How to Propagate Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius)

Ninebark (Physocarpus) is a beautiful garden shrub that grows up to around 10 ft tall in the right location. Many varieties of ninebark have been developed for gardeners including ‘Diabolo’™/’Diablo’™ and ‘Coppertina’™ and can be a great addition to add a nice copper color to your garden foliage. Ninebark can also be very easy to … Read more

What I Like About Fothergilla major (and how to propagate it!)

I love the spring time with its flush of new flowers and this spring’s flowers have one of the record books. Among those flowering plants one of the coolest is the Fothergilla major. Fothergilla is a small shrub in the Hamamelidaceae family that gets around 6 to 10 feet tall with a spread up to … Read more

Fall Color 2018

Fall has always been one of my favorite times of the year. The fall color was especially nice this year all over Middle TN. For a while I really wondered how great it would be due to the dry conditions we had in the summer and early fall. The rains eventually came and our fall … Read more

Fall Color in Southern California

Denise from Southern California has another great Fall Color Project post for us!  You might think that her region may not have much fall color to offer, but if you look you’ll find it!  Just take a glance at the muhlenbergia in full bloom, the ginko trees, or the sweetgum and you’ll see the fall color … Read more

Fall Color from Washington

It’s time to take a trip up to Washington and visit Tatyana.  She went on a visit to one of her favorite nurseries that has a heavy emphasis on Japanese maples!  Japanese maples can be one of the spectacular trees for fall color.  While throughout the year Japanese maple colors can range from variegated white and green … Read more

Georgia in The Fall

Skeeter has brought us our latest Fall Color Project post!  Skeeter teams up with Tina at In the Garden and offers up her garden experiences from Georgia for readers to share.  Go visit Skeeter as she strolls the Augusta Canal with the beautiful Savannah River in view. You know how spectacular fall colors and water … Read more

Illinois Fall Color From Prairie Rose’s Garden

It’s time for more fall color, this time from Illinois!  Rose who writes the blog Prairie Rose’s Garden just posted her pictures of fall.  Colors in her area come from a range of plants including maples, locust trees, burning bushes, and several other colorful plants from her garden.  But of all her colorful plants you … Read more

Some Maple Tree Fall Color

There are few trees that are more colorful in the fall than maples!  The Acer genus really has cornered the market on autumn brilliance.  That’s not to say that there aren’t other trees just as dazzling but its hard to actually beat maples for the color show this time of year.  The colors they show … Read more

Using a Wheelbarrow Planter for Displaying Fall Mums

Is there a flower more typical of fall than mums?  Probably not!  There are definitely some flowers worthy of autumnal appreciation but the mum is the most common one you’ll find this time of year.  I put together a little project for Lowe’s Creative Ideas that uses mums and reuses my dad’s old wheelbarrow. The … Read more

Dad’s Trees in Fall

I mentioned in my last post I would show you the trees that dad planted.  There are quite a few and in this post I really can’t show you all of them but maybe you can see just how much dad loved his trees. This crape myrtle is really a beautiful fall color tree.  Most … Read more

Virginia Creeper – The Other Red Vine in Fall!

Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is one of those beautiful plants for fall color that unfortunately gets mixed up with one of similar appearance but of very ill repute: poison ivy (Rhus radicans).  The difference has traditionally been summed up in the phrase “Leaves of three let it be, leaves of five let it thrive!”  Physically … Read more

We’re Not at Peak Yet, But We’re Close

I always wonder exactly when the colors are going to peak. It always seems though that you never quite have it figured out until you’re actually past peak.  With that in mind are our fall color peaking?  Are the color changing maples, oaks, and sassafras at the height of their autumn radiance?  Hopefully not but … Read more

It Is Most Definitely Fall

It’s no secret that this has been a challenging year for our family. My father’s health issues and fight with cancer completely drained our enthusiasm and many things have suffered.  That is one reason why this fall is so welcome.  Fall represents the closing of the growing season. Winter will come soon after and gardening … Read more

The Ultimate Fall Flower

Is this the ultimate fall flower? Yellow Mums According to Robert Bornstein via Twitter and Stephanie via Facebook Or is this it? Goldenrod (Solidago) According to Suzy via Twitter Or is this it? Shasta Daisy According to Joyce via Facebook Or is it something else? What is the ultimate fall flower? Bloggers please remember the … Read more

The Colors are Still Turning! (Fall Color Project 2010)

This year’s wacky weather has given way to quite a lot of speculation about when the actual peak time for the leaves is. I’ve noticed that this year hasn’t really had a peak color moment. The normal sequential leaf change has been extremely erratic and some plants still haven’t begun to change while others no … Read more

The Colors are Rolling In! (Fall Color Project 2010)

