Fall has been toying with us. The fothergillas are laughing at the silver maple above.
There has been frost.
Some things escaped the killing temps. Did the webbing provide protection?
The sheffies continue to attract the buzzers.
Sango Kaku, the coral bark maple is proving to be a stimulating addition to the ferngully forest replacement.
As does the free red maple from the Arbor Society dubbed ferngully II.
Cutleaf Japanese maples, including this Acer palmatum dissectum ‘Crimson Queen’ are deepening in ruby hues. The Stipa tenuissima delights the whole year through.
The pink dogwoods are continuing to have their best year ever as they slip into their fall lingerie before disrobing entirely. Two more Japanese maples flank the pond and our friend, the Muhlenbergia capillaris has not ceased being a dynamic performer in the Fairegarden.
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Our friend and fellow Tennessee blogger, Dave of The Home Garden, is showcasing the turning leaves of fall as they work their way north to south. It may be our turn now.
Frances
Fairegarden 
Looks like there is still a lot going on in your garden. We haven’t had any freezes yet though we have come close. Love the colorful leaves esp. the dogwoods. I really wish we had more fall color this far south as you do.
Jan
Always Growing
Hi Jan, there really is still a lot going on here. I have not cut anything down and that makes for much more interest. A good lesson in letting nature go where she will. It has warmed back up a bit and the days are positively glorious. Can you grow dogwoods? When we lived in Texas there were black gum trees that colored beautifully. And chinaberries, I forget the botanical name, that had pretty fall leaves.
Frances
You have some lovely colours in your garden. I like the frosty picture – very chilly but beautiful too.
Hi Easy, thanks and welcome. We had a few days of frost to get our attention and zap the tender stuff. It has warmed up and now is just perfect during the day. Glad you liked the photos.
Frances
Lots of great color on your hillside! I love the contrast in the first photo and I can feel the chill come off that frost photo!
Hi Cindy, thanks. I just can’t get a photo that looks as pretty as it looks in person, the colors are electrifying! The frost photo was taken out in the countryside along the road, we have not had that hard of a frost at my house yet. The frost is like fairy dust. ;->
Frances
Yes, your garden looks fallish, but mine looks fallest now if not to say winter-y. Hardly any leaves left after a lot of rain and wind. Great pics Frances!
Hi YE, thanks. Not winter yet here, although we did have a cold snap. It has warmed up during the days to balmy 70 F. We really could still use rain here, cold or warm! I will dash over to check out winter at Bliss!
Frances
That blue sky is a stunning backdrop for your gorgeous fall foilage. The bees have taken cover for the season here. Even this unseasonably warm weather hasn’t tempted many out. Of course there aren’t many blooms to temp them far from their winter beds.
Hi Lisa, thanks, the sky is stunning these last few days. Is it the frost that cleaned out the debris? Our bees and others are attracted to the still blooming sheffies, which are still going strong if fading a bit. I will have to remember to spread these mums even more to give the buzzers something to eat. Some of moving alarming slowly though, poor little guys.
Frances
Loving all the different textures and colours you have right now. Who says you cant have colour in November! Stipa tenuissima is one of my favourite grasses too, I call it Mares tails.
Hi Zoe, so nice to hear from you. Hope that hospital stay did the job for the comedy breast. The garden is still giving us great delight. Isn’t that stipa the best?
Frances
Wonderful colors and textures.
Marnie
Hi Marnie, thanks so much.
Frances
Frances,
Those are great pictures, but the Crimson Queen and the grass is incredible! We’ve had two good frosts and the bees and butterflies are still every where.
Hi Randy, thanks. I love that stipa too. We have lots of bees on the sheffies and a couple of butterflies that didn’t want their portrait made. ;->
Frances
Love that shot of the dogwoods, Japanese maples and Muhly grass. We won’t have fall color until December or January, so I have to get my fix from folks like you and Gail!
Hi Cindy, thanks. I remember the lack of color in The woodlands. We had a black gum tree in our front yard and many yaupon hollies, but it still wasn’t the same. I missed the more pronounced change of season while there. It will be fun to see yours in the coming months.
Frances
Frances,
I was happily enjoying your photo and descriptions. When I got to the part about the lingerie and disrobing, I just got the giggles…that’s the best description ever for deciduous trees!
I think I have the same maple. I have the lime green sedum angelina peeking out the bottom for contrast.
I’ve got my fall photos now after a glorious weekend. Got to get them organized and blogged.
Cameron
Hi Cameron, thanks. That angelina sedum looks great everywhere, doesn’t it? We have the wild sedum acre everywhere and I worry about angelina getting overrun with it. Your combo sounds perfect. Speaking of perfect, our weather too has been as close to that perfection as is allowable. ;->
Frances
It does look like fall at Faire Garden! You have some beautiful trees; I’m particularly fond of the coral bark maple–such a rich red.
