That soon the land will be covered in a deathly blanket of brown and gray. All my intense oranges, bright pinks, and glowing chartreuses will be gone. GONE! Just like that.

And then, then I’m faced with life filled with neutrals. It’s almost too much to bear. Not that I don’t appreciate the change in the seasons, but come early February……. sheesh!

I usually wait until frost before removing annuals and tropicals, getting every last drop of summer beauty from the plants. Plus some of the plants I overwinter go dormant a bit better if they are hit by frost before digging – elephant ear (Colocasia, Alocasia), Canna, dahlia, and banana (Musa, Ensete) are good examples. All of these can spend the winter in a state of suspended animation in the basement. Tropicals that cannot tolerate cold and are kept growing over the winter do, of course, need to be dug before frost.

But if my tender plants are in a garden area that gets a winter treatment, well, you do what you must. Some years you cannot wait ’til frost and you have to respect the available time for doing the change-out. Thus was the case this week with Nonie’s Garden right in front of the main museum building entrance. Over a three day period, the garden went from summer glory to winter joy.

The garden had filled in rather nicely.

The salvias were in full bloom, the tall S. splendens “Van Houttei” and its dwarfer color echo, S. splendens “Vista Burgundy.”

The Justicia fulvicoma (Mexican plume) was at its peak.

Now, not everything was at its peak, I admit. The Leonotis leonurus  (lion’s ear) was just beginning to show color. The Hedychium “Tara” (ginger) I planted to fill space (and hoped might bloom despite a late planting) did fill space. It was not that great a summer for growing, even the tropicals.

On the other hand, the Colocasia esculenta “Elena” was beautiful.

The Canna x generalis “Intrigue” was stunning in its tall upright smoldering bronze foliage and peachy-orange blooms.

Perhaps most fabulous of all was the Dahlia hortensis “Karma Choc.” Without a doubt, this is my new favorite dahlia. Dark foliage with bronze overlay and the most incredible flowers.

The color. How to describe the color. Black cherry chocolate red burgundy.

They are just too much for mere words. And they make superb cut flowers.

Anyway. It all had to go. Time for the winter show.

I had planned on blue lions hunting in the Serengeti plain. Which is to say Picea pungens “Glauca Globosa” (a dwarf globe Colorado blue spruce) among Calamagrostis x acutiflora “Karl Foerster” (feather reed grass). But…….. well, you know how sometimes the best laid plans go astray? Mine strayed. I could not get the grass with flower/seed heads still attached. Oh, they would tell me they still had the seed heads but when I got there – no seed heads. So now my blue lions are a bit exposed on the Serengeti.

The effect is still good but not so dramatic. I suppose there is enough drama in the world these days already. But I do like a lot of drama in my designs.

In spring, the planting will be enhanced with tulips and pansies for a badly needed change to some color. So don’t fret, cause you know a change, a change is coming. Just hold on.

My tropicals at home are probably not thrilled with the cooler temperatures, but must be beside themselves with joy at not relying on me for water. I tended to be a bit stingy with it. As you may remember, about two minutes after watering plants the soil seemed as dry as before. It got to be quite a chore. And I’ve been fearing the monthly water bill ever since the drought started in earnest. Here at the IMA it was much easier to keep things hydrated, but to this day I confess there seems to be something different when the water comes from the clouds rather than the hoses.

Fall color is starting to kick in. At first glance it kinda surprises me. Then I remember tomorrow is October. I think it was so damn hot for so damn long that it’s still a little hard to believe change is possible. These ash in the main parking lot really caught my eye this week.

I don’t remember them in this completely red phase in past years. That does not in any way mean they have not done it every year. I just don’t remember if they have. Yea, they’ll probably succumb to the borers eventually.

I love unexpected surprises…… duh, like a surprise should be expected. Anyway, when I was walking about I found these Liatris in the Overlook. They have superb fall color, especially for a perennial.

They were providing a color echo for nearby oak leaf hydrangeas.

And of course there are the fall blooming perennials as well.

Not that either the plants or I have given up on summer. There is still tropical splendor and color all over the gardens.

One of the great advantages of living in a temperate climate is the glorious colors displayed by the plant community in the fall. Trees, shrubs, and even some perennials seem to want to throw one last orgiastic Las Vegas-style display before winter slaps everyone upside the face and screams, “Go to sleep! Now!”
The reverie is in sight everywhere here in the gardens and grounds of the IMA, from the contemporary gardens near the around the museum building to Oldfields to 100 Acres. You can find a plant somewhere doing its best hoochie-koochie dance to get your attention one last time. How long will the show last? Hard to say. With the drought this year I think it will be a quick peep then lights-out, leaves fall. But, I could be totally off the mark. Nature’s floor shows can be difficult to predict. Your best bet is to get out there and enjoy whatever performances you can catch.
I’m prone to go on and on about paperbark maple, Acer ginnala. I know, I know, I’m prone to go on about everything. Get your own blog. Paperbark maple is a favorite of mine with its fabulous bark, foliage, and fall color. But I want to mention the paperbark’s slightly more subtle friend, three-flower maple, Acer triflorum. We have a few on the north side of the parking garage.

Beautiful foliage, beautiful bark, and good fall color. All on a tree small enough for most any landscape but big enough to provide some shade.

A more traditional maple for shade is this sugar (Acer saccharum) near Deer Zink.

The uncommon Disanthus cercidifolius and our native spicebush (Lindera benzoin) look wonderful in their fall finery.

With Oldfields being an 80-plus year-old landscape many mature trees can be found there. The red maple, Acer rubrum, in front of Garden Terrace is one of the first to color up.

