Thursday, October 28, 2010

Going Out In A Blaze Of Glory

Cotinus 'Ancot' and Physocarpus opulifolius 'Monlo' provide red fall color
This is it, this is as good as it gets here at Squirrelhaven.  Autumnal color in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago is past its peak, but not so on my street.  For some reason, the trees and shrubs here always color up later.  The street bed, above, is now dominated by the blazing reds of the Cotinus 'Ancot' (Golden Spirit smokebush), the red seedheads of Hylotelephium 'Becka' (Sedum Autumn Light), the foliage of Penstemon 'Dark Towers' and the Physocarpus opulifolius 'Monlo' (Diablo ninebark).

All it took was a little rain, a hard frost and voila!
  Hammamelis 'Sunburst' gives a shot of orange
the witch hazel (Hammamelis 'Sunburst') has gone from green to full color.

And finally, a shrub that most gardeners think of only for spring interest, which is a shame.
Forsythia species
It's a Forsythia.  I wish I knew which cultivar, as it reliably colors up every fall in my Zone 5 garden.

This post is part of Three for Thursday, sponsored by Cindy at From My Corner of Katy.  Are your shrubs flaunting their fall finery?

20 comments:

meemsnyc said...

I love autumn colors!!

Leslie said...

As good as it gets is pretty fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

Carol said...

Gorgeous colors. Makes me want to get out a rake... oh never mind, I don't really want to rake leaves.

The forsythia is especially beautiful. You are right, people should notice it more. Most of them do color up like that. That photo is a keeper!

Gail said...

Ah lovely photos MMD! Hedge is looking beautiful, too!
There are two seasons I love forsythia~the rest of the year~Not so much! gail

Robin Ripley said...

Gorgeous colors! You're getting to be a better photographer all the time. Just stunning.

Layanee said...

One day can make such a difference with fall coloration. And then there was gray. Love that last photo although you do keep outdoing yourself.

Dee @ Red Dirt Ramblings said...

Nice. Pretty photos too. We still don't have much color. Happy fall MMD.~~Dee

rambleonrose said...

It looks great! My forsythia does not get that nice red color.

gardenwalkgardentalk.com said...

Your 'good as it gets' is pretty darn good. Squirrelhaven has color.

Grace Peterson said...

Beautiful fall colors. Obviously you put some serious thought into the display. Nice going!

joey said...

Hard to say goodbye to such stunning Squirrelhaven color. My neighborhood too is still awesome but have yet to have a moment in between our shared winds/weather to capture the fleeting beauty. Kudos to you! My forsythia looks nothing like yours :(

fairegarden said...

Simply gorgeous, MMD! The forsythia shot is amazing! :-)
Frances

Darla said...

The first photo speaks for itself, gorgeous!

Susan Tomlinson said...

Beautiful! Simply, wonderfully, beautiful.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Gorgeous fall color MrMcD. We had our first frost last night. I will have to get out to see if anything has changed.

Garden Sense said...

The Smokebush and Ninebark are beautifully set off by the yellow foliage in the background! Inspiring photos.

Rose said...

A gorgeous combination of colors! I planted a new forsythia this fall that also has some pretty fall color. It's a compact cultivar, but that's all I remember.

Mary S. said...

Gorgeous! I visited Chicago a couple of weeks ago and was struck by how great the color was this year. We still have some green on our burning bushes but the rest of the color is a vibrant red and the maples are as nice as they have ever been. (Of course, the winds of this week blew most of the leaves off!)

Corner Gardener Sue said...

It's good the wind didn't blow all that lovely foliage off of the plants. I really don't like winter, but there sure are a lot of beautiful colors in the fall!

Mr. McGregor's Daughter said...

Meemsync- you should have been here last year.

Leslie - the colors help off set the starkness of the coming winter, which I'm sure you don't miss.

Carol - thanks for the info about other Forsythias. I suspect it might have something to do with the cultivar.

Gail - Hedge is a beast, even if it is beautiful.

Robin - thanks.

Layanee - fall is like spring that way, every day brings such changes.

Dee - I'll enjoy looking at photos of your fall color after it's all gone here.

ROR - want some of mine?

GWGT - thanks, but last year was better.

Grace - yes, I've worked at getting fall color even in blah years.

Joey - thanks for the info about your Forsythia. Very curious.

Thank you, thank you, Frances, Darla & Susan.

Lisa - that bite of frost should do it, although with your lack of rain this year, it probably won't be as good as usual.

Garden Sense - I'm not a fan of monoculture, but having the same maple trees on both sides of the street does look nice.

Rose - look it up! Compact & good fall color sounds perfect. Mine's a bit of a beast.

Mary - I swear, last year was better!

Sue - the wind did some major leaf removal, but I enjoyed it while it lasted.