Emperor 1 Japanese maple absolutely glowing against the clear blue sky

Pink dogwood’s fall foliage glowing in autumnal warmth today

Deep maroon of oak leaf hydrangea with its flawless leaves bringing fall color to our lives on this late fall Sunday.

Cripsii hinoki cypress with its fern spray foliage- golden yellow 12 months a year, bringing contrasting color all year long.

Hybrid leucothoe shining with it’s brilliant new growth all fall long on a compact deer-proof evergreen shrub in full sun or full shade, growing to just 2-3’ tall. Spectacular!

“White Out” hydrangea still flowering end of October. This cultivar has the purest white flowers on the deepest green leaves. When they say they flower all season, they aren’t kidding

Meet “ROBERTO,” a granite Easter island man hand carved in China, bought in Baltimore, shipped to Atlanta, trucked to Trumbull, moved to Cheshire, transplanted back to Trumbull. The overseer of my yard, protector of pets gone into the ground. I’m going to install a light under his chin for night time spookiness.

What is it about Roberto? I can’t put it into words. He is even-keeled. He is reliable. I can count on him to uphold his end of the agreement. He watches out for us, and we watch out for him. Sometimes, when the sun is right, I stare at Roberto and am so glad I met him.

Fall color of azalea ‘pink and sweet,’ a deciduous azalea. The pineapple in the center is spring’s flower bud. It’s worth waiting for. This is the type of unusual plant that people in the industry plant for themselves. Subtle beauty, unusual, less flashy, uncommon and therefore more interesting. The blossoms have a sweet scent.

Colorful sweetgum leaf fluttered into one of our bird baths yesterday.

Caught little fella right before he got crushed by a truck.

He shook my hand to thank me for my kindness before I dropped him into his new home.

Backlit japanese maple with its stunning fall coloration.

Odd insect larvae slithering it’s way around last week. Gross. Gross, yet a great example of the sophistication of mother nature’s creatures we know nothing about.

Small bottlebrush buckeye about to go dormant. This plant is a woodland winner with deer proof foliage that lives in full sun or full shade.

Acer palmatum aconitifolium absolutely glowing in the full morning sun thursday.

Deeply serrated foliage of full moon maple delights.

Flawless foliage of fothergilla gardenii unmolested by the travailles of summer heat, insects and fungus. White bottlebrush foliage before leaves in April, soft green foliage on a deer-proof self-pruning shrub. Full sun brings the very best fall colors. Not often planted by people.

Sugar maples glowing in the afternoon sun during rush hour last week. Birch trees about to go leafless for the winter. This time of the year is always beautiful and at the same time sad as Mother Nature seems to go away until the chickadees start singing in March.

Even our hydrangeas hesitate going dormant, clinging to color production even as their leaves turn orange and drop off the plants onto the gravel beneath.

There is beauty all around, even in the most unlikely places, offered to us by the most unlikely organisms.

Columnar ginkgo foliage yellowing right in front of my eyes. Flawless leaves immune to insects and disease offers a unique look in your yard.

2’ tall white faced hornets nest- biggest one I’ve ever seen. Swirly patterns represent one mouthful each of chewed cellulose to construct the passive air conditioning vents, walls, and living quarters of hundreds of hornets. I no longer kill these nests, realizing that “live and let live” works. You never even know they’re there until the leaves drop in oct/November. They serve a role in our ecosystem.

Weeping hornbeam headed off to Westport this week. One of the best year-round trees you can get.

Yellowish-green fall color leads into increased visibility of arthritic, tortured, gnarly canopy with steel-silver bark perfect for landscape lighting.

Course, after you burlap a tree, you gotta water it. iPhone-12 pro captures movement in a freeze frame world.

Veronica is still flowering assuming it’s been cut back and well-fed all summer. It was cold this morning when I took this picture, and the bees were lethargic. I imagined that they were a couple of flower-climbing enthusiasts finishing a category 5 ascent… “HONEY, WE MADE IT!!!”

Blueberry plants bring the very best colors to any landscape, especially on cloudless sunny days. Notice the leathery flawless leaves, almost immune to pathogens all season long.

Redbud leaves keep churning out new growth well into October when most other trees are defoliating in a sad prelude to November’s depressing daylight savings time.

Stunning purple berries last a long time on the beauty berry shrub. I’ve had these for a few years, and they are STUNNINGLY unique in the fall.