Dave at The Home Garden announced last month that he was repeating his popular Fall Color Project this autumn, and since then, I’ve been looking forward to sharing the fall foliage colors from here in southeastern Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the recent four-day spell of cold, rain, and wind seems to have spoiled the best part of the show, and I’m guessing that the shots I took over the last two weeks are as good as I’m going to get. I’ll start the tour with some shots from Lake Nockamixon in upper Bucks County, PA. The images above and below were taken on October 6.
The next one is from nearby Linden Hill Gardens, in Ottsville, PA.
Oh wait, that’s the wrong way ’round. It’s supposed to look like this!
About a week later, I took a ramble around my parents’ farm, which is adjacent to my place. We’re still in upper Bucks County here, but about 20 miles west of Lake Nockamixon, and about 30 miles north of Philadelphia. The hedgerows are mostly a mix of oaks (Quercus), hickories (Carya), maples (Acer), and eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), with a bunch of other trees and shrubs seeded in.
The flowering dogwoods (Cornus florida), in particular, have colored up well this month.
This group of older sassafras (Sassafras albidum) trees pretty much peaked out at yellow…
…(the same trees from a different perspective)…
…but a stand higher up the slope is much more colorful.
It has also been a good year for that most outstanding of natives for fall foliage color, Toxicodendron radicans, both at the farm…
…and in a hedgerow over here at Hayefield.
Ok, so it’s just poison ivy, but you have to admit that it’s pretty from a distance. A long distance.
Even with the dismal weather, there’s a good bit of fall foliage color within the garden as well.
Above is ‘Bailey Compact’ American cranberrybush viburnum (Viburnum trilobum). Below is a view of the same plant from a different perspective, with other viburnumy companions, Acer triflorum, and a skirt of Arkansas bluestar (Amsonia hubrichtii).
Continuing the natives theme is a particularly nice Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica)…
…’Little Honey’ oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia)…
…and ‘Tor’ birchleaf spirea (Spiraea betuifolia).
Some other foliage standouts among the shrubs include Abelia mosanensis…
…and unnamed Japanese maple (Acer palmatum)…
…’Royal Purple’ smoke bush (Cotinus coggygria)…
…’Kumson’ forsythia (Forsythia viridissima var. koreana)…
…and golden elderberry (Sambucus nigra ‘Aurea’), which, admittedly, is this color all through the growing season but especially striking with all the reds and oranges this time of year.
One more vine, too: Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolius), which in one spot has wound up through Persicaria ‘Crimson Beauty’. I couldn’t decide if I preferred this first shot from October 6th…
…or this one from a week later, so I included both.
Among the herbaceous plants, some foliage highlights include that Hayefield favorite, Arkansas bluestar (Amsonia hubrichtii)…
…dwarf goatsbeard (Aruncus aethusifolius)…
…Bowman’s root (Porteranthus stipulatus)…
…shredded umbrella plant (Syneilesis aconitifolia)…
…and ‘Redbor’ kale mingled with Italia leaf broccoli (spigariello).
And then there are the grasses – yay! A few highlights include blood grass (Imperata cylindrica ‘Red Baron’)…
…’Northwind’ switch grass (Panicum virgatum)…
…prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis)…
…and ‘Skyracer’ purple moor grass (Molinia caerulea).
Unbelieveably, in the course of my putting this post together, the skies have finally cleared and the sun is shining, so I’m headed outside to enjoy whatever color is left. If you want to see how the autumn is progressing in other areas (including another take on Pennsylvania’s beauties from TC at The Write Gardener), or if you have fall pictures of your own to share, be sure to visit The Fall Color Project.
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