Wow, never too many. Thanks to all who have been posting these wonderful photos, which I've enjoyed tonight at dinner. I'm surprised that this appears to be peak colour time for some areas. It seems well past best colours for most of these in Vancouver. I'm trying not to call this display peak "bloom". :)
Wonderful colours! Talking about bonsai, I had to place most of mine in the shade because of extreme heat this summer, that's probably why they are not as colourful as last year, but not so bad either. 3 Acer palmatum palmatum (originally air-layers from a single tree, the first one I bought some 20 years ago): A small Acer p. "Phoenix": My 'Ryusen', that suffered some leaf scorch. Not as nice as yours, but the colours are very interesting:
Your bonsai, I love them all! Especially the first one with the root over rock. All mine with root over rock died in the extreme cold our area had (think it was 5 years ago) when we had 3 separate occasions of 72 hours below -25F or -32C. And each occurrence started off in the 50's to 60's (estimated 15c) dropping a total of 80 degrees in a 12 hour period. It was too much for the exposed roots. If I ever do it again I will use dry sphagnum peat to insulate the rock and exposed roots over winter. I gotta try your air layering technique next season! You have some very beautiful pots too! Thanks for sharing your beautiful bonsai! They fill my heart with joy and awe...
Ha ha...It's funny you say that, because on the news they say "We have another Alberta clipper bringing in polar air!". We had a friend from Canada visiting and they said "what are they talking about, I've never heard of that before!" I imagine everyone in Alberta fires up their fans and says, "let's send them another one, ha ha!"
Our colors in my younger years would occur at the end of September into early October. Always had piles of brown leaves for Halloween, from leaves that had fallen from weeks before. We moved into this house about 14 years ago. We live in a small micro climate south east of lake Erie. We noticed our peak colors were a week later usually occuring in early to mid October, still never came close to Halloween. Each passing year, peak color came closer to Halloween. About 7 years ago we had fall colors for Halloween. The last couple years we experience peak color early to mid November with the latest varieties falling on or just after Thanksgiving. One year in recent memory the last leaves fell on December 5th. My parents still live in the area I grew up. They have progressively later peak colors too. But they still remain about a week or two before our peak. Our microclimate is becoming more effective because the lake never freezes over winter anymore. Has not frozen over in the past 7 years. The summer water temperatures are much warmer as a result, retaining the heat later into fall/winter. The western part of the lake is shallow and the water warms faster. The warmer water of the past 7 years has resulted in toxic algae blooms. Some cities along the western basin of the lake had a late summer water crisis, because the algae made the water unsafe to drink. (A side note, increasing use of fertilizer in agriculture and lawn maintenance has contributed to the problem too. The warmer water created an environment for the algae blooms to exist, but it's the nitrogen run off that has fueled it's population and ability to rapidly spread) Things are warmer and it's nice when you have a longer growing season to enjoy and milder Winters are nice too. But with that comes some very concerning consequences like the new toxic algae blooms that threatens our great lake (fish and wildlife) and our critical drinking water supply. Each year it moves further east into deeper water and this year it was wind direction that saved Cleveland from being impacted. I think it's only a matter of time before the whole lake is impacted. Causing a economic, wildlife, and human health crisis. I hope I am wrong...
So do I. In Britanny some beaches have been closed in the past years because of algae: dogs, and even a horse wre found dead beacause of the gases these algae release. The reason is the high amount of nitrogen that are carried by rivers because of intensive hog farming. I wish more people became aware of what you can observe, and reflect on decisions that should be taken, whatever one's opinion on the causes for global warming...
I love the view in the last photo and the capture of color pattern in the 4th photo. Thanks for sharing your piece of paradise! Beautiful!
A few more from yesterday Front yard, Pendula julian and ibo nishiki Back yard view out SE window of autumn moon and emperor one Aconitifolium leaf fallen on orangeola Autumn moon and Picea omorika
Funny you should mention the pink colours , here's my Summer gold from a few weeks ago never seen this one turn a lovely shrimp pink before it usually goes a golden/orange, had this for years in a container and it's the first time i've seen it throw this colour phase , mind you have seen some very strange colours this year on quite a few different cultivars. Mind you it's in the ground now so it will be interesting to see what it does next year?
emery i love this time of year now , can get finally get to do all of the jobs for next year, look at all the trees check the growth rates on the branches cut all the dead wood out( of mostly dissectums) lift trees root and branch prune and re pot on etc. With it been an early fall i have done most of these jobs now and just have one large tree to lift next week and that's me finished with the tree maintenence should give them all a few more extra weeks in their new enviroments to settle down before the winter arrives, looks like it's going to be a harsh one this year?
Well to tell the truth I've been faffing off for the last couple of weekends! This year has been such a grind getting ready for the MS visit. But I've done a lot of sorting, have a preliminary list of 32 trees that have to get into the ground, getting pots put away into the stable for the winter. Have figured out where some of the new plantings will go, that's always a long process, but luckily only half or so will be fall planted, the rest just have to be sorted for spring. So tomorrow the digging begins... And yes, I do have the impression it's going to be a hard winter, already very cold and we rarely have frost this early. We'll see. Just hope it doesn't heat up in Feb/Mar like 2017! chimera your garden really looks fantastic.
Sounds fun, hope everything goes good! There's an old, but simple saying that applies to both flying planes and planting trees: "Keep the dirty side down"
My wife took some pictures yesterday. She shares the same love and passion for plants and Japanese maples, but offers a different perspective when capturing the fall garden in photos that I thought I would share.
Thank you emery, the first photo shows a drainage ditch for an area where I'd like to plant some irises.
Nice perspectives! My question concerns a non-maple, but it's posted here, so I can't really ask the question somewhere else. On the second photo in posting #70, PB094850a.jpg, are those white edges what the plant (and what plant is it?) or cultivar is supposed to have, or is it something to do with the growing conditions? I've seen it around here and always wondered. They're so pretty.
It's Golden Ruby® barberry or Berberis thunbergii 'Goruzam'. A local introduction from Lake county Nursery, available nationally. I have also seen a similar cultivar Berberis thunbergii 'Admiration'. The new growth in spring is bright reddish orange that matures to burgundy with a yellow margin that remains throughout the season (but the yellow margin is not apparent in less sun). Very compact and slow growing. A few Red berries during Winter. Super easy to grow and requires almost no maintenance. Good for traffic areas where the yellow margins are noticed.
A few more from the past fortnight, if any one knows what the last one is or looks like i would be grateful. The last few trees are turning nicely now and should be at their best come the weekend.