My eye is always captured by the way this sugar maple glows through the other, still green trees this time of year.

It really looks like each leaf is lit from within.

And from beneath it’s just gorgeous.

The service drive going towards 100 Acres is nice, of course.

And the fall colors always create a neat color echo for the pony-truss bridge across the canal.

Within Alfredo Jaar’s Park of the Laments, the fragrant sumac, (Rhus aromatica ‘Grow-low’) are developing their trademark glossy red colors. The switch grass (Panicum virgatum, at the top,) likewise is getting some burgundy in the leaves to go with the silvery flowering plumes.

By the lake, the gray and white bark of a young sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) makes a great background for the very red foliage of Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia).

Down the road along the lake, mulberries (Morus alba) provide a color echo for one of the pieces in Jeppe Hein’s Bench Around the Lake.

Even some of my tropicals are getting in the act. The Tibouchina grandiflora, princess flower or glory bush, around Sutphin Fountain are taking on simply mouthwatering shades of pumpkin orange.

Great color, great texture, what’s not to love? I mean, who cares if it ever blooms? Okay, I would like the purple flowers with the pumpkin foliage. But you can’t always get what you want.

I am still digging tropicals and other non-hardies at home. If the weather had not been so great I would be in deep double-dug doo-doo. As it is, I’m sort of leisurely going along – but admittedly starting to look over my shoulder for “real” November weather. Whether it was the cooler summer or the steady rains I don’t know but many plants did extra good this year. The Amorphophallus konjac got huge.

The Xanthosoma violaceum produced “pups”. A first for me.

Even a stroll around the IMA reveals horticulture rarities. One of the bananas Jim planted by the Rain Garden bloomed this year. Since that stalk will die anyway he just left it in the ground. The leaves look real sad but that bloom, that bloom thinks it can still make fruit. The middle of November and it is barely touched by cold.

These little yellow flowers would each develop into a banana in the perfect (tropical) climate.

Behind Deer Zink the containers still have variegated shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet ‘Variegata’) looking great. On November 13!

On the Sutphin Mall Geranium ‘Rozanne’ demonstrates why I still am willing to plant it. Plenty of flowers on a plant that started blooming in May.

The woody plants continue to put on a show as well. Near the Formal Garden, European beeches glow in the afternoon sun. All that yellow holding back the gray of winter.

In the Overlook an oak and some viburnums seem to have color coordinated themselves.

So even though it is mid-November there is still plenty to enjoy and delight in the gardens. Why don’t you come and visit a spell?

Even though I miss my gaudy tropicals terribly I know their demise means the autumnal show is ready to start. And who doesn’t love a good show?

This year the colors are simply spectacular, the reds super intense like the color of first lust, the oranges brilliant as Vegas showgirl costumes, and the yellows absolutely glowing like so many rhinestones on a Porter Wagner jacket. It’s just been a great year to walk about and soak it all in. And it’s lasting a pretty long time too.

I suspect our cooler wetter summer has something to do with the great color. But did you ever wander why the trees and shrubs especially change color? The fact that the trees produce less chlorophyll allowing the red and yellow pigments (carotenoids) to show is fairly common knowledge. The trees also produce more red-purple pigments (anthocyanins). But is that all there is to it? I get regular e-newsletters from my former boss when I interned at the Cincinnati Zoo, Rob Halpern (thanks for the link Katie). He now has his own design/consulting business (ZHCD) and includes in each month’s newsletter a group of links to interesting and sometimes bizarre plant news. In fact these have been such a hit they now have a website devoted to them, plantworldnews.com. Anyway, one of Rob’s recent newsletters included a link about fall color. One theory suggests the reds in autumn color dates back 35 million years when the trees and their insect pests survived a series of ice-ages. Could it be the trees are warning the aphids “my leaves are about to die don’t lay your eggs on me”? It’s a fascinating story you can read in its entirety here. Let me also just say I really wish Rob would sell t-shirts or something with his logo. It’s brilliant.

Okay, enough chatter about color. Let’s look at some color.
Maples of all forms are great this year.

Cornus kousa are well beyond their usual color.

The always reliable Lindera angustifolia are spectacular. I love the glossy oranges and reds these plants develop. And when the leaves do turn brown they hold on til Spring, providing a nice cover for birds and your neighbors prying eyes.

Hydrangea quercifolia is glorious.

How about Hamamelis virginiana in full fall color and full bloom?

Another large shrub looking great this year is Aesculus parviflora draped in bright golden foliage. This native of the Southeast is perfectly happy in the Midwest. And is perfect with the late blooming Aconitum.

Parrotia persica is a tree I would love to see more often. The fall colors are fantastic. Once the leaves drop you have the added value of beautiful bark all winter that, like men, will just get better and better looking with age.

The Liguidambar styracifula ‘Slender Silhouette’ we put in Nonie’s Garden developed the glorious yellows, reds, and burgundys these trees are famous for. While the species becomes a broad pyramidal tree the cultivar Slender Silhouette remains a narrow 4 to 6 feet wide at maturity. I like the clean modern lines of these very vertical plants against the backdrop of the broad horizontal curves of the Efroymson Entrance Pavillion (which isn’t evident in this photo).

Not every year is good for fall color in hostas, but this year the Hosta sieboldiana ‘Elegans’ in Hosta Curve is beautiful in bright amber shades of gold. Lilies even look good.

Just walk around the gardens and everywhere you look there is a beautiful view.

Now let’s compare that fall color to one of Porter’s jackets. Oh, the tragedy of it all. Listen close.