As we reach mid-november, we have now had over 114 mm of rain, much of it accompanied with gusty winds up in the 50s (kph). Yesterday we experienced the 1st 24 hour period without rain since the 2nd, but more in the night. Those areas whithout much soil are filled with lost of standing puddles., so far the mound-planted maples are above the water or well enough established. But I see trouble ahead for some more mature maples, like pseudosiboldianum or A. x conspicuum 'Silver Vein', located in areas where the wet 2021 and droughty 2022 weakened them. As usual time will tell, already there are 4-5 more dead ones to pull from this spring. Maples are Sysiphean in scope. A couple hours of sun brings out some red or orange, but wow is it fleeting. So I did get a few shots that aren't plain yellow. The brightest plant this year is the Sweetgum rootstock, the graft broke years ago, but I let it go. It has better colors than the cultivars; we have several, but they didn't do much this year. Now in the process of weeding pots, spraying with copper/sulfur, getting out of rain, organizing groups to be planted by planting season, etc. It's a large job, some of the other small collections (Viburnum, Sorbus) grew really well this year and are already up to 3l pots. There will be a reduction in lawn coming, to make space for these in the main garden.
More pics later, but this one is my favourite : Atropurpureum, Koto-no-ito, Seiryu, and the green leaves in the background are Acer palmatum :
After days of windy, rainy weather, many of my trees are leafles. But ! A few that were kept in the shadeare either showing great autumn colours or are still more or less green. 'Butterfly' and 'Koto hime' are just turning : Others, to my surprise, have colours thazt weren't so bright last year. 'Starfish', 'Atropurpureum', and of course 'Koto-no-ito', the best colours in years : Many are just tuning on the yellow side, like 'Phoenix' : Went to a park today where many maples were a vibrant orange/red last year but they're mainly yellow this year : lack of rain, too much heat ?... The "black sheep" : 'Tsuma gaki', one of the best when it leafs out, but it gets brown spots very quickly. So beautiful in the spring, and it looks painfully sick in autumn :
Looking like the last few from me this Autumn. It hasn't been too bad at all this year, lots have just turned brown and dropped without giving colour, but there is always next year for those. Many more have gone the yellow or orange colours this year. A.rubescens 'Red Flamingo' Beni maiko Beni hime Emerald Lace Shishigashira
I have a few more, but maybe the last: when A. schneiderianum changes to orange, it's the end of the season. Funny in the picture you can see A. amplum ssp catalpifolium still green next to it, normally it would be long gone by now (it has no autumn color though), but since we haven't been near a freeze, it's still green and growing. We have a seedling in a pot which is leafless, however. I've included a couple of evergreen maples also. In the process of moving everything under cover, and sorting this years planting. Looks to be around 30 maples. The tridents are more of the Angyo weeping seedlings. I wasn't able to keep up with Hoshi yadori pruning this summer, so it will be a June cutback of unvariegated growth. Luckily most of it is retaining the variegation now. The A. sinense lost most of its leaves a while ago, but there was a late shoot hanging around which it now giving the typical color. I noticed the A. pauciflorum walking around at dusk, suddenly it went a strong red.
@Otto Bjornson sorry, forgot to respond. Thanks very much though. Actually not a proper camera at all, it's my phone, a Samsung S21 Ultra. I got it for the camera, in an attempt (which I'm pretty happy about all told) to be able to combine devices. Quick rant: although it's quite successful as a camera, it has some really annoying aspects as a phone. Specifically, the touch screen is pretty wonky, the facial recognition is terrible in low light, the fingerprint sensor not very good, and I dislike the Samsung interface. This said, given that it was pretty expensive, I will live with it for a long time provided it keeps working!
We've had a couple of decent freezes -- close to -1.0C -- but surprisingly there are still a few things going that are worth looking at. Getting back from the city, after driving through pounding rain, I walked around at dusk and was surprised to see this A. morifolium not only still green, but still trying to grow. It's an interesting specimen (collected in Japan) for the very long central lobes on new growth, which give it a quite unique architectural look. The plant was snipped to perhaps 20cm by deer, upon planting last year and before I could get it protected, and has responded with this tremendous lateral growth, seemingly standing up well in its quite-exposed location. We'll see. For the A pictum seedlings, I was unable to get the color correct, they're a bit redder and not at all as brown as the photo came out. And, a non-maple, the absolutely lurid seedling of Callicarpa bodinieri var giraldii. An incredible, surreal purple/pink. We have 'Profusion' in the garden, and although the berries are wonderful there isn't much autumn color to speak of. Hopefully this one will retain it! (Of course, surviving is also desirable.) -E
@emery i have a couple Callicarpa bodinieri var giraldii plants..one about 1.5m and one smaller at 1m; they have thrown out lovely leaf colours over the past 2years including those funky purples shown in your photo..then when they have dropped the leaves you are left with just crazy purple berries. I have watched a few song birds eating them!
What are your thoughts on Takesimense?! I'm convinced I need to buy 2, one for my house and one for my dads.... I love it.
The berries are amazing. Apparently the species usually needs several specimens to set berries, with the exception of the cultivar 'Profusion'. Which for me doesn't do much for leaf color, but maybe it's poorly sited, too; pretty exposed. Also being harassed by one of those spreading Spiraea... pretty, but what a thug. Not everyone sells the real thing, some plants are apparently straight pseudosieboldianum. This group, along with sieboldianum, are difficult to ID with certainty... It is very beautiful, though. Ah, I see you're in Eugene -- going to Portland at Christmas -- which gives you a good chance of getting a real one. The real one is fabulous. What nursery are you thinking of? I'm vaguely planning on shipping a couple of small maples to my daughters, to hand carry back. Well, thought colors were done, but in the tunnel A. serrulatum, a new one from this year (to replace the miserable one that finally died) has excellent late color. I hope it will leaf out later than the other one, which reliably froze, every spring, after leafing out in mid-February.
Mr. Maple had them listed on the website last Thursday but they sold out quick! I'm in a pretty good location maple-wise but I have not seen any Takesimense around locally.... However it looks like Lucile at Whitman Farm has Takesimense listed, I should give her a call and see if I can get a feild grown one from her and a 1 gallon... I've visited her farm before and it was a lovely experience. I hope you enjoy your stay in Portland!!!!
First light frost this morning, -1°C. Among the last ones : Acer palmatum, Momoiro koya-san, Emerald Lace (+ 1 self-sown holly), a palmatum seedling, and a batch of Acer davidii sedlings (+ 1 Acer palmatum seedling) :
