Because our summers here in the PNW are so dry, our fall colors more often than not are shades of brown and crispy. Even with watering every week, and the recent return of our long-delayed fall rain, I still have shrubs and perennials that are sacrificing leaves in a last-ditch attempt to survive.
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| The lower leaves on my Physocarpus capitatus/Western Ninebark are quite crispy. |
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| Dried up ninebark leaves and seedpods |
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| Twinberry Honeysuckle has browning leaves to match its dried up berries. |
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| Our native elderberry is also crispy. |
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| 'Pacific Fire' vine maple has been sporting dried up leaves along with yellow ones for quite a while now, despite watering. |
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| The lower leaves on my purple coneflowers |
The forecast for tomorrow calls for a major wind and rain storm, so when the wind comes tomorrow, the leaves will probably fall off and blow away.
But, I do have some real fall colors in my garden.
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| In just the past couple of weeks, a great many leaves on the pin oak have turned. |
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| There's great color on the leaves of the new paperbark maple too. |
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| Red Twig Dogwood is showing some beautiful color too. |
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| This leaf reminds me of stained glass. |
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| Red Osier Dogwood is a lovely shade of orange-red. |
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| Peony leaves |
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| Serviceberry/Amelanchier alnifolia |
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| Blueberries are renowned for their great fall color. |
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| Mukdenia rossii 'Crimson Fans" against still green hardy Geranium foliage |
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| Even the leaves of edible rhubarb are coloring up, and looking quite stunning. |
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| Bigroot Geranium leaves that are starting to turn really stand out against the still green ones. |
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| The reason why it's called Fall. |
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| The leaves of my new 'Forest Pansy' redbud |
I know a lot of my fellow PNW blogger friends are mourning the end of our long dry sunny summer. Not me. I was so sick of watering. Sick of trying to figure out how much they would need to just not die on me, to get by. Sick of watching things crisp up despite the sprinklers.
Hooray for fall rain!
