Understory Plants in the Golden Fall Light

Was head down, hard at work when I looked up and saw the sky had turned from grey to blue - the light was exceptional. Saw little woodpeckers dancing up and down my big old ash and cardinals hopping about - that was my sign to abandon my desk and go outside camera in hand. Took a shot of the neighbourhood so you could see just how much green we still have.

I've been trying for days to capture the Mist Flower - invasive, but completely worth it - Eupatorium colestinum (blue coloured and blooms in the fall) and it's cousin Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate' (named for the leaves not the flowers). You'd walk by these plants and never know they're related - it's only now looking at the flowers closeup that I really see the resemblance.

The Hydrangea quercifolia is so wonderful. So few of the hydrangeas we can grow here have leaves that colour so well.

Just next to the hydrangea is a Calycanthus florida - growing at the very tip of its range - the leaves are an exceptional yellow. It takes a fair bit of shade and dry being under an eastern white pine.

The threadleaf Japanese Maple is probably at its best today - in the next day or so it will be twigs sitting in a puddle of crimson orange leaves.

And can you get over the Hydrangea 'Lemon Wave' sending up a pure white stem. There's just a little bit of yellow on the edge of the odd leaf - very, very weird.