Fall Colors, Part 1

Forrest has done remarkable things with our garden spot this year. There's a profusion of flowery plants attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds, although we think our hummers may have already left for Guatemala.

Of course my favorites are always the beautyberries, with their gorgeous purple berries that serve, in these parts, to herald the arrival of autumn.

About the same time that the beautyberries turn purple, the night-blooming jasmine begins to perfume the air. We started our plant from cuttings from a plant at my parents' house, and our jasmine dies back every winter (winters are colder here than they are in Central Florida); fortunately, it regenerates every spring. Now, we are just starting to get the first subtle whiffs of sweetness when the sun goes down.

Autumn has always been my favorite season, maybe because my birthday falls near the equinox, maybe because of the new energies associated with the beginning of the academic year. I spent the largest part of my life either in school or working various jobs in higher education, so fall semester = fresh start, which is kind of odd, since autumn is traditionally a time for harvesting and weeding out.

And of course, there are other fall rituals as well. See next post.

Beautyberry in Prime, Closeup

"I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille."

Beautyberry in Prime, Purple

The beautyberries have been in their prime now for several weeks, but a 6-days-a-week work schedule and other writing priorities have delayed this posting.

I think our bluebirds had been nibbling on the berries even before I took this picture, but it will give you an idea of how beautiful one of my favorite fall foliage plants looks this time of year.

Remember, you can click on the picture for a better view. I will post a closeup next.

Beautyberry in Transition

Sometime between my last trip to KTD and today, which is the first day I haven't worked since I got home, our beautyberries have begun their annual transition from green to purple.

Here's a glimpse from our garden spot, with our red garden Buddha's head in the background.

Beautyberries!

Little green berries have formed where small pinkish-white flowers once bloomed!

This is the beautyberry at our garden spot; I'll post a news flash as soon as the berries turn that gorgeous autumn purple that gives this perennial its name.

Remember, you can click on the picture for a larger view.

Beautyberry Flowers!

News flash from the yard: Our beautyberries are bearing flowers! This is big news because later this summer, the flowers will give way to green berries that will then turn the most bee-yoo-tee-ful shade of purple.

Maybe it's because our summers here are so brutally hot and humid that I love the beautyberry; it's always exciting to see the very first of the purple berries, because it reminds me that fall's cooler weather is on the way.

The beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) is native to Florida, "commonly used as a specimen shrub for its prolific, attractive purple fruit" (Florida's Best Native Landscape Plants, p. 49).

If you live anywhere in eastern North America, you may have seen the beautyberry. Look for "a loosely branched, irregularly spreading, graceful shrub with arching branches" that bears small pink to lavender flowers in early summer, "conspicuous, showy, purplish drupes" in late summer and fall, and loses its leaves during the winter. Beautyberries are hardy in zones 6 to 11.

There is also a white-fruited form, C. americana forma lactea, which my book says may be used with the purple-fruited form to "create a very interesting combination." Hmmmm....

Garden Spot/Blooming Aloe

Forrest rescued this beautiful big aloe plant from the last restaurant where he worked, after it closed. Every so often, the aloe puts on a show with a big, beautiful bloom—as you can see!

The bush to the right of the aloe plant is a beautyberry, a native plant that gets outrageously gorgeous purple berries in the fall. Since I'm a fall foliage nut, you will probably see plenty of pictures of the beautyberry when it begins to "do its thing." Stay tuned. (We got the Buddha from Target or, as we often pronounce it, "Tar-ZHAY.")