gardens last week and even though I felt warm, I was not uncomfortable. The real guide is the sun. This picture was taken on my lunch hour. I think the sunshine looks like four o'clock in June. That difference makes me a feel a bit melancholy.........but anyway, I am not an astronomer or a poet, so let's move on.

I am a gardener so I do know that shorter days make it hard to finish my chores: dividing perennials, seeding rye grass, digging a French drain, thinning the arugula seedlings. Those boxes remain unchecked. It didn't help that on Saturday, I came home with almost two dozen items from the annual plant distribution event at the JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh. I now have the charge of deciding where to plant my climbing hydrangea, a narrow-leafed possumhaw viburnum, the mysterious-sounding hidden cone ginger, a false rosemary, and a trunk full of other things that will probably outgrow their assigned seating around the perennial border. Not only is my garden running out of room but I am running out of hours. And daylight savings ends in less than a month.

But if I were caught up with everything I would not have a reason to work in the garden. What is the point in that?

Fading Flowers

This week, the Independent published a front porch column that I wrote about my connection to the woman who used to own our house.

Dear Dogwood Leaf

Dear Dogwood Leaf,

I hope this note finds you well. I was thinking of you yesterday. You had some reddish-purple splotches on you that looked a little bit like blood. It reminded me that you are not just about April. I forgot you had fall color....sorry about that. In a few weeks there will be a lot of attention paid to ginkgos, maples, sumacs, and other bright things. Bulletin boards, Halloween party invites, and Sunday paper circulars will probably not use dogwood leaves in their motifs this month. They will ignore you. The leaves in these advertisements of autumn will use red, yellow, and orange. They will use a color turned and not the real color of fall, the one that is always turning. Their ideal leaf will not have brown edges, spots, or crinkly parts.

But I shouldn't be so hard on these folks. Fall sometimes does feel like a calendar photo. It sometimes feels like it couldn't get any brighter or better. But that day makes me feel a little glum. Because too often we seem caught up in anticipation for the "peak of leaf season" and not the pre-peak, the subtle shift, the blood spots on a dogwood leaf. It's like late afternoon on Christmas.......Oh, am I rambling?

Anyway, thanks for making me notice you before the crush of colorful leaves come on and become the talk of town for the few short weeks that fall is at its prettiest. With Election Day fast approaching, it will feel even shorter. Your small-color contribution could be part of the reason why some folks say that fall is their favorite season. That is a lie. We all know that spring is loved best; and yes, I know, you are there for us then too. But I just wanted you to know that I appreciated the good work you are doing right now. Thanks.