There's atmosphere in my garden this morning

Back yard primeval

The sun broke strongly through the fog this morning and made my garden all bright and fuzzy. Happily, it was warm enough to walk around and pull a few fir branches out of the shrubs, look at my camellias that are blooming two and three months early, and wonder again how many days of branch-breaking it will take to reduce all the blow-down to mulch.

The warm light in the warm-ish air showed off the bits of light red

Hamamellis Ruby Glow, Miscanthus Zebrinus

and bright red

Coral bark A. palmatum

and green

Viburnum cinnamomifolium

and the fun shapes left from last year

Hydrangea Nikko Blue

hanging on the fence like a memory of old friends.

Still love my garden. It's time to break out the pruning shears and get to work.

And more good news about my newish Corolla, Bunny—he carried home a bare-root Brooks Plum yesterday with not so much as an ear waggle of complaint.

The red leaves of Spring

Acer palmatum Red Dragon

This is a small tribute to that week every spring when the leaves on the Japanese maples start opening up, and the the red pigments show up so strongly. I look out my window in the morning and if the eastern sky is bright behind them, the backlighting shows them so beautifully against the pale greens of the other new leaves and the darker greens of the mature foliage. The one above is my dwarf weeper Red Dragon. This is its best year ever.

Acer palmatum Bloodgood

This one is of the pair of Bloodgoods I planted seven years ago. The one on the left had a very bad year before I realized it wasn't getting enough water in the summer, but it didn't die, and since I remedied the watering situation, I've been encouraging it to catch up to its mate.

Acer palmatum Bloodgood

And this is the little one in its close-up, its fifteen seconds of fame. This is its best year ever, too.

Rhododendron Yellow Hammer

Can't have a post without a rhodie photo in it this time of year, so this is my Yellow Hammer, an older variety that I rescued from a going-out-of-business nursery, when it had a cup of soil and roots left in its gallon pot. It's been growing slowly but seems to like where I put it, and this is actually a huge clump of flowers for it.

If everything you planted in a garden automatically did just get more and more beautiful every year, maybe the thrill would wear off after a while. But they don't, so you just can't help being happier and happier about the ones that do make it. The ones that thrive become like special friends, honored companions. And because they get more beautiful every year, so every spring becomes your best year ever.

And I'm happy to say this is mine.

Fall color is here!

The O Isami

I've been looking forward to the fall color for the last month, and it started a couple weeks ago with the first yellows, and my big O Isami. It showed a bit more red this year, but it's pretty much gone now. Then some of the grasses and the grape arch lit up, and now the dogwoods and some of the A. palmatum Japanese maples are picking up the color. We haven't had any sharp cold nights here yet, so the colors are just trickling through the gardens and woods a little at a time. That's fine--a nice long fall is a lovely feature. And after the astonishing 8" of rain in September, I haven't had to water anything but my potted plants, and that's been nice. I've had a chance to catch up on my garden chores too, and now I'm leaf-ing the garden, even as I get to murder the young weeds that sprouted after the big rains.

But I'm way behind on my posting, so this is a long one:

Red Dragon, Miscanthus sinensis Zebrinus, and Hydrangea Merritt's Beauty

This early morning combination of the Zebrinus flowers, the Merritt's Beauty dried flower heads, and red tints of the A. palmatum Red Dragon was irresistible.

Disanthus cercidifolia

The big Disanthus showed the most color ever this year, and lots of red.

Fog at sunrise

Just a little ground fog on the Christmas trees on the hilltop east of here.

Mixed Panicums and Helictotrichon

Three Panicums turned gold (a fourth on the far right edge) to contrast with the Blue Oat grass.

I love red leaves in the fall

The A. palmatum Hilleri, now taller than I am, and the first palmatum I planted here.

Another view in the afternoon light, showing the bright lime green of the young bark. I had never noticed this color contrast before. While I was weeding around it, I found a tiny baby red-leafed seedling! I marked it with a stick and next year I'll move it to where it'll have a bit more room. Hope it's like its mom!

These were translucent, with delicate sawtooth edges

An old chunk of fir stump or root sprouted these pink mushrooms the other day, and they were so pretty I snapped the photo, not noticing the two big and one tiny slugs having a meal! In the spring and fall I get about a dozen species of mushrooms in my garden, and I have a pretty good photo collection but have only managed to identify a few of them. I've found both poisonous and edible ones, but the slugs and mammals beat me to the edible ones. I'm okay with that.

Anna's? It was 2" - 3" head to butt

This morning while I was planting my winter broccoli starts, a hummer came to sample the pineapple sage hedge next to the veggie bed. When it noticed me noticing it, it flashed its bright red throat at me.

I had my camera with me and miraculously managed to get these photos.