What do you see on your garden walks?

[Hoy]

A last few late-blooming alpines...
My plants look not too unlike the last photo above... though I'd prefer them to look like the furry little trolls in the first two photos!! I've come to realize the conditions in the new tufa bed are much too rich, and assuming these plants survive the winter, I'll have to starve them into character next year.  (I assure you that next spring's tufa bed addition will be lean and mean!   )

Lori, Your plants look much more like "furry little trolls" than mine ever shall ( I don't have these plants either). The moist climate and low angle of the sun here make many of the rock plants lax.

Frances, I never "put the garden to bed" if you mean covering plants or cutting down stems and leaves. I think the plants overwinter better if left to themselves. I also let the leaves lie except in the paths.

[Lori S.]

Very interesting indeed about the "coyote tomato" - one can't help but be intrigued by the description of "earthy, fruity, outrageous flavor"!  

We don't usually do much of any "putting the garden to bed" here either - nothing gets covered, or cut off, normally.  The exception this year was to appease my husband by cutting off the taller perennials right along the sidewalks, while things were still dry and the weather was good, in order to make snow shoveling easier later on.  Even that I find strangely depressing to do - I really prefer to leave things standing 'til spring!   We don't do any fussing around with leaves either... they just stay where they collect.  (Not having any lawn makes it easier to follow a laissez faire policy on leaves, too, of course!)

In this amazingly warm fall, there are still a few things in active bloom, and some nice colour here and there:
1) Senecio polyodon, one of those amazingly hardy South Africans
2) Geranium x magnificum
3) A sparse few blooms on Androsace septentrionalis, self-seeded from NARGS seed... a much different and looser form than what I see in the mountains here
4) Jovibarba fall colour
5) Hylotelephium 'Autumn Joy' (or similar)
6) Veronica spicata ssp. incana 'Silbersee'
7) Arabis procurrens 'Variegata'
8 ) The ever-reliable and long-blooming Campanula rotundifolia
9) Geranium sanguineum

[McDonough]

Lori, you're getting some great fall color there, and some nice late blooms... very colorful.

Hmmm, it seems that people don't like cutting back plants and perennials in the fall.  Every year it's the same story for me, in spring stuff starts growing so fast that I work feverishly to do spring cleanup, cut back old foliage, twigs and stems, before new plant growth gets in the way and makes the task much harder to do.  So, I now try and get as much pruning, cleanup, shearing, and debris removal done in late fall, so in spring I can concentrate on less mundane activities and enjoy the spring show.

So, today I went ahead and started shearing back Epimedium foliage.  With a pair of sharp shears, it took me about 15 minutes to trim back about 25 epimedium plants near my deck... if I wait until spring and have to do micro-surgery to clear out the unsightly twigs and battered winter persistent foliage, being careful not to cut off spring shoots and flower buds, it might take me a couple hours.  Yes, I'll miss some of the colorful foliar interest, but next spring I can just watch my "eppies" come to life without worry about cleanup.  I did leave the leaves on a couple evergreen species, and depending on their condition next spring will either leave them on or cut them back if beaten up.  Here are before, during, and after shots of this particular epimedium planting.

I need to do the same thing with Allium beds, tons more epimediums, and with other perennials; I hope the season holds out before the first big snow.

[Spiegel]

Mark, I wait until I see bare ground sometime during the winter and cut all the epimediums at that time.  We always seem to have a snow-free period now.  It's too early then to have to worry about spring shoots or buds.  I used to wait until the snow melted but always lost a few small shoots no matter how careful I tried to be.   We just don't seem to get the kind of continuous snow cover we once did.  All of "my" snow seems to be dumped well south.

[Hoy]

It would "tear" my heart to shear the Epimidiums now! Anyway, I don't do it in spring either.

[Spiegel]

Some pictures taken about 10 days ago in this long, extended fall.  Most of the garden has sensibly retired for the winter.  Here are the last holdouts.
1. One flower on Petrocallis pyrenaica
2. Heterotheca jonesii scattered blooms
3. The last Salvia
4. Snake in trough - still hasn't moved
There was a picture of epimediums in their fall color, but lost it when I was resizing pictures, oops.

[Spiegel]

And here's the salvia I forgot

[Weiser]

Love the snake!! What is it an Eastern Rustyback Rock Viper? :

[Spiegel]

How clever of you to identify it.  You're exactly right.  Actually, I bought this at a roadside cafe in Utah years ago as a replacement for a wonderful snake that we lost to a pair of red-tailed hawks.  It was made from a willow branch and painted by the artist Jack Lambert.  He did too good a job.  We saw the hawks, who live here, dive down to the back patio.  When we investigated we found the snake in pieces where one had grabbed it with its talons and released it in disgust.  They've left the replacement strictly alone.

[Toole]

A couple of shots of Arisaema fargesii taken today --Currently grown in a large pot.

Cheers Dave

[Hoy]

Dave, that is a plant to grow! I have started collecting Arisaema but I plant all in my garden hoping the best!
I have none with such fine markings though.

[Toole]

Dave, that is a plant to grow! I have started collecting Arisaema but I plant all in my garden hoping the best!
I have none with such fine markings though.

Thanks Trond

I've just about finished the remodelling of another woodland plot so eventually all the potted Arisaemas will be planted out.....

Finally started seriously using my new SLR camera which i purchased 3 months ago.
Close up pic of a Geranium sps .

Cheers Dave

[McDonough]

oooh Dave, that photo is worth clicking on (quick everyone, click that photo to see the enlarged view), just look at the tracery of blue veins against the pink petals... wonderful detail.  Any idea about what Geranium species or hybrid it might be?  There have been some posts on SRGC lately with some really good links to Erodium and Geraniacaea that capture the imagination during these winter days (well, at least winter days for us northern hemisphere folks )

[Toole]

Yes i do know the name Mark --it's just that i can't remember for the moment .... sigh!
As soon as it comes to me i'll post it's name .

I'll go out and obtain a picture of the clump once this welcome rain stops. .  i've had this plant for at least 20 years--a real 'go doer' in the garden here --easy to divide.
Not sure if it sets seed as i tend to cut the stems and sometimes the foliage later in the season when the growth gets a bit floppy.

Cheers Dave.

[Fermi]

I'm glad that Dave has started off the new year on this thread - I can now post a few pics of our garden in "high summer" - the rains so far haven't let us feel it's really summer yet! At least it's a change from the usual heat and drought!
The first is a calochortus which has just opened the last flower for the season  Calochortus fimbriatus.


The next is a hybrid Lilium "Pappo's Beauty"


and then "Lady Alice"


cheers
fermi