November Dawn

My back yard at dawn.

 

The fall color this year has been outstanding: the oak trees in back have never been so red as they are at the moment. I took this photo just before sunrise from my studio window a few days ago. It's been unseasonably warm since the beginning of November, but earlier in October, the overnight lows were near or just below freezing, which brought out the colors.

 

Red 'Simplicity' rose

 

With this weather, it's a joy to work in my garden digging up spring-flowering bulbs that were overcrowded, and replanting them in newly expanded flower beds. And adding a few new bulbs too, of course. I bought two Imperial Fritillaries (Fritillaria imperialis)--a red and a yellow--and some pink-cupped daffodils. I'm looking forward to seeing my handiwork when it all begins to emerge next spring.

 

A vase of my roses

 

It's so rare to have this many roses still blooming in November, that I picked one of each of the varieties in my garden for this bouquet: Molineux (yellow), red Simplicity, pink Petal Pushers (in back), New Dawn (pale pink), and red Double Knockout.

 

The east yard

The Viburnum 'Brandywine' on the east side of the house is still sporting some leaves along with its now blue-black berries, and the Japanese maples had some leaves when I took this photo, but after yesterday's rain, I doubt many will persist.

Oak trees in back yard

Fothergilla with purple asters.

The woods in back have been really glorious all week. Many other unexpected and stunning color combinations crop up in my garden at this time of the year--the orange leaves of the Fothergilla against the lavender of the purple asters and the silvery stems of the Caryopteris, with the Diervilla... everything takes on particularly lovely hues in the late afternoon as the sun is setting.

 

Re-blooming iris 'Blatant'

 

The re-blooming iris 'Blatant' has produced several flowers, and there are more blooming spikes. If the weather keeps up, it should continue to bloom for another week or more. It's also time to fence off the most susceptible plants, like this double-flowering quince, one of the deer's favorite snacks--there really is no other way to keep hungry deer away from some plants. I've also enclosed the hybrid witch-hazel 'Diane' that I planted this spring, as well as the Azaleas, Rhododendron and Hellebores on the east bed. Thus I hope to minimize the deer damage, though every year some of my plants get nearly wiped out.

 

Re-blooming iris and mums.

I'd been wanting to have an autumn flowering crocus that deer wouldn't eat, so when this Colchicum 'Waterlily' went on sale at Wayside Gardens, I bought one bulb to try out. Colchicums are very poisonous to both humans and animals, and this one with lovely mauve flowers is a hybrid of two different species: C. autumnale 'Alboplenum' with C. speciosus 'Album'. It will be interesting to see how it fares.

Colchicum 'Waterlily'

First Frost

Re-blooming iris before the first frost.

One of the irises I planted last year seems to be a re-blooming variety; this is what it looked like on Halloween. Halloween night was very stormy, with almost an inch of rain coming down in howling gusts. The following afternoon it became still, the temperature began to drop at nightfall, and by morning we had our first hard frost.

I wish I'd had the presence of mind to cut the iris flowers and bring them into the house the day before, but I went out the next day and cut the spikes, hoping to save some of the buds that hadn't yet opened.

Purple chrysanthemums.

Pink mums in the Little Indians bed.

The chrysanthemums don't seem to be affected much by frost, and are still putting on a show, as was the foliage until the Halloween storm blew away most of the leaves.

Back yard in late October.

Last week I took my plein air student up to Skyline Drive, and we painted at Gooney Run overlook. It was one gorgeous afternoon, with the fall color at its peak. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling my best (still recovering from a nasty virus), and while I had made a good start on site, I tried finishing it at home. The results are not very satisfactory--darkening the foreground too much, I lost a lot of the light on those colorful slopes!

The view from Gooney Run Overlook.

Gooney Run Overlook watercolor.

Oh well, not every painting can be a masterpiece, but I wish I'd waited until I was feeling better.