Garden Bloggers Foliage Day – October 2011
Second post for this foliage thing that Christina from her Garden of the Hesperides is holding. Weather has changed lately and finally it seems we are officially into autumn. Considering it was summer until a couple of weeks ago colours are not so stunning this year, everything will turn from green to naked/dead in just a few days veeery quickly, global weather is changing? who knows.
I only have a few time, so I’m going to post the pics without many comments, I’m sorry.
Miscanthus purpurascens have started turning orange and crimson but not that much this year.
Grey foliage is still holding up, this phlomis in the foreground will be cooked by frost very soon I guess…
Some late flowering grasses are still providing a few colour and interest to the garden though
Surprise, surprise! Finally chili peppers ‘hot chocolate’ ripened… just in time for the winter cold…
This is itea virginica. I love its fall colours but I bet it’s not very happy here because it’s not growing at all…
Another surprise: the 3 serviceberries (amelanchier lamarkii) on the gravel garden did it. They’ve been menacing suicide for all summer but here they are, with beautiful yellow rounded leaves
A must have hydrangea is h. quercifolia. It is a very tough plant with oak-like leaves, nice flowers and beautiful fall colours. It will turn orange and electric pink in a while, if its little green smelly king will allow it…
A couple of prickly pics with euphorbia rigida, turning a beautiful red shade under strong cold (when not dying) and a close-up of the red thorns of hybrid rosa spinosissima ‘Single Cherry’. Spinosissima is the superlative of prickly… and it means it!
And one of the last addition to trees in Cà Rossa is this little one. I don’t remember its name but it sounds like alianthus. Well definitely it is not an alianthus. I like the foliage, especially in autumn and its seedpods looks like hundreds of tiny bird-cages, something like Physalis alkekengi, but not orange. Mina seems a little bothered about it…
AltroVerde 
I know this is a post about foliage, but what is your stunning pink flowering grass – it looks fabulous?!
Your little green shield bug is probably confused by the change of colour of the Hydrangea leaf – it was nicely camouflaged until the leaf changed colour – now all its predators can see it!
Wow, those red thorns on your rose are amazing. glad I’m not weeding round it, beautiful backlit by the sun though!
Dear Pauline, the ”stunning pink flowering grass” is muhlenbergia capilaris, you (English) call it muly grass I think. I love it. It is a late flowering grass, so it’s rather low profile for all summer but it sets quite a show in fall. I love it.
I think my little shield bug can defend itself pretty good and otherwise it won’t be a big loss for the World. 😉
Weeding around rosa spinosissima is quite a challenge, as there’s also rubus tibethanus not so far…
thank you for joining GBFD Alberto and I I imagined you have shown us some spectacular images. Like Pauline I love the pink haze of flowers from the grass, is it Eragrostis spectacularis? and those thorns, wow! Christina
Thank you, Christina.
I keep love grass (eragrostis spectabilis) in the gravel garden it is similar but not so pink. This is muhlenbergia.
I like the pink misty grass with the dark orbs in front of it.
I hope you have a fun weekend Alberto– and your garden is still so pretty.
Dark orbs are echinacea purpurea dried flowers. Tonight I’m having dinner at my mother-in-law’s and all her crew… I hope for better plans tomorrow! Thank you anyway! I hope you are having a nice weekend too!
Well I’ll add to the pink muhly grass chorus. Bummer it’s just out of my zone. Maybe one day global warming might put it and my beloved camelias in to my zone. I despise GW but it’s a fact we will all grow less hardy plants in our new zones.
Dear Patrick, I think muhly grass is pretty hardy… Surely more than camelias! I use to think same way as you about GW and growing less hardy plants but I realized I was wrong. Winters are still rather cold around here, despite summers are a little more hot and dry…
Hi Alberto,
Wonderful photos, I seriously want to steal your garden and plants in it 😀
I wouldn’t bother sharing some of my plants with other people, if you only live closer… You know you’re welcome anytime and steal if you want. Maybe one day you’ll come to Italy.
Your gardens continue to impress…they are so gorgeous! I really love that shot of the Echinacea seed heads in front of the Muhly Grass…so vibrant!
I must admit that is one combination I’ve seen (pictured, as I’ve never been to US) done by Oudolf at The Battery, there is the link to their website on the right column, here. It was Muhly grass, echinacea and allium tuberosum. Probably in my climate flowering times are not so sync, allium tuberosum has finish flowering more than a month ago and I don’t know any other allium as late flowering as muhly grass…
Ciao Alberto, hai delle splendide graminacee.
Buona giornata.
Loretta
Ciao Loretta, grazie dei complimenti! Mi piace sapere che sono seguito anche da qualche connazionale, pare che i blog sul giardinaggio siano solo stranieri…
Hello Alberto. Did you know that r.spinosissima (now r.pimpinellifolia) is also called the Scots rose? Mr Boyd’s website http://www.peterboyd.com/scotsroses.htm will tell you all you could ever wish to know about them. I grow three or four, and I value my skin too much to prune them properly – every few years I take a hedge trimmer to them, and they come away again no bother.
Thanks for the link Mr K, very interesting! I love all pimpinellifolia hybrids and the wild one is the Scots rose, it is supposed to be native where you live, I bet your hedge is rather hard to pass, isn’t it? The rose I’ve pictured, however, is ‘Sigle Cherry’, single, deep crimson flowers, followed by big rounded dark hips. The plant is supposed to be small though. I have other hybrids and I wish I had more but they’re quite rare around here…
Alberto, with pictures like this , you don’t need to say to much. If its OK with yourself I will add one of your garden pictures and a link to your blog on my (Your gardens) page. You can always let me know if you would rather have it removed. alistair
Another of my senior moments Alberto, (already done it.) You can always edit my comment to save my blushes, or on the other hand being a silly old fool may be seen as endearing to some.
Dear Alistair, I don’t like to erase comments made by others but the one that should blush is me! I’m not senior (nor blond!!!) but I haven’t noticed you added me to your beautiful garden list until now! So your little ‘mistake’ has been very useful to me! I need to thank you, it’s such a honor to be part of that list in your blog!
I have to spend some time and retouch my blogroll list too!
Alberto, how wonderful to see your garden still going…so many flowers I am familiar with…such wonderful news about Mina although bad timing to play nurse….
You made the point! A bad timing to play nurse. Or doctor. Or step-father…
Thank you Donna.