Gardening Flowers & Foliage

It's that time of year

Black Birch drops it's yellow leaves before most any other tree.

 

Hard to believe that I payed $4 and change plus shipping a couple months ago for a tiny packet of big bluestem grass seed. There’s an entire field of it growing in the back 40 of the property at work.

I made sure to grab plenty of seed for next year’s micro prairie at home.

 

I’ve got quite the collection of seeds for next year’s wildflower/native grass project. Big bluestem, little bluestem, Indian grass, switch grass, broom sedge, round headed bush clover, joe pye weed, several goldenrods, common yarrow, common milkweed… I’m waiting on a couple other wildflowers to finish blooming so I can collect that seed too. I plan on outdoor sowing the seed in February. Last year I did it in the fall and had minimal success. I’m guessing that the birds scarfed up most of it. With any luck doing it in the winter, I can do better next year.

 

Quite the collection of seeds! The golden rod will spread easily by itself, and keep spreading, so I'm not sure you really need to broadcast seeds of that unless you are looking at a whole new area to seed.

 

I am indeed seeding a couple new areas I created recently. Last year when I tried seeding some into my existing flower bed, I broadcasted hundreds/thousands of goldenrod seeds and oddly I didn’t have a single one come up this year. So I’ll try again, and if where I put them gets overrun with them I’ll just thin them out.

 

About as colorful as it gets here.






Blueberry


And one last Coneflower saying hello.

 

My trees: Burgandy Belle, taken 10/3/26. Leaves are gone now



Tree hydrangea - also taken 10/3, but still holding on (and getting darker and older looking)



Winterberries, taken 10/4/26. Literally were not visible on 10/3. On 10/4 I saw them from my back porch nearly 80' away.



Autumn Blaze Maple taken 10/14/26 on a cold, gray day


Same tree taken the next day (yesterday)




burning bush taken yesterday (10/15)



October Glory maple is still green. It sometimes holds on until November before doing its thing.

 

this tree is a beauty that is about 1.5 miles from me. About the ony regret I ever had about WFH was that I didn't get to pass it every day in fall during my commute (a lot of other nice views along this particular 13 mile stretch of road). I was out and about doing errands on 9/30/26, when I decided to take a detour and see if it had blushed. Was glad I did as a couple of days later it was stripped nearly bare from a high wind storm system.



Yes, I was at the shoulder of the road and stopped while taking pictures

 

Sure like to know that type bogieb I would plant some of them along driveway
I have a nice autumn glory mines still mostly greeb

 

I’d have been tempted to stop at the side of the road to get a picture too. That’s an iconic New England scene ~ old stone walls, a barn, and a maple tree putting on a good show

 

Beautiful fall foliage bogieb, thanks for sharing

 

That tree is probably older than my mom (late 80's). So most likely a native non-cultivar tree and just a generic red maple (Acer Rubrum)

 

The university of Vermont first study of grafted maples tree was mid 1800s. Reforestation was a big effort in the 1905 time frame, after farmer deforested 85% of state for crops and you need heat so firewood. The official genetic strain for colors and higher sugar content in maples was 1960.
I think most maples here are mutts just like rest of us

 

Foliage is peaking at my house. Left to right: red maple, bitternut hickory, and red oak.

 

My sugar maple had turned frost helped
A beautiful butterfly That smells amazing bush

and the burning bushes going down driveway

going up other side needs red maples

 

I've never seen a butterfly bush that big

 

The babies seem to spread from Base.. I be more than happy to give you some bogieb it was a 3 gallon 12 years ago.. wife says it’s a summer sweet it smells really nice
I am on a hill looking up

 

From the name, I believe that is actually Summer Sweet shrub - which is a native shrub and not the same thing as a Butterfly Bush. I have a Ruby Spice Summer Sweet shrub - which does get that big and spread a bit every year. Also, that tracks from the fall color. Pictures below are from 2023 - it has grown since then

The blooms are very fragrant and the insects love them.

 

We had our 1st frost. Not a hard freeze. Just barely 32⁰


Cold enough to cause the rhubarb to layover.