Friday Fabulous Foliage - golden days

Our garden's fall color is quite good this year, although quite late as it is now November.  Our gardens are largely in the shade of a couple of quite large sugar maples, and the morning sun suffuses the area with a golden light.  Other specimens brighten up dark spaces such as this Japanese maple.  While there have been a couple of nights with frosty temperatures, there have still been no hard freezes so far, but the color display will not last for long.  It was warm enough with a light jacket to enjoy a cocktail out on the patio just to enjoy the colors.  A few things are still in flower, the monk's hood, a wayward witch hazel, an anemone. 

Fall, where does it leave us?

2017 was a strange fall here in the upper Midwest of the USA.  September was cool, then hot and dry. A lot of trees showed stress & TPP hopes he watered enough trees and new plants well enough.  It was a $400 watering. It was a late fall staying warm until well into October, and a hard frost waiting until November.  Fall color was late to develop, and even then it was funny with some well colored trees framed against a green backdrop.  When a hard frost did come our sugar maples dropped their leaves literally overnight, covering our patios to at least a foot deep.  And then the leaf netting over the lily pond had to get dragged off for a second time, and it was heavy with leaves, walnut and hackberry mostly, and the pond doesn't want those.  
Nonetheless when some plants colored up they were  wonderful.  Foremost among those were the Japanese maples.  This image shows a pair that grow just beyond the lily pond.  The low-growing one in the foreground (Emerald lace) might develop more color if the chlorophyll fades a bit more, but the 'scolopendrifolium' behind turned a wonderful orangey hue.  So nice and bright.
Of course our lawn is a confluent carpet of leaves and the oaks are still hanging on to their leaves for later.  These will all get semi-shredded and piled on areas destined to become woodland gardens.

Friday Fabulous Flower - Fall Color

Why do we love Japanese maples? Simply put, they are beautiful plants. The Phactors have just acquired three new maples to landscape the renovated lily pond and they promise to be spectacular. Although still small this Acer japonicum 'aconitifolium' will be fantastic when it reaches 15 feet tall some time in the middle of the century. If pyschic, please let me know. This particular variety has highly disected leaves, "fern-leafed" to some. And while this isn't a flower, it does provide some great color.