Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Happy autumn!

It's official: the autumn equinox falls at 21:18 this evening, so we've only got a few hours left of the summer before it is, undeniably, autumn.

In the garden the first signs are already here: slowly, surely, everything is turning red, orange and yellow on their way to brown.

Ribes sanguineum 'White Icicle'

Hydrangea quercifolia...

...and inexplicably the (previously white) flowers on this have turned a purplish red too

Blueberry 'Bluecrop'

Amelanchier canadensis (couldn't help noticing the birds have already snaffled all the berries though: harrumph)

Crocosmia 'Lucifer': the green pearls which follow the flowers are now peppercorn seedheads

More seedheads taking over the baton from the flowers: here Rudbeckia 'Herbstsonne'

Ah, but it's not all crispy browns and yellows. Autumn is berry season: and how much more colourful can you get than this: Viburnum opulus 'Compactum' (a bit of a cheat this one as the berries have been there since July)

Rosa pimpinellifolia
(another cheat: the hips have been here since summer too but will last long into the winter)

Pyracantha 'Saphyr Orange'

...and there are pheasant berries on my pheasant berry (Leycesteria formosa): these are the ones high up on the plant, as the chicken has already nicked the ones at the bottom.

I have more to come: two other pyracantha, 'Saphyr Jaune' and 'Saphyr Rouge' are only just berrying up and haven't coloured yet, and I have an Increasingly Large Pumpkin which promises to turn a satisfyingly autumnal shade of orange any minute.

So this is autumn? Bring it on!

2 comments:

Liz said...

Lovely photos... So very sad to see the end of Summer, but next comes the magical season of Autumn and then Winter!

Plant Mad Nige said...

Of course it's autumn, the weather's just got better!
Lovely autumnal pictures. Leycesteria is prettier in fruit than in flower, I often think.

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