The gardening year may be over, but I think this is a great time to plan ahead for next year. By now you have probably pulled out most of your flowers: it was tough to do, this year, because it seems they just started to look good in the last few weeks. But to everything there is a season! I must say, it felt good to pull them out and clean out the planters and put things away; now we feel ready for the winter.
It occurred to me that this is a good time to take notice of trees and shrubs, just to see how they hold up through the summer and fall seasons. I thought of them as "autumn stars", plants that seemed outstanding for reasons of colorful foliage, shape of the plant, and how well they were holding up at this time of year. Some shrubs look absolutely lifeless already, although maybe it's not a fair assessment, because it was a very difficult year. But during adverse growing conditions, such as we had this year, maybe that's a good time to see which plants are really adaptable.
One tree that I noticed particularly was a beautiful mountain ash; it turned the most spectacular shade of red a couple weeks ago, and while I was driving, the sun hit it in such a way that it looked like a bright red flame! Absolutely beautiful! Mountain ash trees might not be the newest trees on the landscaping list, but they should not be overlooked in our yards. They don't grow excessively big; there is no problem with wild root growth as there is with some trees; they maintain a beautiful shape; and the lovely red berries are pretty in the summer, fall and winter.
For shrubs, there were two that stood out to me one day. I saw some beautiful variegated dogwoods, and my, they made a pretty display with the fall foliage of the surrounding trees. The dogwoods still had all their leaves, which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how anxious you are to rake up every leaf in your yard in the fall. But they looked so lovely, and the best thing is that once the leaves do fall, dogwoods have colorful twigs that provide winter interest and beauty in our yards.
The other shrub that I noticed as an "autumn star" was the spirea. This particular shrub had the raspberry colored flowers, and it looked so cheery and robust! It still looked very nice for this time of year, and the spirea doesn't grow really large, so in a limited garden space, it would be an excellent choice. So I thought that the spirea is another shrub worth remembering if we're planning to add any new shrubs to the garden.
The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be having their annual general meeting and banquet on Wednesday, November 24. This is more of a "members only" meeting, but members are welcome to bring guests. Call Liz at 782-2830 for more information. We'll have a lovely meal, enjoy the silent auction, and our presentation will take us on an armchair trip to beautiful Hawaii!
Till next time, enjoy tidying up your yard, and take a stroll through your neighborhood and see what trees or shrubs stand out to you as "autumn stars". Have a good week!
