Gorgeous fall color of Kousa dogwood ‘Wolf Eyes’
In my last post, ‘What’s Blooming in Mid-Fall?” (click here to read), I explained that fall has three seasons for me: the early season is September, mid is October, and late is November. I promised a post on the late season, which I fully intended to do at the end of November. Unfortunately, the weather in the mid-Atlantic US just proceeded from temperatures typical of mid November, highs in the low 50s and lows in the low 40s, directly to temperatures more appropriate to January. When I got up this morning it was 24 degrees, and tonight’s low is 19 (-7.2 C), followed by three more nights in the low 20s. Almost everything is frozen so I might as well do November now.
Nursery News: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops and miniature hostas. For catalogues and announcements of events, please send your full name, location, and phone number (for back up use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.
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‘Wolf Eyes’ has green and white variegated leaves during its main season and turns pink in the fall. Generally I recommend our native dogwood for its superior shape, flowers, berries, and fall color and because it supports 117 species of moths and butterflies alone while Kousa dogwood supports no native insects of any kind (source Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy). However, if you want to plant a Kousa, ‘Wolf Eyes’ is beautiful.
I hope readers won’t be disappointed because, with the exception of snowdrops, camellias, and a few others, the best ornamental plants in my November garden are prized for their leaves. October is probably the best month for fall color in the mid-Atlantic, and the landscape blazes with red, orange, and yellow from the huge deciduous trees we are famous for. However, woody plants that wait until November to turn color really stand out because native maples, hornbeam, sweetgum, etc. are done by then. Here are a few that I treasure:
Scarlet native dogwood on the left, orange witch hazel in the center, and brilliant red Japanese maple on the right. This is the hill above the Carolyn’s Shade Gardens nursery sales area.
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Native hybrid ‘Hartlage Wine’ sweetshrub turns a lovely butter yellow in late fall.
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All the blue hostas turn an attractive orange-yellow. Here ‘Krossa Regal’ with the fiery orange leaves of enkianthus and a yellow Asian sweetshrub in the woodland.
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Disanthus cercidifolius is probably my favorite plant for November color. This photo shows the whole shrub, which is probably 10′ wide and 6′ tall, although it could easily be pruned to a smaller size. Some websites call it redbud hazel, but I have never heard that common name used.
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A close up of the leaves shows that disanthus displays many beautiful colors at once. You can also see why it’s called cercidifolius, which means leaves like a redbud.
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Disanthus also blooms in November with tiny scarlet flowers.
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Another shrub that blooms in November is evergreen ‘Sasaba’ osmanthus. Again the flowers are not highly ornamental but they are amazingly fragrant, sweetly scenting my whole back hillside.
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Fall-blooming camellias are the highlight for flowering shrubs in November, here ‘Long Island Pink’ which started October 15.
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‘Snow Flurry’ also continues to bloom.
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‘Winter’s Joy’ starts in November and often continues into January. I just hope its buds don’t freeze this week.
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‘Winter’s Snowman’ also starts in November. I was going to show the whole plant, but all the open flowers froze last night.
Perennials also contribute to November interest:
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‘Brigadoon’ St. John’s wort and ‘John Creech’ sedum were not fazed by last night’s low.
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This late-blooming monkshood is always a highlight of my November garden, although it froze last night. Shown here at Chanticleer.
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All the coralbells derived from our native Heuchera villosa keep their beautiful color in fall and through the winter, here ‘Berry Smoothie’.
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‘Zebrina’ hollyhock mallow gets a second wind in the fall and is covered with blooms in November.
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Italian arum comes up in the fall and stays ornamental all winter, it’s amazing.
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Fall light slanting through my favorite ornamental grass ‘Moudry’ fountain grass.
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Beware, ‘Moudry’s black plumes are quite striking, however, it can be quite aggressive. I didn’t actually plant any of these plants, but I love where they planted themselves.
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Hart’s tongue fern and evergreen epimediums are also beautiful right now and for most of the winter.
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Hellebores stay green through the winter, and some of them have spectacular leaves, here ‘Penny’s Pink’.
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I couldn’t finish without showing some snowdrops! Galanthus reginae-olgae finishes blooming in the middle of November.
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I have a lot of fall-blooming giant snowdrops, Galanthus elwesii. Here is one that I have selected for its nice markings and because it produces two flower scapes per plant. It still looks pristine after last night’s freeze.
Keep warm,
Carolyn
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Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a local retail nursery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S., zone 7a. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas and only within the US.
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