Zooming - November 2014

The theme for the November zooming post is fall color and texture. The burst of colors - greens, reds, yellows, oranges - is the finale of the growing season. They are fading fast in our area by the last weeks of November. The leaves crackle as they dry, their color fades to brown or black as they decay to mulch.

The seeds of many plants are surrounded by fluff (milkweed, cattails, and blazing stars) that acts as a parachute for the fall breezes to carry them away from their parent toward a place they can sprout next spring.

Lull in the Flower Beds

The very last iris is blooming in our flowerbeds. We have a sea of green that is studded with potential:

There lilies are sending up their bud stalks (not all of them yet - but every day I notice more emerging above the dense core of leaves). That part of the flower beds will be full of yellow and orange by the time the hot weather is consistent.

The blazing stars are clustered around the bird bath. They’ll be almost the same color as the irises as some point.

The dahlias are purple and pink and white…..I don’t dig them up in the fall and our winters are cold enough to challenge their survival. Most of the plants from last year seem to have survived the winter.

I’ll miss the color at our front door for the length of time it takes the new flowers to begin their season.  Right now I have to simply love the green!