The caramel-fragrant leaves of the Katsura tree have already fallen, as have those of three horse chestnut kin, the two Ohio buckeyes (Aesculus glabra) and the Yellow buckeye (A. flava). Both the Yellow and the Ohio buckeyes have similar foliage and pale yellowy-green flowers, and the only way I can distinguish betweeen them is by their fruit which are up to 6cm., dark mustard (Dijon?) and smooth in A. flava, and not more than 5cm., pale mustard (Colman’s?) and prickly in A. glabra.
Aesculus glabra is on the right, A. flava on the left. Photo courtesy Brian Bixley
Both species have attractive yellow-scarlet fall colour, but their leaves fall early.
This is one of our favourite times of year, the canvas colours and languid tones of fall making it the ideal moment for appraising the shape of the garden and not just this season’s floral successes and failures.
It's called the Maple bed, not because there are any maples in it, but because a number of maples were chopped down to make space for the bed. Nice Heptacodium up to the right. Photo courtesy Brian Bixley
The Maple Bed continues its tangled brightness, colchicums multiply in the Jungles (Maureen insists their colours are more intense than usual),
Colchicums growing through hardy geraniums. Photo courtesy Brian Bixley
continues to do well in the Anniversary Garden (though elsewhere small corms appear to have fallen victim to chipmunks), Sweet Autumn clematis fills the Driveway with its almond and vanilla fragrances,
Clematis rehdereana on the front porch. Photo courtesy Brian Bixley
and the yellow-flowered
C. rehdereana continues amazingly on the Front Porch.
Clematis rehdereana flowers. Photo courtesy Brian Bixley
But what will be flowering here on our Open Garden day is uncertain; the year continues its wayward trajectory. “
Time,” wrote that neglected poet, Sidney Keyes, “
slips between my fingers like a leaf.”
See also Photos of Lilactree Farm, by
You Grow Girl
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Colchicums,
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katsura
About the Author
Brian Bixley and his wife live in a Victorian farmhouse 70 miles north-west of Toronto, where he has slowly been making a garden in the middle of open farm fields. While he has particular interests in clematis (the species), alpine plants and, more recently, unusual trees, his main concern is making a garden that is satisfying in a number of ways, and which relates to and “borrows” the beautiful countryside that surrounds it. Brian’s book, Essays on Gardening in a Cold Climate, is available for $20 (US or Canadian), plus shipping. His new book, Ten New Snowdrops, is a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the passion for new snowdrop forms. CAN$15.00 Click here to order them.
In its own way, frost may be one of the most beautiful things to happen in your garden all year . . . Don’t miss it. Like all true beauty, it is fleeting. It will grace your garden for but a short while this morning. . . . For this moment, embrace frost as the beautiful gift that it is.
~Philip Harnden
in
A Gardener’s Guide to Frost: Outwit the Weather and Extend the Spring and Fall Seasons
Brian–Was looking at your September at Lilac Tree and would be interested in knowing if clematis rehdereana is a zone 4 and reliable sources. Looking forward to reading your book.
Sally
Hi Sally, I can’t even promise that Cl. rehdereana (or rehderiana as Grey-Wilson spells it in his authoritative book) will be hardy in MY Z4, where its survival for several years and vigour have surprised me. It is planted right against a wall of the house, and I try to remember to mulch it after the first permanent frost. Where is your Z4? If you can’t grow rehderiana, as we had better now call it, you could try Cl. connata, which is more rugged, has similar flowers without the fragrance; it is very vigorous, its drawback the high ratio of foliage to flower. My specimens of both wre grown from seed, but there are remarkable clematis nurseries in the US which you can find on-line. Brian
Lilactree farm is a charming name. Hail from the home of the Ohio buckeye 🙂 Ours always look a bit bigger than the picture… during my growing up years my next door neighbor had a large tree with many nuts which I actually tried to eat…once. They shine up very prettily, though. That ‘maple’ bed is really nice – I love the spot of lilac in the fall season. Never grown colchicums… but this blog could change that, the pictures of them are so pretty.