Fall is always a beautiful time in the garden. Even in years where the fall color is . . . well. Let’s just say a little more lackluster. Like this year. (At least here in my corner of the world.) Our fall color-change is coming quite late this year, and the colors aren’t really vibrant when they do show up. I think all the hot and dry weather in the late summer and early fall really sapped the trees. The leaves are tired. They don’t want to put on a show. A lot of them are just crinkling up and dropping without changing color at all.
Here in my own garden, I’m really missing all my hostas right now. In the fall, the hosta leaves turn a brilliant gold as they die back, and my garden usually glows from hundreds of golden (dying) hostas. Sigh.
But I do still have some glow-time going on thanks to my brilliant larch tree, the last of my dahlias, the lush, orange berries on my hawthorn tree, and the sun shining through my grass plumes.
It’s been a rough year in my garden, so I’ll gladly take these glow-y fall days to close out the season.
Fall is lovely, even in the lackluster years!
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How about you? How’s the fall color in your corner of the world?
Same here, Kym. No fall color to speak of in my yard. All the leaves are just giving it up and falling off the trees. We had have a severe drought here, and the only rain we got was from the hurricanes. I still love fall, but it is drab here.
Here also. Quite sad. BTW there was a beautiful piece on larch trees on CBS Sunday morning this past weekend. Apparently it is a thing in the PNW to hike to high elevations to view them. And yet you have one in your own back yard!
We are having very muted colors as well this fall. My neighbors Dogwood is usually brilliant right now, but the leaves were just dropping before we left for Erie. But you are right… the muted tree colors allows the other things to shine! We saw so many sumac’s that were magenta and stunning! But your Larch tree… wow!! So beautiful!
It looked like we would have the same drab fall colors over here in the west suburbs of Minneapolis. Then everything suddenly popped and the colors are spectacular. We’ve had the same dry weather as you from mid-August till now.
We are having a surprisingly colorful fall, which I was not expecting!
Those are lovely photos! Our foliage is popping right now and my drive to work is full of oranges, reds, and golds. Add to that the cranberry bogs being harvested and it’s an explosion of fall riches.
Beautiful photos! Sun through grasses is always special. Here in the Deep South it’s just sad. The region is deep into post-hurricane cleanup so there a logs and dried out branches piled up all along the streets. The best color in my yard is American Beauty Berry. The berries are overripe at this point and there are a few birds eating them steadily. My other color is migrating/wintering Baltimore Orioles – they like Hummingbird feeders so I keep one filled for them. I’ll put out some grape jelly for them if/when it ever gets cold enough.
We get no fall color (nor spring color) on the coast here–the choices are green or brown, all year. Well, and the blues, greens and greys of the ocean, so there’s that.
I share the sighs. We had the same hot, dry weather for much of the summer, so a lot of leaves just went right to brown. There are a few trees in the area putting on a show, but generally I’ve just been enjoying the lower angle of the sunlight and that lovely golden glow it gives. Here’s hoping we get better color next year!
Fall is late and drab here, too. We’re in the midst of a severe drought and NJ has started water conservation, so all the leaves are just brown and falling. The 85 degree temperatures we’ve had for a few days aren’t helping! But I’m glad to see your larch and hawthorn berries. Some years are just tough ones!
Beautiful colors. There is always beauty in the out of doors if I can wrap my head around what is instead of what I want. I’m surprised at some of the stunning color in my neighborhood. I expected a dry rather dull autumn based on our dry warm conditions.