Willow Oak

Outside my office windows, in an island in the parking lot, stands a willow oak (Quercus phellos). It isn’t a particularly healthy tree, which isn’t surprising when you consider the limited space for its roots. The top and outer ends of the branches have mostly lost all their leaves by now, but the central part of the tree is a beautiful, golden color. Particularly in the afternoon, when the sun hits it, it lights up like a torch and is quite lovely.

Rose ‘Perle d’Or’

I’m really happy with this rose bush. I don’t know that there has been a time since May when there wasn’t at least a rose or two and right now there are more than a dozen. It’s the last week of October and we’ve had a frost and it’s still blooming. It hasn’t really gotten bitter cold yet and I know it has to end soon but for now, I’m still enjoying the fragrance of roses when I come out my front door.

How awesome is that?

Floating Leaves

These leaves are floating in a bird bath on our back patio. The colors are so intense, partly because of the late afternoon light. I really like the intensity of fall colors. In the spring I like pinks and pale yellows as well as anything but in the fall, it’s the zing and pow that I’m looking for. Sort of nature’s fireworks. It’s finally gotten cold and we’ve had frost on the ground the last couple days. To me, the temperature and the colors go together perfectly.

Oakleaf Hydrangea

I really should have more than one of these. I think it would make a nice, open screen along the front edge of a portion of our yard. Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) is a native to the south-eastern United States and does quite well here. The large, lobed leaves are attractive all year and are particularly beautiful when they turn a deep claret (or bordeaux, if you prefer). They bloom, but their flowers are not particularly showy, at least not compared to some of the other hydrangeas.

Amur Honeysuckle

On Wednesday, September 25, 2013 I took a photo of Lonicera maackii, the Amur honeysuckle. As I mentioned at the time, it’s an invasive weed and not something that needs a lot of encouragement. Still, it has sweet smelling flowers followed in the fall by wonderful red berries that, I assume, the birds enjoy. As the days start to shorten and get cold, the leaves also start to turn a deep red-green mix that is quite lovely. So, here’s another dose of Amur honeysuckle, Lonicera maackii, berries and leaves.

Mushroom

Our back yard has a lot of mushrooms right now, mostly in a ring around the trees that were taken down this summer. I assume this means the roots are rotting nicely. The mushrooms are certainly happy enough. This is one of them from an ant’s eye view (or I suppose a bird’s eye view, if it’s a small bird and it’s standing on the ground next to the mushroom). I like the light from the afternoon sun shining through the top of the mushroom.

Dahlia

Back on Memorial day weekend Cathy and I visited the wonderful Heritage Rosarium in Brookville. Nick and his lovely wife Roseanne share their garden but it’s also about visiting with them. For a while now, in addition to Roses, Nick has been growing dahlias. This year, they had packaged up some dahlia tuber and gave each of their visitors one. Cathy planted ours out back and it is starting to bloom. This picture was taken in the evening, so the light is not terrific, but as you can see, the flower it a wonderful, rich, saturated red.

Phalaenopsis Orchid

We’ve had a few orchids for a long time but they were not doing all that well. They got watered irregularly and probably not often enough. More recently, since early this year, I think, I’ve been watering them regularly, every Saturday. I put the four that we currently have in the kitchen sink and fill it up, letting them soak for about 20 minutes or half an hour. They seem to like that and are all growing and looking pretty healthy. I think that having the trees down in the back yard has helped, as well, because there is more light in our kitchen, which is where our houseplants are gathered. There is a fifth that was nearly dead when I started paying more attention to them and it has two small shoots, although if it is growing, it is growing very slowly and it may not recover.

This is the largest of the plants and it has been in bloom for about a month now, which is very nice. I suspect it had a variety name but if it did, it’s long since been lost.

Begonia Flowers

This afternoon I was sitting on my front stoop enjoying the fine afternoon. The roses, which have been battered a bit lately by the rain, were filling the air with a wonderful sweetness. It was a wonderful place to be. There is a little pot of begonias sitting on a concrete bench opposite the door and, since I happened to have my camera with me (aren’t you surprised?) I took a few pictures. They are not so showy as the roses and they don’t have the heavenly fragrance but they were pretty and deserved some attention. As Dorothy and I would say, “sometimes we should love the little dome.”