Last colour parade .. I think ?

Upper photo "Waterfall"

Bottom photo is "Fothergilla gardenii"

Hydrangea "Berry White"

This bottom photo is "Deft Lace" astilbe hybrid , I have never seen it transition to these colours before.

Neighbor's tree

Neighbor's tree

My Pacific Sunset Maple

The weather has been unusually good so the girls get to sniff out door air for a while longer.

Autumn Flashes

Autumn is just about my favorite time of year .. I have to give leeway to Spring when the garden wakes up .. but the garden going to sleep is a beautiful event as well. You watch for specific plants .. such as Kirengeshoma palmata  aka Korean Yellow Wax Bell . Asters , the ones I have shock me with that impossible vivid blue. Sadly ? it is in the wrong spot, not enough sun but it stubbornly hangs on to life where it is and I don't have the heart to try and transplant it because I worry it will die on me.

Foliage coloring right now is slow but sure .. 

Anemone ... tall and wild looking.

Goldenrod that I keep in check ... I have pinched back a number of times so that it will bloom with a wide, multi-head, much later than normal. It gives the pollinators that needed jolt at the end of the season. Funny enough I would never have thought of this plant in my garden years ago, when it was all about collecting cultivars of groomed plants. I now am committed to giving what I can to the pollinators. 

Who would not think of sedum in the Fall ?

Tricyrtis formosana aka Toad Lily. I have two types in the garden .They look like a type of orchid to me, yet survive our Canadian winters, you have to love that !

The top plant takes a cluster form, as it flowers . While the bottom one flowers up the spine of the foliage.

I randomly was picking up leaves and kept going with some rose hips, a rose, and rosemary.

A little "branchling" ? with at least four stages of leaves in flux with coloring and seed heads. It comes from "The Mother of All Trees"  aka Pacific Sunset maple, in our back garden. She is a beauty but is battling "Black Tar Spot" ... you don't see it until the Autumn .. it doesn't harm the tree, but it is ugly. So I try to capture unmarked leaves to save.

The light in early morning or late afternoon can be so exquisite against leaves. This is Autumn Brilliance serviceberry that has beautiful white flowers in Spring then followed by berries, which the birds feast on.

I can't seem to get to the bottom of this photo to post any more ... I guess there is a first time for everything ?

Mad about them or just mad ?

 I don't usually take pictures from the front garden because I am too busy weeding the stones or doing general tidy up, so I was glad to get this as a record of how the plants are doing this time of year. There are nine hydrangea in the raised bed here believe it or not (you can't see them all in this picture).. four BoBo which I think might be a little too crowded, that is on my list for next year

This is Pinky Winky ... but it looks like Strawberry Vanilla the way it's colouring advances. PW is also one of my oldest hydrangea.

Two Phantom hydrangea against the ally wall has very large flower heads and is just changing colour now.

I have two Berry White against the fence in the back garden.

Berry White developed flower heads over a foot long ! The back lighting made this one gorgeous.

Little Lamb was my first hydrangea and made me a total fan of the paniculated form.

Filtered light makes the hydrangea petals shine, I love how they look !

A cute mushroom is always something that makes me smile so it had to be photographed !

Evidence that the smaller birds in the garden are snacking on the seeds left by the coneflowers. I love to see that they are enjoying themselves like that !

I couldn't ignore how amazing the fluffy clematis seed heads get, but also with almost the legs of a spider waiting for it's dinner to pass by ?

I think most gardeners have some type of sedum that begins to blush for Autumn ?

Autumn is coming ... and I have so much work to do !