Hi Rose, thanks. It is starting to finally look like fall here after weeks of teasing. I was delighted to see the colors on the coral bark maple, and the stems really are more coral colored than the photo.
Frances
Frances,
Every time I read another post of yours I find plants that I will have to add to my garden! the coral bark maple is one I’ve wanted for a while and that fothergilla looks great. Thanks for joining in the Fall Color Project! The last shot of your dogwoods and the slope is really nice!
Hi Dave, thanks. Now you do really need both the coral bark maple, I got mine at Walmart last spring for $25, a bargain for they are usually pricey. I couldn’t believe they had them there, I don’t even usually look at the trees there, you just never know what you’ll find. ;-> The fothergilla is fantastic and produces stems on runners that can be dug and replanted, that is how I have been spreading mine. Thanks for this meme, Dave, it is a great success!
Frances
Those dogwoods are outstanding. My silly fothergilla dried up and did not show any colors. I love your red one. So pretty.
Hi Tina, thanks. Some years the fothergillas haven’t shown much but they are making up for it this year. And it has been so terribly dry. It does seem like the more sun the better the colors with them though.
Frances
Beautiful Frances especially that little bud…poor thing. / xoxo Tyra
Hi Tyra, thanks. The frozen shot is a spent flower head of Queen Anne’s Lace, even the seed heads are attractive I think. The bud is a zinnia that did get to bloom, but not for long.
Frances
Frances,
So much beautiful color. Here in western Massachusetts there are only a few bits of gold,the intrepid beeches holding on to their crispy leaves, and deeply burnished oaks.
Hi Pat, beeches and oaks sound like a forest to me, large and stately. Thanks for the nice words, so glad you enjoyed the pix.
Frances
Good morning Frances, Faire Garden is very alluring in its fall lingerie under beautiful blue skies.
Hi Linda, thanks. She is workin’ it for sure! ;->
Frances
Those was lowely fall pictures.
Hi Signe, thanks and welcome. You have a lovely veranda!
Frances
Great Fall at your place. I love the pink dogwoods surrounding the pond. Just gorgeous.
Hi Lola, thanks. I love all dogwoods, but especially the pinks. They have been prettier this year in flower and fall foliage than ever. So small when planted, they are finally maturing and looking grand. I think they are pretty in stem without leaves as well.
Frances
Your garden is simply aglow, Frances. It looks mighty fine in its colorful lingerie!
Hi Nancy, thanks, it really does glow. I wish my camera and me could portray it as it really is. The slope is situated so that the leaves are backlit this time of year all day. It is spellbinding. I bet you could take a photograph that would do it justice! ;->
Frances
You have a lot of fall color going on! Our J. Maples are just starting to show a bit of reds that I long to see and the dogwoods are really popping open with colors of red. I am yet to find the oranges in our area so maybe a little drive up to the lake is in order for us. I spotted some orange and reds in the TN Mountains around Knoxville while on vacation and that was a real treat! My favorite views were of the farms and barns below the mountains. Such a beautiful sight to my TN born eyes…
Hi Skeeter, thanks. It does seem like it has taken a very long time for the trees to get in gear and color up! ;-> I have been noticing more oranges and reds just the last couple of days too. It will get to you eventually. Loved your surprise!
Frances
I wish I could keep my tropical climate but have your Fall colours!
I love that coral bark maple. So deliciously coloured!
Great post, Frances.
Hi Sunita, thanks so much. It is a trade off isn’t it? Being raised with four distinct seasons in Oklahoma, my heart and soul must have them. We have lived where it is warmer, and I was just not in sync with nature like I am here in TN. The coral bark maple was a surprise with the leaf color. It contrasts with the stems like fireworks!
Frances
Gorgeous shades of red, orange, yellow and silver in your fallish garden! Your garden has year around interest with the wonderful plants you have chosen.
Hi Racquel, thanks. We have studied the garden in all seasons to see how it could be made more interesting in the non flowering times and believe we have made some progress there. Finding perennials and shrubs that give color at different times is a tricky business. Going to local nurseries and seeing what they have that is showing off is a great way. More needs to be added and adjusted, but the slope behind the main house is given us great delight at the moment.
Frances
Frances, My friend! Hello! Teasing us indeed, we have been waiting in the wings for weeks while our friends up north showed their pretty fall colors…Fairegarden is not letting us down and has an abundance of wonderful color. I can’t decide which photo I like the best! The cutleaf maple, the pink dogwoods or the fothergilla against our fantastic blue skies! They are all stellar. The pink muhly is still wonderful; a little energizer bunny plant. It keeps going and going! I am so happy to have it in my garden
🙂 thank you very much! Gail
Hi Gail, hope things are going well for you and yours. The light is exceptional right now, and I need a new and better camera! ;-> I am surprised at the staying power of the muhly, maybe I just am seeing it with new eyes post blogging. You are most welcome. I hope it gives you much pleasure in your garden.
