October 2011 in the Northern hemisphere

[Olga Bondareva]

Two days ago

[Tim Ingram]

Our 'Indian' summer (we are still getting really warm days down in the south-east) is allowing many plants to go on flowering beautifully. A couple here are Cosmos atrosanguineus - I think this looks good with silver and white-variegated foliage plants - and the orange wallflower, which has flowered continuously from when we bought it in the summer. With the warm weather has been very little rain, so trees and shrubs are dropping their leaves prematurely and the autumn colours have been transient, although a virginia creeper climbing a birch in our front garden has looked fabulous for a couple of weeks.

[ruweiss]

My plants of Clematis ranunculoides are now in their second year from seed and made shots up to 1.7 m.
Many buds have formed, but I fear, that the coming harder frost will kill them.
Has any other forumist some experience with this nice plant?

[fleurbleue]

A very nice one I just discover here ! Thanks to share its pic with us 

[Hoy]

My plants of Clematis ranunculoides are now in their second year from seed and made shots up to 1.7 m.
Many buds have formed, but I fear, that the coming harder frost will kill them.
Has any other forumist some experience with this nice plant?

ruweiss A very fine plant!
I have never grown it but Christopher Grey-Wilson says in his book "Clematis The Genus" that its chief enemy is winter wet and not cold and the hardiness rating is H8 (USDA).
Where did you obtain seed?

[Natalia]

Rudi, very interesting plant! My congratulations!

[arisaema]

Many buds have formed, but I fear, that the coming harder frost will kill them.
Has any other forumist some experience with this nice plant?

I grew it for 5 years outside, it always ended up being zapped in bud, the closest I came to flowering was the stage your plant is at now. It's a fairly low altitude plant in nature (~1500m in Sichuan), I lost it two years ago to a hard freeze following a very wet autumn.

[Lesley Cox]

Some years ago I bought a plant through a local society plant list but it was dormant at the time (early winter here) and it never made new shoots, so was gone before I even saw it.

[ruweiss]

Dear friends, thank you for the friendly replies and the good advice. I keep fingers crossed, that the rather mild weather
stays still for a longer time. The seed of this beauty was collected by Josef Jurasek 2009 in Yunnan at an elevation of 3600 m.
Actually he is still in China and maybe seeds of this plant are available in his new list. jurasekalpines@atlas.cz

[freddyvl]

This year's autumn coloration in the garden is magnificent due to the alternation of colder and warmer days and nights. All the pictures below are taken today.
First series: some overviews of the garden today
Second series: Hamamelis foliage show a wide variety of colors in autumn coloring. So Hamamelis is valuable not only for the flowers in midwinter but also for the beautiful autumn coloring.

[freddyvl]

Series 2: Hamamelis today

[Maggi Young]

Superb colours!

[johnw]

What a show freddy, you rival the east here.  What is the large-leafed Magnolia in the rear of photo #3?

johnw    - a big nasty storm brewing to the south, 50+mm of rain here.  It is snowing in D.C. and NYC, there is sure to be a great deal of damage as the leaves are still on the trees..

[alpinelover]

This one is flowering almost the hole year. It's Erigeron chrysopsidis ‘Grand Ridge’.

[freddyvl]

Hello John the Magnolia on the third picture is Magnolia tripetala (Umbrella tree). A very hardy decidious tree with open head of branches. The leaves are 30-50 cm long and 15-25 cm wide. The cream flowers (15-25 cm across) are borne in May/June. They are followed by attractive, cone-shaped, red fruit clusters. The tree is maybe a little bit familiar to you because they are originally from E. United States.
Picture 1: Tree (Autumn color)
Picture 2: Leaves (Autumn color)
Picture 3: Ripe fruit