Welcome to another Fall Color Project Post! The leaves are changing faster as we progress through one of my favorite seasons which means we get to see more fall color from our blogging friends and neighbors! Last Friday an Obsessive Neurotic Gardener (aren’t we all? ;)) put up a post with some beautiful scenery. Could … Read more

Tinges of Red

You can see it in the tree line in the backyard. Tinges of red coloring in the foliage of the trees, the sassafras never fails for fall color. We’re not at peak yet, at least I don’t think so but I’m afraid this year will be hard to tell. The dryness of the last two … Read more

Fall Colors From My Garden

The fall color may be winding down across the northern hemisphere but I still haven’t showed you what autumn foliage we’ve seen around here in Southern Middle Tennessee. I hope you will forgive my lateness at my own entry for the Fall Color Project.  I’ve taken tons of pictures of our fall colors and have … Read more

Plant Maples for Fall Color

I’ve made no secret about it but maples are without a doubt my favorite shade tree. Maples offer shade in the summer, feed wildlife with their samaras, and are a feast for the eyes in the fall. Reds, yellows, and oranges tend to be the predominate colors and they set the fall landscape on fire! … Read more

Fall Color Project: From the West Coast to the East

Contrary to popular belief California does have fall color, and it’s pretty good too! Birches, maples, and crape myrtles all are displaying their fall show in Rebecca Sweet’s garden. The view of her ‘Forest Pansy’ Redbud really makes me wish the fall webworms hadn’t munched on mine. Take a trip to the Bay area of … Read more

Fall Color Project: More Autumn Art

Up in Michigan Joey has posted some really cool collages for the Fall Color Project. The colors from the maples and other trees around her town couldn’t have been painted more vividly with any paintbrush. It’s a palette of autumn color that awaits you at The Village Voice! The colors have officially reached their peak … Read more

Fall Color Project: Michigan vs. Tennessee

Nope we aren’t talking football here but fall foliage! Monica the Garden Faerie has posted some fantabulous fall foliage! She also happens to have many of my favorite shrubs in her garden including fothergilla, Red Twig Dogwood, viburnums, and smokebush. I would be right at home in her garden, except or the whole Michigan cold … Read more

Through the Trees

I took this picture over the weekend while the afternoon sun was beginning to descend. It was taken from the very back of our yard looking up toward the treetops of sassafras, dogwood, tulip poplar, and walnut. The fall colors are beginning their peak time and I know I’ll be loading my camera card with … Read more

Fall Color Project: It’s Not All About the Trees

Sometimes we trap ourselves into thinking one notion and stereotype things accordingly. We tend to think of fall color as a time of changing leaves, which it is, but often we leave out the perennials and shrubbery that provide us with color throughout the fall. Asters, fall crocus, and eupatorium seed heads grant us readers … Read more

Fall Color Project: Colors of Toronto and California Wanderings

Helen at Toronto Gardens is treating us with a blast from last year’s fall foliage past. The palette of colors along the hillside is nothing short of stunning. The pictures are taken from Leaside bridge and offer a nearly bird’s eye view of the leaf landscape. Hopefully the leaves will be on the trees when … Read more

Fall Color is Coming!

The colors are on their way! This is just a quick post to remind everyone about the Fall Color Project. Everyone who blogs is welcome to join in and if you don’t then maybe its time you did! Get out there and take those fall color photos when they are in their peak and show … Read more

Caryopteris for September Blues (Fall Flowers)

Do you want an easy to grow shrub that has very few pest problems, isn’t munched on by deer or rabbits, and looks great at the end of summer? No it’s not impossible, think caryopteris! Caryopteris (Caryopteris x clandonensis also called blue mist shrub, bluebeard, or blue mist spirea) is deer and rabbit resistant if … Read more

Hangin’ On

Like the neighbor’s cat holding onto our railing, many of the maples have decided to hold onto their leaves, at least for a while longer. Not all of them of course, the reds lost their leaves several days ago. The sycamore trees still have some dead leaves hanging onto their branches. Their leaves will remain … Read more

Garden Blogger Fall Color Project: Campus Colors

One of the greatest places to find fall color is on the campuses of our country’s learning institutions. Each of these beacons of knowledge are aesthetically landscaped to entice new students to come and to give the students and faculty that attend a sense of nature to enhance their education. This idea is alive at … Read more

Garden Blogger Fall Color Project 2008

As autumn’s colors have wrapped us in a cloth of color we have peeked into the foliage around the gardening blogosphere. Participants from Canada to Florida and Illinois to England have offered up wonderful illustrations of fall’s foremost feature. It’s time to take a look back and see where all that fall color came from … Read more

In the Fall Garden

My fall garden is much less impressive than the trees that surround us. In fact if you were to take away the trees little else would be remaining with any significant color. There are a few things that defeat my previous statement in our garden but I see a definite need for improvement in the … Read more

