Mild Monday

Nice combination of colors on this 'Autumn Fantasy' maple (Acer x freemanii). This shot was also taken at the Longenecker Gardens at the UW-Arboretum. Awesome fall colors. I think this is the best year I've seen for color. I judge this not based on the usual "greats" like sugar maple (Acer saccharum), 'Autumn Purple' ash (Fraxinus americana), etc. but on those trees that normally have muted yellows or average color. This year, the green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), honeylocust (Gleditisia triacanthos var. inermis) and black walnut (Juglans nigra) which typically have ok fall color (yellow) are blazing yellow and look the best I've seen. If we can select woody plants for their 2-3 week window of bloom, why not for their fall color as well? What a nice asset. Nice close-up of the recurved needles of the white fir (Abies concolor 'Glauca') below. This fir has a lot of potential in the landscape and should replace the Colorado blue spruce in time I hope.
"Mild Monday" refers to the temperature, not the amount of work accomplished. Marv was all over, tearing out plants, composting and rototilling. Marianne began the arduous process of removing annuals in front of the visitors center and tidying up as she went along. Janice was pulling annuals and cutting back hostas while Jerry continues to clean up the Japanese Garden and is helping put our water features "to bed." Larry helped me with some event preparation (Halloween Walk) and keeps busy with equipment repair and gardening (as time allows!). Tony and Rick finished resurfacing a path, did some pressure washing and are now edging our north path to keep the gravel contained and to make it a lot safer to traverse that route. The Grumpies helped pull annuals, worked on the shed, painted and went pumpkin picking for our Halloween Walk.
While I wasn't distracted by fall color yesterday, I did notice lots of ornamental bark, stems and of course, ornamental fruit. This hybrid, deciduous holly (Ilex verticillata x serrata 'Autumn Glow') was awash with bright red fruits. This is the female and does require a male pollinator. The winterberry hollies are hardy here but like damp, well-drained soil on the acidic side. We don't have many nice specimens at Rotary Gardens but the image below was on an 8' tall specimen that really becomes a focal point and "eye catcher" this time of year.