Foliage Follow-Up November 2013

We missed out on the Bloomday meme this month and our Foliage Follow-Up (which technically makes it a no follow-up as it didn't have anything before it to follow...) is perhaps a few days late but as they say better late than never!

Euphorbia stygiana glistening with morning dew. All photos on this post were taken on a
particularly misty and dewy early last Saturday morning.

The tricky thing is being able to take photos of the garden whilst there is still daylight during the week, in a period when daylight is short hence more often than not it's dark already by the time either of us gets home. So most photos we take of the garden during the colder and darker months are at weekend unless specified so. That's our excuse anyway for not getting into Bloomday but at least Foliage Follow-up we can do.

Magnolia dealbata (syn. Magnolia macrophylla var. dealbata) still in leaf but is starting
to show signs of changing color. The colder weather forecast for this week will hasten
the process leaf fall and winter dormancy.

Magnolia denudata 'McCracken's Variegated' is also still in leaf

Hard frosts are predicted to make an appearance sometime this week which will no doubt put most of the herbaceous perennials into submission and trigger the remaining deciduous plants still in leaf to shed and go dormant. Walking around the garden last weekend and seeing most plants still looking lush and leafy does make you wish that the frosts won't come for another week more or so (or not come at all, wouldn't that be nice? Pure wishful thinking here!). It's nothing unusual though for the time of the year, in fact we're already lucky enough to have had only light frosts when on some years heavy frosts occur the moment November ushers in (sometimes even in October).

Looks like this Tricyrtis formosana will never get the chance to open its blooms

Amicia zygomeris covered in dew

But the arrival of the frosts are not all bad. Once herbaceous growth have turned to mush and deciduous leaves have been shed then the winter tidy up can go into full swing.

As our garden is mainly a foliage one then Foliage Follow-up should be easy for us too, nice!

Albizia julibrissin is likely to get a cold surprise this week

Zingiber mioga 'Dancing Crane' has already started to go dormant. I don't even remembering
seeing it in its full leafy glory last summer and now it's going dormant. That's how busy it was for us...

Ficus carica 'Adam' is going to be naked for the winter

It flowered last year and now it has rewarded us with lots of heads. Can't wait to see how it will
develop in the following years to come! - Yucca recurvifolia