ham & eggs

it has been a long winter so far, and winter doesnt officially begin until tomorrow! i found a surprise while out on a walk with the dog: a huge shrub verbena a.k.a. lantana with blooms still in full delicious color! often called 'ham & eggs' in the south where it is considered an invasive species, this lantana was in virginia near the chesapeake bay on the back side of a building creating a 8+ zone sub-climate for clearly a long time...very delicious!

crazy colors of fall

we had 69 days of over 90° days this past summer and rain in bunches when it did fall...but somehow the autumn color has been more spectacular this autumn! my dwarf fothergill continues to impress as it morphs on...

dwarf fothergill

my dwarf fothergill never fails to show off in fall...although, i have never seen this color in it's arsenal of awesomeness!

dwarf fothergilla

other than the sugar maples, we are not seeing a lot of color around here yet...which is fine by me: hold off winter til the last second, please! while weeding today, i found this blazing leaf in the middle-at the bottom-of my completely still green dwarf fothergilla. a peak at things to come.

volunteering

i love a volunteer!

while weeding the completely-overgrown-despite-no-rain-and-record-temperatures backyard, i stumbled upon a volunteer purple  rose of sharon! sweet: now i have a coordinate for my volunteer pink one!

plum peonies

I love the idea of peonies: big gorgeous fluffy heads bursting with color! in reality, mine had always fallen over and became infested with ants, so even if I wanted to bring them indoors I couldn't. but then I ran across these plum peonies this morning: standing erect despite the rain and looking gorgeous! I might have to rethink peonies...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

hydrangea

my neighbor has this hydrangea shrub that has the most amazingly deep navy blue blooms in summer. I didn't notice until today how gorgeous they also are in the fall! this is an old plant that sits in deep shade under a tall dogwood which is under a taller loblolly pine. I guess the acid supplied by the pine needles is the reason for such intense color. lovely!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone