Ginkgos

In the mountains of Western North Carolina, the late October snow brought down all of the ginkgo leaves, before they'd turned their characteristic luminous yellow.

In the piedmont of South Carolina, the leaves are starting to turn right now.  The smaller of the two trees in the garden where I used to work (and taught a class today) is a clear, wonderful yellow.

Here's an image from a couple of years ago that looks (close to) what I saw today.

In our backyard, the vivid yellow isn't quite yet there  -- hopefully, we'll see it if the arctic air that's coming our way doesn't zap those leaf abscission layers (that's what seemed to happen in the mountains).

Read More

Ginkgo fall colors

a luminous ginkgo

From my study window, the ginkgo under the power line corridor is amazing right now -- both from the study and our bedroom.  We planted it almost 20 years ago, so it's tall now.  And beautiful this year.

view from my study

Read More

Storm time

I've been reminded again today, as Sandy approaches the northeastern U.S., of the power of storms.

We've had nothing but some strong winds and a bit of rain today, mainly from a Gulf-based system, not Sandy.  But leaves blew off, raining down on the lawn and mulched beds. I wish we'd got some more rain, as it's been dry for weeks.

But, it's been a glorious fall so far, and the reds have deepened on the dogwood leaves, the sassafras and persimmon leaves are striking, and the hickories and oaks are holding forth, too.

No yellows in our ginkgos yet -- they're late.  I just searched ginkgo in previous posts and these came up, all mentioning the clear yellows in November!

This image was from Nov. 20, 2010.

Ginkgo biloba, SCBG

It's one of a pair of ginkgos near the nature center at the South Carolina Botanical Garden planted at the same time (one is a lot larger than the other).

Read More