As the overnight temperatures begin to fall below freezing followed by crisp, frosty mornings, we can look up to see the gentle cascade of yellow, orange, and red, the quintessential colors of autumnal glory. Fall is my favorite season. It sheds a last gasp of beauty on the garden before a cold winter sets in. It holds many amazing memories for me. I have a vivid recollection of collecting leaves for my school leaf books in elementary school, always due in the fall just so you could have a smattering of color in the pages. I remember my mother traveling to Biloxi, Mississippi one year just before the collection was due and bringing me a magnificent magnolia leaf to include, a tree not seen in Northwest Ohio, unless part of a wreath ordered from the local florist. I remember chilly Saturday mornings in October and November making the trek to Ann Arbor with my father to see the Wolverines (his alma matter) led by Bo Schembechler pacing the sidelines with inspiring intensity, chants of "Let's Go Blue" by 100,000 adoring fans. And 12 years ago, my wife and I were married at the Morton Arboretum on the first of November. I remember booking the date (the last fall date available), thinking we would miss the beauty of the fall color season as we were just a week or two late. Well, mother nature has a way of taking care of those who take care of her. It was a later than normal fall in 2008 and we were rewarded with amazing fall color for our event. And of course, just over a year later, my son was born on a Tuesday before Thanksgiving, allowing my little family so much to celebrate this time of year!!
Our gardens inspire us with the sublimity of the natural world, but many miss the inherent beauty in the fall. Of course we are able to contrive fall color with pansies, mums, kales and cabbages, however for me I find the true beauty of fall in shedding leaves providing a peak into the grand structure of the trees once hidden in a green frock of leaves. Even the evergreen cast spent needles to provide a peak of the whorled branches emanating form strong, straight trunks. The spent flower heads of Black Eyed Susan, Purple Coneflower, and Summer Beauty Allium dance above the withering leaves before being cut back for the winter. Ajuga, Pachysnadra and English Ivy show a bit of color as the frost sets in all the while maintaining a carpet in there garden. Of course Purple Leaf Wintercreeper (Eunonymus) is a rather invasive ground cover, but if maintained and kept in check, the purple fall and winter color are a well-deserved reward. Asters, anemone, and gentian light up the garden with purples, pinks, and blues, a color difficult to produce in the garden regularly and some ferns and sedges provide for different colors and textures, some a straw brown and others with hints of reds and purples. Other ornamental grasses show beautiful seed heads that are often caught in the light of an early sunset glowing as they bend and play in a cool fall breeze. Such are the many beauties of autumn.
We often curse the cool breezes as they set in to chase away the pageantry of summer color and warm sunshine on our faces as we look to the sky. I still feel the warm embrace on my cheeks on a sunny day, and maybe I appreciate it a bit more in the fall. Maybe I just like the colors and the textures. Maybe I am fortunate as I have much to celebrate. Maybe some of my fondest memories reside in this season and maybe, just maybe I welcome the end of the landscape season so I have time to recharge, reset, and be ready to go in the spring, another of my favorite seasons...
In these trying times, challenging all of us in so many ways, here's to a safe and Happy Halloween, and for thew upcoming Thanksgiving to be filled with an unending bounty of good food, good friends, and no small dose of a healthy and loving family!
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