Frances
ps Now where did that little smiley face arrive from? Gail
I don’t even know how to add those little things, LOL
Frances
Absolutely beautiful photos and elegant words to accompany. Thank you for sharing your wonderful colors with us.
Hi Guyz, you are too sweet, thanks so much. So glad you enjoyed our fall presentation. ;->
Frances
Hi Frances .. those shots against the blue sky are so pretty ! I just said that to Gail as well. It seems a perfect backdrop for pictures of leaves. Your garden is still so pretty .. we are going to have almost summer temps this week with sunshine galore .. it is VERY unusual so what comes after that is kind of scary .. the calm before the storm ? LOL
Hi Joy, thanks, Gail and I did seem to capture the sky in the same way, isn’t that a nice coincidence? We have had frost, I wondered if that cleaned the air somehow to make the sky bluer? This is close to the period of Indian Summer so we are due for a warm up then a big chill around Thanksgiving. I wish it would hold off until later so my family could enjoy outdoor time for the holiday when they come. Let’s wish for that on a falling leaf! ;->
Frances
This year has been beautiful in East Texas. Every shade of fall surrounds us. We normally don’t get such variety. I am in love with the season.
Brenda
Hi Brenda, how wonderful for you Texans. Sometimes I think it is the blogging that lets us see the garden more clearly. Thanks for stopping by.
Frances
What a beautiful post. I have been away on business, and it has been a delight catching up on your posts.
Best regards,
Philip
Hi Philip, thanks. We missed you and your kind words. So glad you are enjoying the posts you missed.
Frances
Great photos and your garden still looks great.
Hi Darla, thanks so much. There is still beauty in the garden even though the only flowers really blooming are the sheffield mums.
Frances
Frances, I did a posting on the mulhy grass in my garden. They are not as large or as nice as yours, but I hope they will be before long.
We sometimes have some fall color from the tallow trees, but not the dogwoods. Because it has been so dry, we are not getting any fall color – things are just turning brown.
Jan
Always Growing
Hi Jan, so glad you found some muhly. It already looks wonderful. It won’t take long for yours to grow larger. Some of our things are just crisping and losing leaves, like the crepe myrtles. I always loved those white tallow berries.
Frances
Love the MX feather grass. Trying to get that look out front beneath a weeping birch by using prairie dropseed, which is actually hardy here. Out back, using some sedges to do the same thing. Just such a cool look with all those, you know. 78 here today–where’s winter?
Hi Benjamin, 78???? That’s even warmer than here! Prairie dropseed is a great grass too. I love the movement that the grasses give, we grow many many varieties here. They add so much and are easily divided to make that mass look. Thanks for visiting, nice to see you.
Frances
Frances it looks like you are about where we were in color and bloom in mid September. That’s like a six week time difference and we are actually only a few hours apart. Amazing. Fall up here is just about over, though lower down in the valleys I bet there is still a lot of color.
Hi Christopher, is that what we had figured when the dogwoods were blooming? About a month difference. You have had some much colder temps but we did have several nights of killing frost. The leaves on some of the largest maples in the neighborhood are dropping fast now, it is a carpet of gold with lots still on the trees too. Must get the camera! Thanks for visiting.
Frances
Wonderful contrast in color blue sky with the red colored leaves! Autumn in all it’s blazing glory here! Frost ..we’ve been spared in my world..so far. Wonderful photography!
Hi Naure Girl, thanks and welcome. No frost there yet? Amazing! It has warmed back up here after being cold enough to zap the weak among the garden inhabitants, just a little nature editing.
Frances
beautiful fall colours and the blue sky just enhances what you have. love the reds in the maples. my stuff is mostly gone with the frosts.
Hi Marmee, thanks, the days have been postiviely enchanting lately with the sky and leaves showing off. I don’t plant many annuals, only the ones in pots and some zinnias and cosmos. The rest are self sown volunteers. When the frost comes, there is little change then.
Frances
What beautiful photos! The fall has made your garden even better! I love all the red and fall colors in your garden.
Hi DP, thanks so much. I agree, there is more color right now than when the flowers are in full bloom! It has been a good year for the foliage to come alive as it dies back. ;->
Frances
Wonder foliage.
You have some property there !!
I bet you get a lot of exercise taking care of your gardens
H Patsi, thanks. You have hit upon it, scrambling up that hillside is a lot of exercise, even just to walk the paths, let alone do harder work. I don’t have to join a gym! ;->
Frances
Wonderful 🙂
Thanks. ;->