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.

Fall in Florida/Proof #2

Here's more proof—a couple of autumn-hued beauties on the banks of the Santa Fe River.

Season of melancholy! Eye's enchanter!

How pleasing to me are your farewell hues—

How I love the pomp of fading Nature,

The trees arrayed in gold-vermilion dress,

The fresh wind blowing through their tops and

chanting,

The dense and darkly undulating skies,

The sun's infrequent ray, the early frost,

And grizzled Winter's lightly murmured threats.

-Alexander Pushkin, from Autumn (A Fragment)

Fall in Florida/Proof #1

Yes, we have it—fall is an actual season in the part of Florida where I live, although in some years the colors are more intense than others. A couple of years ago, we had a really spectacular fall, so much so that the local newspaper even ran large full-color pictures of the foliage.

We haven't been so lucky this year, but we are finally seeing some good fall color. Here's proof, in the picture above—a carpet of leaves at the nearby spring.

Pink Muhly Grass

In our search for pretty things that give fall color to the yard, we discovered pink muhly grass.

The grass is pretty spectacular when it catches the last rays of the setting sun, as it was doing last week--shown in the picture above. (You can click on the picture for a bigger view.)

And, best of all, muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris) is native in Eastern North America from about Massachusetts down to Florida and then west along the Gulf Coast--so it's relatively easy to maintain.

Our grass benefits, I'm sure, from being in a part of the yard that gets watered by sprinklers during the hottest part of the summer months.

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 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....