Tulip poplar leaves are beginning to shed their leaves right in step with the migration of Monarch butterflies. The leaves flutter down in the wind alongside the butterflies of August making their way to cover the dry (at this time if year) soil in an effort to protect the tree's roots. And now as we are rewarded with a few cooler mornings to amble along garden paths in the woodland I am observing some decorative and some not so decorative plants that are showing next Spring's leaf and flower buds.
An unusual evergreen Rhododendron with narrow blue rippled foliage has crumpled chartreuse buds. R. linearifoiium is called Spider Azalea because the bright lipstick pink flowers have many narrow petals.
Rhododendron australis leaves will fall off for the winter but the buds you see here are still expanding and will decorate the tree for the cold months of winter.
Rhododendron maximum below will sometimes hold flower parts through the summer looking for all the world like a big green spider taking a tour of it's territory.
Rhododendrons always reward us with sentinel buds nestled into a whirl of leaves that remain on the plant through frosty temperatures. Many of you may know that R. Maximum is a great visual weather gauge. The leaves droop down when the temperature drops below freezing. Below is another plant whose leaves do the same. My mother planted Viburnum rhytidophyllum outside the kitchen sink window as a quick reminder of weather conditions in the morning so she would know to tell us how to dress for our mile long walk to school. I like the unusual furry brain shaped buds siting in a cluster of future leaf buds.
Below, buds along the zig zag stems of Corylopsis stand out especially when the leaves have all fallen away for the winter
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Most of us associate the summer into fall season with a fine berry crop or the odd seed capsule on those plants we plan to cut and bring in for the coming holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Shown below are some of the not yet ripe fruiting bodies of shrubs and trees that are thriving in my gardens in the forest.
Above, the berries of Viburnum dilitatum 'Asian Beauty' will turn a bright red. Watch out for random seedlings of this plant throughout your garden if you add it into your woodland. Native plant aficionados have given fair warning about it's sometimes pernicious self seeding.
Sitting behind a Paw Paw tree sucker the berries of Lindera aggregata or L. strichnifoila (Japanese Evergreen Spicebush) will become a lustrous blue/black. You may find the healthful properties of this plant as fascinating as I have.... Give it a Google. Woodlanders Nursery in Aiken, SC USA is a good mail order source for this beautiful plant.
Another great evergreen shrub in a Genus with many cultivars to choose from for leaf form, texture and variegation is Aucuba. Above see the cluster of olive sized green berries on this female plant. They will grace your garden through the winter with a touch of bright red as the berries mature.
Fun Fall purple berries which these green balls along the stems will become are on the shrub American Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana. Coming upon them when ripe always stimulates conversation. Birds love this treat and if discovered before you when ripe by a feathered friend the fruit will be stripped in a matter of days.
Ripening sculptural seed structures add interest this time of year. Below are olive green seed capsules of Stewartia monodelpha floating above a stand of 'Snowflake' Oakleaf Hydrangea.
Knobby velvety clusters alternating on Arnold's Promise Witch hazel' horizontal branches really are seed capsules!
Time to get out and discover the fruits of natures bounty in your gardens in woodlands. Above, on the same shrub, Pieris 'Valley Valentine' displays the drooping brown remains of past spring flowers and at the top of the plant cascading buds to grace this loveliest of plants through winter.
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