A Delightful Autumn Day

The fallen leaf above is from a sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) near our arboretum. This plant will struggle further north and we're lucky to have such a nice specimen. Nice shot below to the left of the fall color of the Beaver Creek fothergilla (Fothergilla gardenii 'KLMtwo'). The weather was perfect and quite mild. We had mostly sunshine which made our outside activities much more enjoyable after dodging rain drops last week. The Grumpies worked on cutting grapevine for decorations, hauling in benches, cutting down vines, leaf collection, carpentry and myriad other activities. We had Del, Vern, Dave, Bob A., Jim, John, Gary, Ron B., Ron W., Mike, Dick P., Dick H., Bob C., Rollie, Maury, Urban and Charlie. It was a huge crew today. Mary worked on cutting down perennials and later, Janice and Marianne came out in the gardens after working on lights this morning. Janice and Marianne have been very steady and committed with lights work as our timeframe is tight. Dr. Gredler worked on mowing and other tasks and we also saw Jean and Rose. Larry pumped out the sunken garden pond and will be helping put up displays later in the week. Little Jerry worked on cutting back shrubs and light pruning on trees. He brought back plenty of debris. I ran cords and started laying out various areas for displays and lights.

Note the fall color and form of this upright beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Fastigiata') in our arboretum. Narrow trees create focal points, make statements and may be warranted in those narrower garden spaces or locations where that form can be accomodated and featured. There are upright versions of many trees and shrubs. Note some foliage interest below (from today). In order, we have the fall color of the American smoketree (Cotinus obovatus), the yellow brown fall color of an 'Elizabeth' magnolia and the beautiful needles of the white fir (Abies concolor 'Candicans').