There's no doubt that October has seen the transition from summer into autumn. In spite of the amount of flower still around there is a sense that growth has stopped for the year. Cornwall rarely produces good autumn colour and most deciduous trees and shrubs lose their leaves without any sort of display. I don't have many deciduous trees or shrubs, in the picture you can see that the purple Acer has lost most of its leaves while the magnolia to its right is still lush and green. The evergreen tree above the maple is Ligustrum lucidum 'Excelsum Superbum', which will start to look ragged by the end of winter but looks great now. The foreground monster is Astelia chathamica.
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| Haknechloa macra 'Mediovariegata' |
Hakonechloa macra and its varieties, which I love and grow several of, provide the exception to the rule for me, though it will be another month before there is much happening. Even then, it will be a warm straw colouring rather than reds or yellows. I have a couple of Miscanthus which do actually get some red tints; there's one just in front of the tunnel in the top picture.
There's no doubting the star of the show for October. I took a picture on 30 September of my Nerines just beginning to open. This is how they looked today, 31 October.
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| Nerine bowdenii |
In this view back towards the house you can see odd splashes of colour on a range of plants, a bit of a last gasp. Fuchsias, Dahlias and Salvias are to the fore. There was one Helenium with buds still coming that was spared the chop meted out to the rest. I've added two new Helenium varieties into the mix since they've done so well and are such a hit with bees and butterflies.
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| Dahlia 'Cheyenne', Fuchsia Delta's Parade', Helenium 'Sahin's Early Flowerer' |
It's also coming into Camellia season, at least for the autumn flowering sasanquas. The two in this picture are from my tunnel, but I have one flowering outside too. Both are scented, in the somewhat oleaceous way of the sasanquas. For scent I much prefer the spring flowering lutchuensis hybrids.
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| Camellia 'Gay Sue', Miscanthus 'Ferne Osten', Camellia 'Paradise Blush' |
Finally, the sort of dirty washing in public picture that causes domestics, the glory hole that is the back and side of the house. Actually, looking at the picture more closely, I've seen it worse.
