Yesterday, I came across a paragraph in “Winterthur in Bloom” by Harold Bruce that seems appropriate for early September. The book was written in 1968 with forward by Henry Francis du Pont. I especially enjoy studying the photographs to see what the Winterthur Garden looked like 40 years ago.
On page 167, the chapter on Autumn begins with this paragraph: “There is a day in August when autumn truly begins. In the morning there is a slight chill, and the sun that day will be high and pale and distant. It is not much more than a hint of things to come, so subtle that it passes almost unmarked by our consciousness.
Soon the heat returns and summer moves on, but nothing is quite the same. We notice quite suddenly that whole limbs of the black gum have red leaves, that the dogwoods and shadbushes in the woods have a bronzed, burnished look. Telephone wires sag with great flocks of tree swallows. Blackbirds no longer travel in pairs but in polyglot bands of several species. Corn in the fields is full ear and yellowing, and an occasional leaf on the sassafras is crimson. Winter is on its way.”
Hosta “Royal Standard” is in bloom in Enchanted Woods!
An absolutely wonderful comment on autumn’s encroachment on the Winterthur garden — & on my own where I see black walnut leaves dropping in droves. It was all described better here than I ever could, but it begs for each of us to enjoy the lush color of the autumn garden! At Winterthur we can walk & walk, & get ideas to enrich our own gardens — what a gift those gardens are!
AND – (I’ve had another thought!) – another great reason to visit Winterthur in autumn is to see how color can be sustained through frost when you plant berry-bearing plants. Winterthur now has viburnums bearing berries that range from crimson through yellow (Michael Dodge viburnum is STUNNING combined with purple beautyberry), & Sapphire berry is in full spate in Enchanted Woods. The Igiri trees have great clusters of orange berries cascading like grapes near the Pinetum. The garden is alive, but it requires visitors to use the feet God gave them to walk through it to capture the enchantment.