Garden Blogger Fall Color Project: A Stroll through Northern Georgia

I have always believed that one of our country’s greatest resources is our state and national parks. You can see why when you take a stroll down to Georgia and visit Dot’s (Strolling Through Georgia) trip to the Amicalola Falls State Park. The colors there are in varying hues of gold, red and orange. There … Read more

A Golden Tree: The Tulip Poplar

I’ve written about Tennessee’s state tree, the Tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) before but I decided in order to show as many fall colors as possible I needed to split my pictures into several posts. Yes I really took that many pictures! That’s the danger of the digital world, I haven’t worried about wasting film in … Read more

Garden Blogger Fall Color Project: From the Mountains of Middle TN

Fall is definitely at its peak here in Middle Tennessee! Rhonda at Adventures in My Garden has some great fall color in her own backyard. The view from her back porch is spectacular and would be envied by anyone who likes autumn leaves. Is there really anyone who doesn’t? And the quote she picked out … Read more

Garden Blogger Fall Color Project: From Tennessee to the Blue Ridge Mountains

Today is a great day for fall color here in Tennessee. I went outside a few minutes ago and took some pictures for my Garden Blogger Fall Color Project Post which will come later this week. We also have a hat trick of fall color from several Tennessee bloggers! Peaceful and tranquil beauty grace the … Read more

Garden Blogger Fall Color Project: The Views From Dragon Fly Corner

Illinois is having a fantastic array of autumn colors this year! I’ve highlighted several Illinois bloggers and the fall color near them and now we have another Illinois blogger to add to the Garden Blogger Fall Color Project! Beckie the blogger behind the computer screen of Dragon Fly Corner has put together a great selection … Read more

Garden Blogger Fall Color Project: Japanese Maples, Unbeatable

Over at Ledge and Gardens in Rhode Island Layanee has put together a post about my favorite trees, maples! Layanee’s maples are mostly Japanese maples and their color is nothing short of awesome. From orange to red to gold-green these maples don’t disappoint for fall color. Included in her post are the Acer palmatum varieties … Read more

Garden Blogger Fall Color Project: The Colors of Prairie Rose

There are still fall colors beckoning gardeners in Illinois to pull out their cameras! Rose of the blog Prairie Rose found quite a few colorful trees in her neck of the woods. Crabapples bearing fruit, ashes, maples and a hackberry all join in the fall fray. One very interesting thing among the many photos to … Read more

Garden Blogger Fall Color Project: Surrounded by Fall in the Malverns

What a gift to be surrounded by all the wonderful scenery that Patientgardener is! Over in Malverns, England (in Worchestershire) the chestnut and beech trees are showing their autumnal changes. You even get a peak at some sweetgum trees which are another of my favorites for fall color. (I can forgive them for the seed … Read more

Garden Blogger Fall Color Project: An English Fall and a Japanese Painting

Today I have two more Garden Blogger Fall Color Project posts to share with you! Take another trip overseas to Veg Plotting in Chippenham, England where VP has taken some great shots of the fall colors and pieced them together in a collage for us to see. Colorful smoke trees and Japanese maples are certainly … Read more

A Maple on Fire

The red maple (Acer rubrum) is one of the most beautiful trees for fall color. It leaves shone out in the fall like a bonfire beckoning all to admire. The red maple is such a great tree in the landscape.  I tend to like trees that have at least three seasons of interest and maples … Read more

Garden Blogger Fall Color Project: From the Midwest!

Here are two more great fall color posts for the Garden Blogger fall Color Project. These two posts come to us from the mid-west specifically Chicago, Illinois and Iowa. Mr. McGregor’s Daughter in Chicago, Illinois is observing some really fantastic fall color. The red oaks are competing with the maples for an extraordinary autumn show. … Read more

GB Fall Color Project: Cobblestone and Colors

Elizabeth over at Gardenrant, a well known writer and garden blogger, has posted some picturesque fall photos for the Garden Blogger Fall Color Project. What could epitomize fall more than cobblestone buildings and walls mixed with glorious maples in the rustic farmlands of Route 104 in New York. Farming implements and woodpiles appear in peaceful … Read more

GB Fall Color Project: Ithaca, New York and the Mountains of Maine

Have you had enough of fall color yet? Not me! We have two more great examples of spectacular fall color from two more great bloggers. In Maine Sarah, a professional writer and blogger of Sarah Laurence Blog, takes us on a weekend hiking trip into the mountains of Maine. The photographs of fall colors in … Read more

My Apologies to the Sassafras Trees

Yesterday I commented on a post on Gardening Gone Wild written by Nan for the Garden Blogger Fall Color Project and said how some people consider the Sassafras to be a junk tree. Inadvertently I may have given the impression that I believe it is. The truth is that while it may not make my … Read more