I’m travelling for the next few weeks, so I figured it makes sense to make sure the potted plants are safe.  I finished that today, potted some hyacinth bulbs for forcing and then wandered quickly around the garden and too the following pictures:

I’ve been partial to these trees since they started from the seeds borrowed from the arboretum.  While at the cabin, I perused the leaf book Leon bought me a few years ago

and I found the name-the are Idesia polycarpa!  And they are putting on quite a show.

Striking yellow leaves with the red petioles still bright.

One of the blueberry starts colored up nicely–it has grown well this year.

 Prime Ark blackberry is trying really hard to ripen these berries before frost.

Aronia leaves.

Witchhazel flowers.  These don’t have a sweet smell–more like a clean, astringent one.

Alpine strawberries loving the cooler weather.

The black raspberry threw some major wandering canes.  I put a pot in the garden to catch this one so I can have a start next spring.

Raspberry leaves coloring up in the cooler weather.

This crow came to cheer me on as I took pictures around the yard.  Actually, it was looking for a handout, but Leon fed them yesterday, so I wasn’t inclined to oblige.

Another view of the witch hazel flowers.

The Iochroma in the driveway bed grew eight feet tall this year, but it still didn’t bloom!

Lamium looks its absolute best this time of year.

Dahlias are blooming a sigh of relief for the cooler, wetter weather.

Another late bloomer.

Campanula poscharskyana throwing a few blooms of its own half a year past its usual bloom time.

Huge white mushroom in the bark growing next to the veggie raised beds.  My foot is included (size 10.5 ) for size perspective.

I put the bulbs for forcing in the cold frame.  I’ll leave them uncovered to get some rain, then cover them with leaves and put the lid on for a few months before pulling them into the greenhouse for forcing.

Another HUGE mushroom–this one in the raised veggie bed where I planted lettuce seeds that have resulted in no lettuce plants that I can see.

The kale plants are finally snapping out of their year-long doldrums.  I had pruned these virtual shrubs back early in the year and they pouted since then.

Curly kale, looking fresh.

Here is the head of the Kalette plant–it is lovely and has some great looking leaves, but the brussel-spout like kalettes haven’t formed yet.

A close up of the leaves with their purple veins.

This dahlia is actually more orange than pink (at least to my color-blind eyes).  They are putting up some great flowers late in October!

Again, the colors are off–the larger blooms are orange, and the smaller ones are a lighter orangey salmon.

This euphorbia from Brother Tim is happy as a clam in the greenhouse and blooming up a storm–a snow storm!

Deeply colored flowering maple–so gorgeous!  These shrubs are enjoying a resurgence in the cooler weather, as are the streptocarpus behind them.

More flowering maples.

When I went out to move the cymbidiums and clivias into the greenhouse, I was greeted with at least four spiking orchids!  This one is almost ready to burst–the others are just starting.

A little blurry–but another cymbidium spike!

And another really fat one!

And yet one more.

Here is the greenhouse–stuffed to the gills with all the winter tenants.

Another plant enjoying the cool, wet weather–impatiens in a pot on the back patio.

This is a great color, too, and the leaves look fantastic this time of year–nice and dark.

The wonder berries are blooming still.  There are lots of berries and lots of flowers.  I grabbed some berries today for Brother Tim to have some seeds.

The Hakone grass is looking like a fountain of color right now.  I need to divide it in late winter, as it is incredibly pot bound and it dries out far too often in the warm months.  But it is hanging in there an still making a show.